'Did he pay any of it? I would not have paid one cent of it until it had been pretty well examined. You remember your father's account?'
'Bill says he was confounded by it, and so afraid that his mother should hear any thing about it—for you know she is such a queer woman—that he paid Grizzle all the money that he received from you—thirty dollars.'
'Oh, what a pity!'
'Well, you see, Jim, Bill was so afraid his mother would know it he said it would make her about crazy.'
'Yes; but for all that, he ought to have told his mother.'
'I suppose he ought; but she soon knew it. For what did Grizzle do, but send Dick Tucker there; and he has taken the cattle, and other things, to pay the bill.'
'Oh, Sam, I am sorry for Bill. I wonder what his mother did say?'
'Bill says she called him every thing she could think of; and then she cried and hallooed so loud, that he had to go for the Widow Brown to come and pacify her. But he says he can stay at home no longer; so he is going across the barrens to see a Mr. Rutherford, who promised to be a friend to him; and he says he never means to come back, until he gets money enough to pay that account; and he is coming here to bid you good bye.'
'Sam Oakum, this is too bad. I have been thinking how Bill might be a great help to us, and himself too.'
'It is no use; he is done for—his cattle are gone, and so there is an end of it. But don't say any thing to Bill about this, nor let him see that you feel bad towards him.'