When they entered, Mrs. Hawkins threw up her hands. “Lord a Massy! I heerd at the store all about you comin' back, but where on airth did you come from? They said you was dead an' here you are as handsome as ever. How's your wife, an' that boy o' yourn?”
“Both well, I'm happy to say. 'Zeke tells me you want to sell out.”
“Yes. Now Jonas has gone there's nobody to take care of the chickens, an' a hotel 'thout chickens an' fresh eggs is no home for a hungry man.”
“What will you take for the place just as it stands?”
“Well, I've figured up an' I should lose money ef I took less'n four thousand dollars, an' I ought to have five.”
“I'll take the refusal of it for forty-eight hours at five thousand. Is it agreed?”
“I'd hold it a month for you, Mister Sawyer, but I want to go and help Mandy soon's I can now that Hiram's laid up for nobody knows how long.”
“We'll have Hiram on his feet again very soon, Mrs. Hawkins. I'll be down again in a few days.”
“Give my love to Alice,” she called after them as they were driving away.
The next evening Quincy asked his son to come to the library with him.