"You are just the man I want," said he to Hiram; "I would like to have you take these letters to the Mason's Corner post office and mail them at once. You can tell Mr. Hill that the papers relating to the store are nearly ready, and if he and his son will come here this afternoon we will execute them. I would like to have you and Mr. Pettengill on hand as witnesses."
Hiram started off on his mission, and Quincy returned to his room and busied himself with the preparation of the documents for the transfer of the grocery store, and the making out of the necessary notes to cover the twenty-five hundred dollars due for the same.
He had not seen Alice at breakfast, nor did she appear at the dinner table. He had followed the rule since she came to the house not to make any open inquiries about her health, but from words dropped by Ezekiel and Uncle Ike, he had kept fairly well informed as to the result of her treatment. At dinner Ezekiel remarked that his sister had commenced to take her new medicine, and that he reckoned it must be purty powerful, for she had said that she didn't wish anything to eat, and didn't want anything sent to her room.
Quincy politely expressed his regrets at her indisposition and trusted that she would soon be able to join them again at meal time.
About three o'clock in the afternoon, Samuel Hill and his father arrived, and Hiram, remembering Quincy's instructions, had found Ezekiel Pettengill, and all came to the room together. It took a comparatively short time to sign, seal, and deliver the documents and papers. It was arranged that Samuel Hill and his father should take charge of the grocery store and carry on the business until a week from the following Monday; as Quincy told young Hill that he had some business to attend to the early part of the following week that would prevent his giving any attention to the store until the latter part of the week.
Quincy treated his principals and witnesses to cigars, and an interchange of ideas was made in relation to the result of the auction sale.
"How does Strout take it?" inquired Quincy.
"I don't know," spoke up Hiram. "He acts as though he thought I was pizen. Every time he sees me he crosses over on t'other side of the street, if we happen to be comin' towards each other."
"Well, I imagine," said Quincy, "that your usefulness to him has departed in some respects, but it's just as well."
"Well," said young Hill, "I can tell you what he said the other night in the grocery store. There was a crowd of his friends there, and he remarked that you," turning to Quincy, "might own Hill's grocery store, but that wasn't the whole earth. He said that he had no doubt that he would be elected unanimously as tax collector, and he was sure of his appointment as postmaster, and if he got it he should start another grocery store on his own hook and make it lively for you."