[Illustration: THE SUPERIOR BEING.]
"Dollars?" asked the young man.
Jim gave him an annihilating look, and queried: "Didn' think I meant tew thaousand acorns, did ye?"
"It's an awful price," said the abashed passenger, speaking as one might in the presence of a superior being.
Jim was silent awhile, and then resumed in the same slow tone, but with something of condescension mixed with it:
"Think so, do ye? Mebbe so, stranger. Fool what bought that tadpole lake done middlin' well in disposin' of it, how-sumdever."
Here the Superior Being came to a dead pause, and waited to be questioned.
"How's that?" asked the young man.
After a proper interval of meditation, Jim said: "Sol' it this week. Tuck jest twice what he invested in his frog-fishery."
"Four thousand?" said the passenger with an inquisitive and surprised rising inflection.