Then the receipt was written out, and this Mr. Norton placed carefully in his notebook.
“Now we are done with you,” he said. “If I ever need you in the future I will send Reuben for you. I suppose you never thought of buying the mill, did you?”
“I haven’t got the money,” replied Ford.
“The reason I asked is because the place may be up for sale,” went on Mr. Norton; “if so, it ought to be a pretty good investment for you.”
“It might be,” said Ford.
A little later he went off, and Mr. Norton and I were left alone. I set to work with a will, and he stood around watching me.
“That’s easy enough,” he said, as I fed the grain into the hoppers. “I should think almost any one could do that.”
“Feeding is easy enough, but there are a good many other things to learn, as you will soon see.”
A little later Mr. Norton took a walk around the outside of the place. He was gone fully an hour, and when he came back he appeared to be quite uneasy.
“Do you need anything from the village?” he asked.