"I reckon that's so with most all business."
"I've invented something—something that will make my fortune."
"Maybe you'd be willing to tell a feller what it is."
"It is a hog-sty that will fat hogs without corn."
"Massy sakes! How does it do it?"
"That's the secret."
"On course you'll make a lot; that's the master. How many on 'em you sold in this town?"
"I haven't got to work yet."
The next day the story was all over town that the stranger who was visiting at Richardson's was worth a mint of money, that he had invented a hog-sty to fat hogs without corn, and came to offer himself to Mary Richardson, but his courage failed, and he went off without doing it.