“They sure was. One of ’em brung the other, and I had to meet ’em both alone. They seemed real glad to see me, but I wa’n’t none too friendly with either of ’em.”
“Josiah, stop your joking. You say there was a lawyer here to see you, and he brought a mortgage on your place?”
The old man looked away and cleared his throat. “The feller come from the city. He showed me how them papers called for a settlement afore the fust of November. I ain’t got a chance in the hull world to get hold of any money afore then. He said something about a foreclosure, too, and he said that meant I was to lose my place. He see how hard I took it, and was real kind. He said 223 he’d come all the way from the city just to let me know.”
“Kind! Pooh! You’d better have showed him the door like you told me you did Harry Beaver.”
“It wa’n’t his fault, Clemmie. He was real sorry. He was just doing his duty. He offered to buy the place after I’d showed him about. What he said he’d give wa’n’t what it’s wuth by a heap, but it would pay Jim off and leave me a mite.”
“Offered to buy it, did he? Well, you didn’t tell him you’d sell, did you?”
“Not for sartin, I didn’t. I told him I’d think it over a spell and let him know.”
“Let him know! Pooh! I should say you will think it over, and for a purty long spell, too. You ain’t going to sell a foot of it! That feller wasn’t here for himself. He was playing one of Jim Fox’s tricks on you.”
“But, Clemmie,–––”
“Josiah, you mark my word, that lawyer feller was here to buy this place for Jim Fox. It’s as plain as the nose on your face, and I 224 don’t need to look twice to see that. Don’t you dare to sell one inch of this place.”