XX—PROFIT AND LOSS
FARMER WEEFER and his wife appeared at the store early on the morning after the deal in walnut land, and the farmer said:—
"Well, want to back out o' the trade?"
"Did you ever hear of me backing out of anything, Mr. Weefer?"
"Can't say I did, but I alluz b'lieve in givin' a man a chance so he can't have no excuse for grumblin' afterwards. Well, we come in early, so's to git our stuff an' git out 'fore a lot of other customers comes in. My wife, she thinks she ort to have some little present or other, as a satisfaction piece for signin' the deed, it bein' the custom in these parts."
"All right, Mrs. Weefer," said Philip, who had heard of several real estate transactions being hampered by refractory wives, and who thought he saw a good opportunity to prevent any troubles of that kind befalling him in the future, "I think I have some silk dress goods that will please you."
Silk dress goods! No such "satisfaction piece" had ever been heard of in Claybanks or vicinity. Mrs. Weefer saw the goods, accepted it in haste, and did her subsequent trading so rapidly that she and her husband and their two hundred dollars' worth of goods were on the way to the Weefer farm within an hour, and Philip, with the new deed of the "wannut land," was at the County Clerk's office.
"Yes," said the clerk, scrutinizing the paper through his very convex glasses. "My son told me you were in yesterday, inquiring about this. Oh, yes, this property is all clear; there was no reason why any one should lend on it."
"No reason? Why, Squire, what's the matter with good standing black walnut as security?"