"Then I suppose you are not doing well here?"
"Yes, I am doing well, but I don't think my health is as good here as at the East. Besides, I have some relations in New York, and that would make it pleasant for me to be there."
"What would you sell out for?" asked Cromwell.
"Do you mean business?"
"Yes, I have been thinking that if I could get a shop on favorable terms, I would buy one. Tell me what is the best you can do."
"If you will come in to-morrow, I will do so. I must take a little inventory of my stock, so as to see how I stand."
"Very well, I will do so."
The next day James Cromwell arranged to purchase the shop, with its present stock, at fifteen hundred dollars, cash.
"It's worth two thousand," said the proprietor, "but I am willing to sacrifice twenty-five per cent. for the sake of freeing myself. You get it dirt cheap."
"If I did not, I could not buy it at all," said Cromwell.