“Your folks don’t generally buy sugar. I didn’t know you used it.”
“We are going to use a pound,” said Robert, who did not fancy the trader’s interference.
“Well, I’d jest as soon sell you a pound as anybody as long as you’ve got the money to pay for it.”
Robert said nothing, although this remark was made in an interrogative tone, as if Mr. Sands still doubted whether our hero would be able to pay for his purchases.
There was nothing to do, therefore, but to weigh out the sugar.
The two bundles lay on the counter, but Mr. Sands watched them as a cat watches a mouse, with a vague apprehension that our hero might seize them and carry them off without payment.
But Robert was better prepared than he supposed.
From his vest pocket he drew the two-dollar bill, and, passing it across the counter, he said:
“You may take your pay out of this.”
Abner Sands took the bill and stared at it as if some mystery attached to it. He scrutinized it carefully through his spectacles, as if there was a possibility that it might be bad, but it had an unmistakably genuine look.