“Have they stopped working it?”
“Well, yes, for the present. But there’s a prospect of selling it out to a new company with larger means. Of course, we shan’t realize much. I shall be a heavy loser myself.”
“I don’t believe that,” thought Walter.
“You ain’t often bit, I reckon, general,” said his questioner.
“Well, I lay claim to a fair share of judgment,” said General Wall, “but you know we are all liable to be deceived. I’ve lost nigh on to thirty thousand dollars, I reckon, by this affair. However, I expect to keep my head above water,” he added, complacently. “I mean to come out of it as well as I can.”
“’Tain’t every man that can lose thirty thousand dollars and think no more of it,” said the other, who appeared to act as a sort of toady to the great man, so much influence does wealth exert even over those who don’t expect to gain anything by their subservience to it.
“Why, no, I suppose not,” said Wall, in the same complacent tone. “I shall be left tolerably well off, even if I do lose the full value of my stock. I’ve been luckier in some of my investments.”
“Well, I haven’t lost anything, because I hadn’t got anything to lose,” said his fellow-passenger; “that is, outside of my farm. Me and the old woman manage to pick up a living off that, and that’s all we reckon on. There ain’t much money in farmin’.”
“Suppose not,” said the general. “Still, Mr. Blodgett,” he added, patronizingly, “you farmers are not subject to so many cares and anxieties as we men of business. You are more independent.”
“It’s hard work and poor pay,” answered the farmer. “It ain’t easy to get forehanded.”