“Frank looks tired,” interposed his mother.
“Never mind, mother, I’ll go anyway. Perhaps Mr. Benning and Mr. Peterson will walk over here and see father.”
“Yes, you might ask them to call,” said the sick man.
A little later Frank went to see Andrew Benning, who lived but a short distance from the Hardy homestead. He found the storekeeper, who was a shrewd Yankee, reading the local weekly paper.
“Your father would like to see me, eh?” said the man. “What about, Frank?”
“He is going to sell out and thought you might like to buy.”
“Hum! Has he set any figger?”
“No, sir.”
“Well, I’ll call an’ see him first thing in the morning. I don’t reckon as how the place is wuth much—it’s so run down.”
“Oh, there is quite some stock,” answered our hero. “What time shall I say you will call?”