"Indeed? So much."
"Yes."
"How has he managed to accumulate so rapidly?"
"His bar has a large run of custom. And, you know, that pays wonderfully."
"He must have sold a great deal of liquor in six years."
"And he has. I don't think I'm wrong in saying that in the six years which have gone by since the 'Sickle and Sheaf' was opened, more liquor has been drank than in the previous twenty years."
"Say forty," remarked a man who had been a listener to what we said.
"Let it be forty then," was the according answer.
"How comes this?" I inquired. "You had a tavern here before the 'Sickle and Sheaf' was opened."
"I know we had, and several places besides, where liquor was sold. But, everybody far and near knew Simon Slade the miller, and everybody liked him. He was a good miller, and a cheerful, social, chatty sort of man putting everybody in a good humor who came near him. So it became the talk everywhere, when he built this house, which he fitted up nicer than anything that had been seen in these parts. Judge Hammond, Judge Lyman, Lawyer Wilson, and all the big bugs of the place at once patronized the new tavern, and of course, everybody else did the same. So, you can easily see how he got such a run."