“You’re a mighty big fool to lend your money to a man you don’t know anything about. You’ll never get it back,” observed Wash, surlily.
“Ah! Won’t I? Trust me; I never lend money that I don’t get it back in one shape or another—with interest too. I don’t expect to get that back.” He dropped his voice. “That’s what I call a purchase—not a loan. Don’t try to fry your chicken till you’ve greased the pan, my son.”
“Something in that,” admitted the young medical student. They were sitting on the little front porch of the overseer’s house, and Hiram Still’s eye took in the scene about him—the wide fields, the rich, low-grounds, the chimneys of the mansion-house peeping from the grove of great trees on its high hill a half mile away. His face lit up.
“Ah! Wash, if you trust your old pappy, you’ll see some mighty changes in this here county. What’d you say if you was to see yourself some day settin’ up in that big hall yonder, with, say, a pretty young lady from acrost the river, and that Steve and Mr. Jacquelin ploughin’ in the furrer?”
“By G—d! I’d love it,” declared Wash, decisively, his good-humor thoroughly restored.
CHAPTER X
THE PROVOST MAKES HIS FIRST MOVE
Leech shortly determined to give the neighborhood an illustration of his power, and, striking, he struck high.