Pylant hesitated.
“Mebbe it’s twenty miles or so,” he at length said, slowly; “but it’s good, and I’ll let you have it low.”
“Twenty miles is a long distance from town,” said Dave, dubiously; “but what’ll you take?”
Fearing he would lose the sale, Pylant lowered the figures he had mentally fixed upon, and said, quickly:
“If you take the twenty acres, you can have it for three dollars and a half an acre. I reckoned on sellin’ to the party here last week, and I ’lowed to myself I’d ask five dollars. But, somehow, they didn’t seem to take to it.”
“Well,” said Dave, slowly, as though hesitating, “I reckon we’ll take it. Can you fix up the deed now?”
“Right off!” answered Pylant, quickly, fearing the boys might change their mind. “Here are the other five dollars I owe you.”
Ten minutes later, Dave and Tom were the owners of the coveted twenty acres.
For the next two weeks the boys worked in the orange grove and added another thirty-five dollars to their fund.
Their living cost very little, and they now had nearly fifty dollars between them.