to furnish it," I says.

"Furnish it!" says he. "Why, that's just it! It won't cost nothing to
furnish it--nothing to speak of. I went through the house day before
yesterday--crawled in the kitchen window--oh! it's all right, you can
count the spoons--and there's eight of those bedrooms furnished just
right, corded bedsteads, painted bureaus with glass knobs, 'God Bless
Our Home' and Uncle Jeremiah's coffin plate on the wall, rag mats on
the floor, and all the rest. All she needs is a little more of the same
stuff, that I can buy 'round here for next to nothing--I used to buy for
an auction room--and a little paint and fixings, and there she is. All
I want from you folks is a little money--I'll chuck in two hundred and
fifty myself--and you two can be proprietors and treasurers if you want
to. But active manager and publicity man--that's yours cheerily, Peter
Theodosius Brown!" And he slapped his plaid vest.

Well, he talked all the forenoon and all the way to Orham on the train
and most of that night. And when he heaved anchor, Jonadab had agreed
to put up a thousand and I was in for five hundred and Peter contributed
two hundred and fifty and experience and nerve. And the "Old Home House"
was off the ways.

And by the first of May 'twas open and ready for business, too. You
never see such a driver as that feller Brown was. He had a new wide
piazza built all 'round the main buildings, painted everything up fine,
hired the three best women cooks in Wellmouth--and there's some good
cooks on Cape Cod, too--and a half dozen chamber girls and waiters.
He had some trouble getting corded beds and old bureaus for the empty
rooms, but he got 'em finally. He bought the last bed of Beriah Burgess,
up at East Harniss, and had quite a dicker getting it.

"He thought he ought to get five dollars for it," says Brown, telling
Jonadab and me about it. "Said he hated to part with it because his
grandmother died in it. I told him I couldn't see any good reason why I
should pay more for a bed just because it had killed his grandmother,
so we split up and called it three dollars. 'Twas too much money, but we
had to have it."

And the advertisements! They was sent everywheres. Lots of 'em was what
Peter called "reading notices," and them he mostly got for nothing, for
he could talk an editor foolish same as he could anybody else. By the
middle of April most of our money was gone, but every room in the house
was let and we had applicati