him," declared Chet. "Jest like him for all the world; but
the fact o' the matter is 't I'm goin' to-morro'. I s'pose he thought,"
reflected Mr. Timson, "thet he'd ruther you'd find it out yourself than
to have to break it to ye, 'cause then, don't ye see, after I was gone
he c'd lay the hull thing at my door."

"Really," said John, "I should have said that he ought to have told me."

"Wa'al," said Chet encouragingly, "mebbe you'll git along somehow,
though I'm 'fraid you'll have more or less trouble; but I told Dave that
as fur 's I c'd see, mebbe you'd do 's well 's most anybody he c'd git
that didn't know any o' the customers, an' hadn't never done any o' this
kind o' work before."

"Thank you very much," said John. "And so you are off to-morrow, are
you?"

"Got to be," declared Mr. Timson. "I'd 'a' liked to stay with you a
spell longer, but the's a big concern f'm out of town that as soon as
they heard I was at libe'ty wrote for me to come right along up, an' I
s'pose I hadn't ought to keep 'em waitin'."

"No, I should think not," said John, "and I congratulate you upon having
located yourself so quickly."

"Oh!" said Mr. Timson, with ineffable complacency, "I hain't give myself
no worry; I hain't lost no sleep. I've allowed all along that Dave
Harum'd find out that he wa'n't the unly man that needed my kind o'
work, an' I ain't meanin' any disrispect to you when I say 't--"

"Just so," said John. "I quite understand. Nobody could expect to take
just the place with him that you have filled. And, by the way," he
added, "as you are going in the morning, and I may not see you again,
would you kindly give me the last balance sheets of the two ledgers and
the bill-book. I suppose, of course, that they are brought down to the
first of the month, and I shall want to have them."

"Oh, yes, cert'nly, of course--wa'al I guess Dave's got 'em," replied
Chet, looking considerably disconcerted, "but I'll look 'em up in the
mornin'. My train don't go till ten o'clock, an' I'll see you 'bout any
little last thing in the mornin'--but I guess I've got to go now on
account of a lot of things. You c'n shut up, can't ye?"

Whereupon Mr. Timson made his exit, and not long afterward David came
in. By that time everything had been put away, the safe and vault
closed, and Peleg had departed with the mail and his freedom for the
rest of the day.

"Wa'al," said Mr. Harum, lifting himself to a seat on the counter,
"how've you made