he says. 'One o' their travellin' men was up here
last week, an' he come in in the afternoon as chipper as you please,
wantin' to sell me a bill o' goods, an' I put him off, sayin' that I had
a putty big stock, an' so on, an' he said he'd see me agin in the
mornin'--you know that sort of talk,' he says.

"'Wa'al,' I says, 'did he come in?'

"'No,' says Purse, 'he didn't. I never set eyes on him agin, an' more'n
that,' he says, 'he took the first train in the mornin', an' now,' he
says, 'I expect I'll have ev'ry last man I owe anythin' to buzzin'
'round my ears.'

"'Wa'al,' I says, 'I guess I see about how the land lays, an' I reckon
you ain't fur out about the morgidge bein' at the bottom on't, an' the'
ain't no way it c'd 'a' leaked out 'ceptin' through that dum'd
chuckle-head of a Timson. But this is the way it looks to me--you hain't
heard nothin' in the village, have ye?' I says.

"'No,' he says. 'Not _yit_,' he says.

"'Wa'al, ye won't, I don't believe,' I says, 'an' as fur as that drummer
is concerned, you c'n bet,' I says, 'that he didn't nor won't let on to
nobody but his own folks--not till _his_ bus'nis is squared up, an'
more 'n that,' I says, 'seein' that your trouble 's ben made ye by one
o' my help, I don't see but what I'll have to see ye through,' I says.
'You jest give me the address of the New York parties, an' tell me what
you want done, an' I reckon I c'n fix the thing so 't they won't bother
ye. I don't believe,' I says, 'that anybody else knows anythin' yet, an'
I'll shut up Timson's yawp so 's it'll stay shut.'"

"How did the matter come out?" asked John, "and what did Purse say?"

"Oh," replied David, "Purse went off head up an' tail up. He said he was
everlastin'ly obliged to me, an'--he, he, he!--he said 't was more 'n he
expected. You see I charged him what I thought was right on the 'rig'nal
deal, an' he squimmidged some, an' I reckon he allowed to be putty well
bled if I took holt agin; but I done as I agreed on the extension
bus'nis, an' I'm on his paper for twelve hunderd fer nothin', jest
because that nikum-noddy of a Timson let that drummer bamboozle him into
talkin'. I found out the hull thing, an' the very day I wrote to the New
York fellers fer Purse, I wrote to Gen'ral Wolsey to find me somebody to
take Timson's place. I allowed I'd ruther have somebody that didn't know
nobody, than such a clackin' ole he-hen as Chet."

"I should have said that it was rather a hazardous thin