erd! Wa'al! Couldn't you 'a' done better
'n to keep this here at four per cent?"

"Well," said John, "perhaps so, and perhaps not. I preferred to do this
at all events."

"Thought the old man was _safe_ anyway, didn't ye?" said David in a tone
which showed that he was highly pleased.

"Yes," said John.

"Is this all?" asked David.

"There is some interest on those certificates, and I have some balance
in my account," was the reply; "and then, you know, I have some very
valuable securities--a beautiful line of mining stocks, and that
promising Pennsylvania property."

At the mention of the last-named asset David looked at him for an
instant as if about to speak, but if so he changed his mind. He sat for
a moment fingering the yellow paper which carried the mystic words.
Presently he said, opening the message out, "That's from an old friend
of mine out to Chicago. He come from this part of the country, an' we
was young fellers together thirty years ago. I've had a good many deals
with him and through him, an' he never give me a wrong steer, fur 's I
know. That is, I never done as he told me without comin' out all right,
though he's give me a good many pointers I never did nothin' about.
'Tain't nec'sary to name no names, but 'Bangs Galilee' means 'buy pork,'
an' as I've ben watchin' the market fer quite a spell myself, an'
standard pork 's a good deal lower 'n it costs to pack it, I've made up
my mind to buy a few thousan' barrels fer fam'ly use. It's a handy thing
to have in the house," declared Mr. Harum, "an' I thought mebbe it
wouldn't be a bad thing fer you to have a little. It looks cheap to me,"
he added, "an' mebbe bime-by what you don't eat you c'n sell."

"Well," said John, laughing, "you see me at table every day and know
what my appetite is like. How much pork do you think I could take care
of?"

"Wa'al, at the present price," said David, "I think about four thousan'
barrels would give ye enough to eat fer a spell, an' mebbe leave ye a
few barrels to dispose of if you should happen to strike a feller later
on that wanted it wuss 'n you did."

John opened his eyes a little. "I should only have a margin of a dollar
and a quarter," he said.

"Wa'al, I've got a notion that that'll carry ye," said David. "It may go
lower 'n what it is now. I never bought anythin' yet that didn't drop
some, an' I guess nobody but a fool ever did buy at the bottom more'n
once; but I've had an idee for some time that it w