: "They tell me ye want to buy a
spruce tree. Is that right?"

"That is correct."

"Want it fer a flag-pole, eh?"

"Yes. It is proposed to erect a staff on the school grounds at
Chestnut Hill."

"Jes' so. In that case ye want a perty good one. Tall, straight,
slender, small-limbed; proper in every way."

"Exactly."

"Well, I've got it."

"So I have heard. I have come to bargain for it."

"All right! Want to look at it fust, I s'pose."

"I have come prepared to inspect it."

"That's business. I'll go down to the swamp with ye an' we'll look her
over."

Grandpa Walker rose from his chair and replaced his cap on his head.

"Is the tree located at some distance from the house?" inquired the
colonel.

"Oh, mebbe a quarter of a mile; mebbe not so fer."

"A--have you some young person about, whom you could send with me to
inspect it, and thus save yourself the trouble of tramping through the
snow?"

Grandpa Walker looked at his visitor curiously before replying.

"No," he said, after a moment, "I ain't. I've got a young feller
stoppin' with me; but he started up to Henry Cobb's about two o'clock.
How fer beyond Henry's he's got by this time I can't say. I ain't so
soople as I was once, that's a fact. But when it comes to trampin'
through the woods, snow er no snow, I reckon I can hold up my end with
anybody that wears boots. Ef ye're ready, come along!"

A look of disappointment came into the colonel's face. He did not
move. After a moment he said:

"On second thought, I believe I will not take the time nor the trouble
to inspect the tree."

"Don't want it, eh?"

"Yes, I want it. I'll take it on your recommendation and that of my
agents, Messrs. Morrissey and Campbell. If you'll name your price I'll
pay you for it."

Grandpa Walker went back and sat down in his cushioned chair by the
window. He laid his cap aside, picked up his pipe from the
window-sill, lighted it, and began to smoke.

"Well," he said, at last, "that's a prime tree. That tree's wuth
money."

"Undoubtedly, sir; undoubtedly; but how much money?"

The old man puffed for a moment in silence. Then he asked:

"Want it fer a liberty-pole, do ye?"

"I want it for a liberty-pole."

"To put the school flag on?"

"To put the school flag on."

There was another moment of silence.

"They say," remarked the old man, inquiringly, "that you gave the
flag?"

"I gave the flag."

"Then, by cracky! I'll give the pole."

Enos Walke