rtance. I was too hungry
to talk much, and so found greater enjoyment in eating than in
conversation. The landlord had a more chatty guest by his side, and I
left them to entertain each other, while I did ample justice to the
excellent food with which the table was liberally provided.

After supper I went to the sitting-room, and remained there until the
lamps were lighted. A newspaper occupied my time for perhaps half an
hour; then the buzz of voices from the adjoining bar-room, which had
been increasing for some time, attracted my attention, and I went in
there to see and hear what was passing. The first person upon whom my
eyes rested was young Hammond, who sat talking with a man older than
himself by several years. At a glance, I saw that this man could only
associate himself with Willy Hammond as a tempter. Unscrupulous
selfishness was written all over his sinister countenance; and I
wondered that it did not strike every one, as it did me, with instant
repulsion. There could not be, I felt certain, any common ground of
association, for two such persons, but the dead level of a village
bar-room. I afterward learned, during the evening, that this man's name
was Harvey Green, and that he was an occasional visitor at Cedarville,
remaining a few days, or a few weeks at a time, as appeared to suit his
fancy, and having no ostensible business or special acquaintance with
anybody in the village.

"There is one thing about him," remarked Simon Slade, in answering some
question that I put in reference to the man, "that I don't object to;
he has plenty of money, and is not at all niggardly in spending it. He
used to come here, so he told me, about once in five or six months; but
his stay at the miserably kept tavern, the only one then in Cedarville,
was so uncomfortable, that he had pretty well made up his mind never to
visit us again. Now, however, he has engaged one of my best rooms, for
which he pays me by the year, and I am to charge him full board for the
time he occupies it. He says that there is something about Cedarville
that always attracts him; and that his health is better while here than
it is anywhere except South during the winter season. He'll never leave
less than two or three hundred dollars a year in our village--there is
one item, for you, of advantage to a place in having a good tavern."

"What is his business?" I asked. "Is he engaged in any trading
operations?"

The landlord shrugged his shoulders, a