the town-bred, "he's all forester!"

"But look at his hand," added some few observant ones.

Ah! who had ever shaken that hand?

It was now extended to the Judge and he took from its womanly fingers
the terms of the loan. Judge Custis was surprised at the moderation of
Meshach, and he looked up cheerfully into that ever sentinel face on
which might have been printed "_qui vive?_"

"It's not the goodness of the security," said Meshach, "I make it low to
you, socially!"

The Custis pride started with a flush to the Judge's eyes, to have this
ostracised and hooted Shylock intimate that their relations could be
more than a prince's to a pawnbroker. But the Judge was a politician,
with an adaptable mind and address.

"Speaking of social things, Milburn," he said, carelessly, "our town is
not so large that we don't all see each other sometimes. Why do you wear
that forlorn, unsightly hat?"

"Why do you wear the name _Custis?_"

"Oh, I inherited that!"

"And I inherited my hat."

There was a pause for a minute, but before the Judge could tell whether
it was an angry or an awkward pause, the storekeeper said:

"Judge Custis, I concede that you are the best bred man in Princess
Anne. Where did you get authority to question another person about any
decent article of his attire?"

"I stand corrected, Milburn," said the Judge. "Good feeling for you more
than curiosity made me suggest it. And I may also remark to you, sir,
that when you lend me money you will always do it commercially and not
_socially_."

"Very well," remarked Meshach Milburn, "and if I ever enter your door, I
will then take off my hat."

* * * * *

The next morning Meshach Milburn surprised Samson Hat by saying: "Boy,
when you have another fight and make yourself a barbarian again,
remember to bring back, from Nassawongo furnace, about a peck of the bog
ores!"

* * * * *

The years moved on without much change in Princess Anne. The little
Manokin river brought up oysters from the bay, and carried off the corn
and produce. The great brick academy at neighboring "Lower Trappe"
boarded and educated the brightest youths of the best families on the
Peninsula; and these perceived, as the annual summers brought their
fulness, what portion of their beauty remained with Vesta Custis. She
was like Helen of Troy, a subject of homage and dispute in childhood,
and became a woman, in men's cons