t is necessary
to point out that this fabrication was the result of his last night's
cogitations and his morning's experience. He had resolved upon a bold
course. He had reflected that his neighbors would be more ready to
believe in and to respect a hard, mercenary, and speculative foresight
in his taking advantage of 'Lige's necessities than if he had--as was
the case--merely benefited by them through an accident of circumstance
and good humor. In the latter case he would be envied and hated; in
the former he would be envied and feared. By logic of circumstance
the greater wrong seemed to be less obviously offensive than the minor
fault. It was true that it involved the doing of something he had not
contemplated, and the certainty of exposure if 'Lige ever returned,
but he was nevertheless resolved. The step from passive to active
wrong-doing is not only easy, it is often a relief; it is that return to
sincerity which we all require. Howbeit, it gave that ring of assertion
to Daniel Harkutt's voice already noted, which most women like, and
only men are prone to suspect or challenge. The incompleteness of his
statement was, for the same reason, overlooked by his feminine auditors.

"And what is it worth, dad?" asked Phemie eagerly.

"Grant says I oughter get at least ten thousand dollars for the site of
the terminus from the company, but of course I shall hold on to the rest
of the land. The moment they get the terminus there, and the depot and
wharf built, I can get my own price and buyers for the rest. Before the
year is out Grant thinks it ought to go up ten per cent on the value of
the terminus, and that a hundred thousand."

"Oh, dad!" gasped Phemie, frantically clasping her knees with both hands
as if to perfectly assure herself of this good fortune.

Mrs. Harkutt audibly murmured "Poor dear Dan'l," and stood, as it were,
sympathetically by, ready to commiserate the pains and anxieties of
wealth as she had those of poverty. Clementina alone remained silent,
clear-eyed, and unchanged.

"And to think it all came through THEM!" continued Phemie. "I always had
an idea that Mr. Grant was smart, dad. And it was real kind of him to
tell you."

"I reckon father could have found it out without them. I don't know why
we should be beholden to them particularly. I hope he isn't expected to
let them think that he is bound to consider them our intimate friends
just because they happened to drop in here at a time when his