r in his hand.
It was the time of the old French war, and flour and corn meal were
fetching fabulous prices in the British West Indies. The letter Hiram
brought with him was from a Philadelphia merchant, Josiah Shippin, with
whom he had had some dealings. Mr. Shippin proposed that Hiram should
join him in sending a "venture" of flour and corn meal to Kingston,
Jamaica. Hiram had slept upon the letter overnight and now he brought
it to the old Squire. Squire Hall read the letter, shaking his head the
while. "Too much risk, Hiram!" said he. "Mr Shippin wouldn't have asked
you to go into this venture if he could have got anybody else to do
so. My advice is that you let it alone. I reckon you've come to me
for advice?" Hiram shook his head. "Ye haven't? What have ye come for,
then?"

"Seven hundred pounds," said Hiram.

"Seven hundred pounds!" said Squire Hall. "I haven't got seven hundred
pounds to lend you, Hiram."

"Five hundred been left to Levi--I got hundred--raise hundred more on
mortgage," said Hiram.

"Tut, tut, Hiram," said Squire Hall, "that'll never do in the world.
Suppose Levi West should come back again, what then? I'm responsible for
that money. If you wanted to borrow it now for any reasonable venture,
you should have it and welcome, but for such a wildcat scheme--"

"Levi never come back," said Hiram--"nine years gone Levi's dead."

"Mebby he is," said Squire Hall, "but we don't know that."

"I'll give bond for security," said Hiram.

Squire Hall thought for a while in silence. "Very well, Hiram," said he
by and by, "if you'll do that. Your father left the money, and I don't
see that it's right for me to stay his son from using it. But if it is
lost, Hiram, and if Levi should come back, it will go well to ruin ye."

So Hiram White invested seven hundred pounds in the Jamaica venture and
every farthing of it was burned by Blueskin, off Currituck Sound.

IV

Sally Martin was said to be the prettiest girl in Lewes Hundred, and
when the rumor began to leak out that Hiram White was courting her the
whole community took it as a monstrous joke. It was the common thing to
greet Hiram himself with, "Hey, Hiram; how's Sally?" Hiram never made
answer to such salutation, but went his way as heavily, as impassively,
as dully as ever.

The joke was true. Twice a week, rain or shine, Hiram White never
failed to scrape his feet upon Billy Martin's doorstep. Twice a week, on
Sundays and Thursdays, he never