"'Folks will go back to the land, as I have,' says I.

"'They don't know enough,' says Sam. 'Farmin' is a lost art here
in the East. You take my word for it--they'll pay our
prices--they'll have to--an' the rich folks, they don't worry about
prices. I pay a commission to every steward an' butler in this
neighborhood.'

"'I won't help you,' says I. 'It's wicked. You ought to have
saved your money.'

"'In a year from now I'll have money to burn,' he says. 'For one
thing, my daughter's education is finished, an' that has cost
heavy.'

"'How much would it cost to unlearn it?' I asked. 'That's goin' to
cost more than it did to get it, I'm 'fraid. In my opinion the
first thing to do with her is to uneducate her.'

"That was like a red-hot iron to Sam. It kind o' het him up.

"'Why, sir, you don't appreciate her,' says he. 'That girl is far
above us all here in Pointview. She's a queen.'

"'Well, Sam,' I says, 'if there's anything you don't need just now
it's a queen. If I were you I wouldn't graft that kind o' fruit on
the grocery-tree. Hams an' coronets don't flourish on the same
bush. They have a different kind of a bouquet. They don't
harmonize. Then, Sam, what do you want of a girl that's far above
ye? Is it any comfort to you to be despised in your own home?'

"'Mr. Potter, I haven't educated her for my own home or for this
community, but for higher things,' says Sam.

"'You hairy old ass! The first you know,' I says, 'they'll have
your skin off an' layin' on the front piaz' for a door-mat.'

"Sam started for the open air. I hated to be ha'sh with him, but
he needed some education himself, an' it took a beetle an' wedge to
open his mind for it. He lifted his chin so high that the fat
swelled out on the back of his neck an' unbuttoned his collar.
Then he turned an' said: 'My daughter is too good for this town,
an' I don't intend that she shall stay here. She has been asked to
marry a man o' fortune in the old country.'

"'So I surmised, an' I suppose you find that the price o' husbands
has gone up,' I says.

"Sam didn't answer me.

"'They want you to settle some money on the girl--don't they?' I
asked.

"'My wife says it's the custom in the old country,' says Sam.

"'Suppose he ain't worth the price?'

"'They say he's a splendid fellow,' says Sam.

"'You let me investigate him,' I says, 'an' if he's really worth
the price I'll help ye to pay it.'

"Sam said that was fair,