nes, and an idea
struck him.

"Very well," he said, loftily waving his pipe, "I'll drop in Monday and
talk this over with you, Snavely. Then if the job suits me I may take
it. I don't like to talk business on Sunday, you know."

Thus rebuked, Mr. Snavely resumed his homeward way.

The following Monday Cadge overslept; Tuesday found him with a headache
as a result, which by Wednesday had settled in a tooth; Thursday he felt
so much better that he feared to do anything which might check his
convalescence; Friday was an unlucky day, but so desirous was he of work
that he manfully conquered his superstitious qualms and strolled over to
the little shop where Mr. Job Snavely dealt in groceries and vegetables.

The details regarding the work were furnished with cheerful alacrity,
the tradesman going so far as to accompany his protege to the home of
their patron, Mrs. Pipkin, a withered little lady who lived with her
cats on the bank of the creek.

The work to be performed demanded more brawn than brain and no vast
amount of either. All that was required was to pile up the boulders and
cobblestones which littered the bed of the stream, as a rough,
unmortared wall, along the sloping bank of Mrs. Pipkin's property.

It was evident that Mrs. Pipkin herself had not the slightest notion of
how much a wall should cost, as she was ignorant of the two factors
which determined it, namely, the wages of day-laborers and the time
required to build the wall; therefore she requested Mr. Snavely, as a
man of affairs, to make the bargain for her.

It was well that she did so, for Mr. Cadge's ideas on the subject were
as boundless as hers were limited. Day wages, he affirmed, ranged from
two dollars up for common labor, and as building a wall was highly
skilled labor he thought three and a half or four dollars per diem would
be about right, going on the basis of at least six days of eight hours
each.

Mr. Snavely, on the contrary, after looking over the ground declared
that four days' steady work would build a wall running the entire length
of the widow's lot. Furthermore, that a dollar and a quarter a day was
fair wages for such employment, while laborers would scramble for the
job at a dollar and a half. As a concession to Mr. Cadge, he was willing
to allow him to take his own time and agreed to pay six dollars when the
wall should be completed.

Mr. Cadge waxed indignant and very voluble, while Mr. Snavely was a mild
man of few wo