uackinboss, did n't stump out less than eighty dollars an acre
for his clearin', and there's better land than his there."

"So far as appears, then, this is an extensive property which is spoken
of here?"

"Well, sir, I expect it's a matter of half a million of dollars now,
though, mayhap, twenty thousand bought it fifteen or sixteen years
back."

"I wonder what steps my father took in this affair? I 'll be very
curious to know if he interested himself in the matter; for, with
his indolent habits, it is just as likely that he never moved in it
further."

"A 'tarnal shame, then, for him, sir, when it was for a child left alone
and friendless in the world; and I'm thinkin' indolence ain't the name
to give it."

For a moment an angry impulse to reply stirred Layton's blood, but he
refrained, and said nothing.

"I'll go further," resumed the American, "and I'll say that if your
father did neglect this duty, you are bound to look to it. Ay, sir,
there ain't no ways in this world of getting out of what we owe one to
another. We are most of us ready enough to be 'generous,' but few take
trouble to be 'just.'"

"I believe you are right," said Layton, reflectively.

"I know it, sir,--I know it," said the other, resolutely. "There's a
sort of flattery in doing something more than we are obliged to do which
never comes of doing what is strict fair. Ay," added he, after a moment,
"and I 've seen a man who 'd jump into the sea to save a fellow-creature
as would n't give a cent to a starving beggar on dry land."

"I 'll certainly inquire after this claim, and you 'll help me,
Quackinboss?"

"Yes, sir; and there ain't no honester man in all the States to deal
with than Harvey Winthrop. I was with him the day he cowhided Senator
Jared Boles, of Massachusetts, and when I observed, 'I think you have
given him enough,' he said, 'Well, sir, though I have n't the honor of
knowing _you_, if that be your conscientious opinion, I 'll abstain from
going further;' and he did, and we went into the bar together, and had a
mint julep."

"The trait is worth remembering," said Layton, dryly. "Here's another
reason to cross the Atlantic," cried he, with something of his former
energy of voice and look.

"Here's a great cause to sustain and a problem to work out Shall we go
at once?"

"There's the 'Asia' to sail on Wednesday, and I 'm ready," said
Quackinboss, calmly.

"Wednesday be it, then," cried Layton, with a gayety that showed