Page:Dave Porter at Oak Hall.djvu/29

Rh "I—I don't know——" he began, hesitatingly.

"If everything is fair and square there will be no harm in waiting a few days," continued Dave. "The farm isn't going to run away."

"Surely that is true, Mr. Poole."

"I've got to go away to-morrow—down to New York on business," answered Aaron Poole. "I must close up this business without delay."

"Dave, what shall it be?" questioned Caspar Potts, pleadingly.

"I say, wait," came firmly from the youth.

"Then I'll wait," said the old man, and nothing would shake him from that determination. Aaron Poole argued for half an hour, and then strode from the cottage, shaking his head, angrily.

"I'll have the law on you," he cried, shrilly. "It's pay up or take the consequences. You might have had a hundred dollars extra; now you won't get a cent!" And then he jumped into his buggy and drove off.

As soon as his visitor was gone, Caspar Potts sank back in his chair in a state of collapse.

"Oh, Dave, I trust we have done what is best!" he groaned. "Perhaps—perhaps it would have been better to have sold out to him. A hundred dollars in cash is a good deal of money to us these days!"

"I'm satisfied of one thing," returned the boy. "He wouldn't offer that money unless the place