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10 was now stuffed to repletion with gold and silver pieces, amounting to between two and three hundred pounds, the price of the drove of cattle. The principal purchaser had, indeed, offered to pay in one of the new-fashioned letters of credit then beginning to be used after the manner of bankbills, but Samuel Cheeseboro looked askance and shook his head.

"I won't say they're not just as good as the gold, neighbor," began he, "but"—And here the other indignantly interrupted:—

"Why, surely they are, drover! This one is drawn on Jonathan Gibbs, the shipowner and merchant, whose warehouse you may see down King Street this minute. If he's not good for a hundred pounds, I'll give you my head for a China orange."

"Doubtless he's good for more thousands than I ever saw hundreds," replied Cheeseboro, good-humoredly. "Natheless, friend, I'd rather hold the coin than a slip of paper in the stead of my cattle. They are not all my own, and I know well enow that those who trusted them to me would be but ill-suited with a bill of exchange, or letter of credit, whichever name I might give it, when they look for gold and silver in hand."

"Say no more, man. Gold is scarce, but so long as Neighbor Hull turns out his sixpences and shillings at the rate he does, there's plenty of silver. Didst hear that he dowered his daughter t'other day, when she was wed to Justice Sewall, with as many pine-tree shillings as would weigh