CHAPTER SIXTH

The Spectator and Extortioner.


Mr. Jacob Swartz was sitting in the back room of his store on Main
street counting a heap of gold and silver coins which lay on a table
before him. He was a small, thin-bodied man, with little gray eyes,
light hair and aquiline nose. He was of that nationality generally
known in this country as "Dutch;" but having been there for over
twenty years, he had become naturalized, and was now a citizen of the
chivalrous States of Mississippi, a fact of which he prided himself
considerably.

Mr. Swartz was busily engaged counting his money, when a little boy,
who seemed, from a similarity of features, to be his son appeared at
the door, and mentioned that Mr. Elder desired to see him.

"Vot can he vant?" said Mr. Swartz. Then as if recollecting, he
continued: "I suppose it is apout that little shtore he vants to rent
me. Tell him to come in."

The boy withdrew, and a few seconds after a tall and scrupulously
dressed gentleman, with his coat buttoned up to the throat, and
wearing a broad rimmed hat, entered the room. This was Mr. James
Elder, a citizen of Jackson, but not a native of the State. He came
from Kentucky several years before, and was a man with "Southern
principles." To do him justice, we will say that he was really true
friend to the South, which fact may have been not only from principle,