"That's the amount, as sure as you live, and if I had charged him as
much as I charge others, it would have been more. I made a little
reduction to him, because I knew that he didn't own more of this
world's goods than the law allows. What is to be done about it? Am I
to lose my money because he has run away?"

"O, no," said David, quickly. "I'll pay it, and be glad to do so. We
may want groceries some time, you know, when we have no money to pay
for them."

"That's the way to talk. Pay up promptly and your credit will always
be good."

"All I ask of you," continued David, "is that you will wait about a
month longer, until----"

"Can't do it; can't possibly do it," exclaimed Silas, shaking his
head and waving his hands up and down in the air. "Must have money
to-day. My creditors are pushing me, and I must push everybody whose
name is on my books."

"But my name isn't on your books."

"Your father's is, and if you have any honor about you, you will see
the debt paid."

"That's what I mean to do, but I can't pay it now."

"Can't wait a single day," said Silas. "If the money isn't
forthcoming at once, you can't get a single thing at my store from