Shade rubbed his stubbled chin ruminatively and his wife Mandy
broke in sharply:

"Take it, you fool!"

Apparently Shade paid no heed to the advice nor the epithet, which
was not meant to be offensive, but he knew that Mandy wanted a cow
of just that price and a cow she would have; while he needed
cartridges and other little "fixin's," and he owed for moonshine
up a certain creek, and wanted more just then and badly. But
mental calculation was laborious and he made a plunge:

"Not a cent less'n seventy-five, an' I ain't goin' to argue with
ye."

Arch scowled.

"Split the difference!" he commanded.

"All right."

A few minutes later Arch was loping back up the river road. Within
an hour he had won old Jason to a non-committal silence and
straight-way volunteered to show the colonel the outcroppings of
his coal. And old Jason mounted his sorrel mare and rode with the
party up the creek.

It was Sunday and a holiday for little Jason from toil in the
rocky corn-field. He was stirring busily before the break of dawn.
While the light was still gray, he had milked, cut wood for his