to put up a thousand and I was in for five hundred and Peter contributed
two hundred and fifty and experience and nerve. And the "Old Home House"
was off the ways.

And by the first of May 'twas open and ready for business, too. You
never see such a driver as that feller Brown was. He had a new wide
piazza built all 'round the main buildings, painted everything up fine,
hired the three best women cooks in Wellmouth--and there's some good
cooks on Cape Cod, too--and a half dozen chamber girls and waiters.
He had some trouble getting corded beds and old bureaus for the empty
rooms, but he got 'em finally. He bought the last bed of Beriah Burgess,
up at East Harniss, and had quite a dicker getting it.

"He thought he ought to get five dollars for it," says Brown, telling
Jonadab and me about it. "Said he hated to part with it because his
grandmother died in it. I told him I couldn't see any good reason why I
should pay more for a bed just because it had killed his grandmother,
so we split up and called it three dollars. 'Twas too much money, but we
had to have it."

And the advertisements! They was sent everywheres. Lots of 'em was what
Peter called "reading notices," and them he mostly got for nothing, for
he could talk an editor foolish same as he could anybody else. By the
middle of April most of our money was gone, but every room in the house
was let and we had applications coming by the pailful.

And the folks that come had money, too--they had to have to pay Brown's
rates. I always felt like a robber or a Standard Oil director every time
I looked at the books. The most of 'em was rich folks--self-made men,
just like Peter prophesied--and they brought their wives and daughters