INS AND OUTS OF THE MATTER 345 



have to sooner or later, and Miss Maxwell must go 

 home presently. You'll have to put up with me for 

 the rest of the night and a man isn't as cheerful a com- 

 panion as a woman is he, Amos?" 



"No, yer right there, Mr. Blake, and it's the idee 

 o' loneliness that's upsettin' me ! Come down ter 

 facts, Mr. Blake, it's the offers I've had fer the farm 

 yourn and hern and my wishin' ter favour both 

 and yet not give it up myself, and the whole's too 

 much fer me!" 



"Hers ! Has Miss Maxwell made a bid for the farm? 

 What do you want it for?" he said, turning quickly 

 to Maria, who coloured and then replied quietly 

 "To live in! which is exactly what you said when I 

 asked you a similar question a couple of months 

 ago!" 



"The p'int is," continued Amos, quickly growing 

 more wide awake, and addressing the ceiling as a 

 neutral and impartial listener, "that Mr. Blake 

 has offered me five hundred more than Maria Max- 

 well, and though I want ter favour her (in buyin', 

 property goes to the highest bidder; it's only contract 

 work that's fetched by the lowest, and I never did 

 work by contract it's too darned frettin'), I can't 

 throw away good money, and neither of 'em yet knows 



