WARWICK WOODLANDS. 165 



" Well, how would Jem Burt's place suit you, Archer ?" ask- 

 ed the fat man. " You knows it jist a mile and a half 'tother 

 side Warwick, by the crick side ? I guess it will have to be 

 sold anyhow next April ; leastways the old man's dead, and the 

 heirs want the estate settled up like." 



" Suit me !" cried Harry, " by George ! it's just the thing, if 

 I recollect it rightly. But how much land is there?" 



" Twenty acres, I guess not over twenty-five, no how.'* 



" And the house V 



" Well, that wants fixin' some ; and the bridge over the 

 crick's putty bad, too, it will want putty nigh a new one. Why, 

 the house is a story and a half like ; and it's jist an entry stret 

 through the middle, and a parlor on one side on't, and a kitchen 

 on the t'other ; and a chamber behind both on 'em." 



" What can it be bought for, Tom ?" 



" I guess three thousand dollars ; twenty-five hundred, may- 

 be. It will go cheap, I reckon ; I don't hear tell o' no one look- 

 in' at it." 



" What will it cost me more to fix it, think you ?" 



" Well, you see, Archer, the land's ben most darned badly 

 done by, this last three years, since old 'squire's ben so low ; 

 and the bridge, that'll take a smart sum ; and the fences is 

 putty much gone to rack ; I guess it'll take hard on to a thou- 

 sand more to fix it up right, like you'd like to have it, without 

 doin' nothin' at the house." 



" And fifteen hundred more for that and the stables. I wish 

 to heaven I had known this yesterday ; or rather before I came 

 up hither," said Harry. 



" Why so ?" asked the Commodore. 



" Why, as the deuce would have it, I told my broker to invest 

 six thousand, that I have got loose, in a good mortgage, if he 

 could find one, for five years ; and I have got no stocks that I 

 can sell out ; all that I have but this, is on good bond and 

 mortgage, in Boston, and little enough of it, too." 



" Well, if that's all," said Forester, " we can run down to- 

 morrow, and you will be in time to stop him." 



" That's true, too," answered Harry, pondering. " Are you 

 sure it can be bought, Tom ?" 



" I guess so," was the response. ' 



" That means, I suppose, that you're perfectly certain of it. 

 Why the devil can't you speak English ?" 



" English !" exclaimed Frank ; u Good Lord ! why don't you 



