Part 11 (1/2)

As Jim looked in astonishment the door was opened and a dapper little man with a fuzzy red beard appeared.

”Good morning, gentlemen, good morning!” he said, in a perfectly good Yankee tw.a.n.g. ”Can I do anything for you to-day in my line? Step in, gentlemen; I'm John Higginbotham.” They entered and, behind the desk, sighted a stout woman of medium size, middle age, and moderately good appearance.

”Hannah, these are two of our fellow townsfolk, calling. Excuse me, gentlemen, I didn't get your names.” He was enlightened and prattled on: ”Oh, Reverend Hartigan and Dr. Carson. Good! Healing for the body and healing for the soul, and my healing is for the estate--happy trinity, isn't it? Sit down, gentlemen.”

”Can we do anything for you in our line?” said the buxom lady behind the desk, in a strong, deep voice; and now Jim noticed for the first time her square jaw and her keen eye that brightened as she spoke.

”Not at present, thank you,” said Jim. ”We are merely making a neighbourly call.”

”The fact is,” said Dr. Carson, ”the thing that stopped us this morning was your new signboard.”

”There! There! I told you so; I told you it was good business,” said the little man. ”The first thing in commerce is to have a good article and the next is to win the attention of the public. I felt sure it was a good move.”

”You've got the attention of the whole town at one stroke,” said Carson.

”If you have the wares to follow it up----”

”Wares! My company is The Merchants' Mutual. It is the----”

Realizing that he had injudiciously turned on a hydrant, Carson said heartily:

”Oh, yes, yes; of course; I should have known. Why, every one knows that The Merchants' Mutual is one of _the_ companies. How did you come in, by rail or by the trail?”

At this point, Hannah rose and, pa.s.sing out of the door, gave a momentary glimpse of a kitchen stove with pots and kettles boiling.

John smiled blandly, raised a flat hand with an oratorical gesture:

”Ah, that is an important question, and bears directly on the signboard.

You see, we came from Bootlebury, Ma.s.sachusetts. Hannah's father was quite a man in that town, and I worked my way up till I had a little insurance office of my own and married Hannah. Well” (he didn't say ”well” and he didn't say ”wall,” but there isn't any in-between way to spell it aright), ”if I'd got all the insurance business in Bootlebury, it would not have been horses and cus.h.i.+ons, but I didn't get half of it, and Hannah says, 'John, I think we'd getter go out West,' for, somehow, she didn't want to stay in a place where folks said she'd had a 'come down.'

”We'd had about ten years of it, and I had just about come to her way of thinking when her dad died and left her quite well fixed. An' Hannah she had quite an eye to biz; she worked at my office desk as much as she did at the cook stove; an' now she says to me, 'Here is where we get out.'

”Every one was talking about the Black Hills then, and that was why we headed this way. Well, we figured out that the railway fares from St.

Louis 'round to Sidney and north to the Hills were so much higher than the steamboat fare from St. Louis to Pierre, that we could save enough to buy a team of ponies and a buckboard at Pierre, and then cross the Plains with the settlers going in and be ahead by the value of the team, which would be needed in our country business anyhow.”

”Time didn't count?” interrupted Carson.

”Not much; and we wanted to see the country.”

”By George! I wish I'd been with ye,” said Jim. ”If only it had been a saddle trip it would have been perfect.”

”Perfect!” exclaimed the little man; ”I wish you could have seen us. The farther we went up that endless river of mud the worse it seemed; and when we landed at Pierre it did seem the last of all creation.

”I didn't have much heart to buy the ponies, but Hannah kept with me and never once seemed to feel discouraged. But when we crossed the river with our outfit and really set out on the blank, bleak plains, I tell ye, we felt heart-sick, sore, and lonesome--at least, I did.”

At this moment Hannah came in from the kitchen and took the lead in conversation.

”Has John been giving you an outline of our policy in the matter of lapsing premiums and residuary annuities?”

”Now, Hannah,” replied John, ”I think that is a little too much like business for friendly callers.”