Part 23 (1/2)
”Will you give me two months to pay the balance of interest?” asked Mark Nelson.
”What better prospect have you of being able to pay me then?”
”As soon as Tom has any money to send, he will remit to me. I think it probable that I shall hear from him in the course of two months.”
”If that is your reliance,” said the squire, shrugging his shoulders, ”I am afraid you are leaning upon a broken reed. I know boys pretty well, and I fancy Tom will find a use for all the money he earns.”
”You don't know him, Squire Hudson. He is a very conscientious boy, and understands very well the sacrifice I made in raising money to send him to California. He is not very likely to forget that.”
”It seems to me that the sacrifice was mine,” said the squire, with a half sneer. ”If I remember rightly, I advanced the money which he took away with him.”
Mark Nelson flushed, and he answered warmly, ”You did advance the money, Squire Hudson, but I gave you security for it.”
”And the very first interest that has come due you are not prepared to meet. You can't blame me for feeling a little doubt as to the wisdom of my advance.”
”Are you very much in need of the thirty dollars?” asked Mr. Nelson, nettled at the squire's tone.
”What do you mean, sir?”
”Is it subjecting you to any great inconvenience to wait a couple of months for it? That is what I mean.”
”My circ.u.mstances are not such,” returned the squire, haughtily, ”as to make me feel even the loss of thirty dollars.”
”I wish I could say the same, but I cannot. Since, then, it will occasion you no inconvenience, I ask you as a favor that you will let the balance rest for two months.”
Squire Hudson saw that he was cornered; but none the less was he disposed to yield the point. He even felt provoked with the farmer for having forced from him an acknowledgment that he did not need the money he so persistently demanded.
”I told you before,” he said, ”that it was not the amount of money, but the principle, that I care for. You cannot have forgotten this.”
”I don't see how any principle is involved, Squire Hudson.”
”You look at the matter solely from a debtor's point of view. If you held the mortgage, instead of myself, you would change your view very quickly.”
”I don't think I should,” said the farmer, slowly. ”I would be considerate to a poor neighbor, even if it did inconvenience me a little.”
”The poor neighbor should not have borrowed money on which he was unable to pay interest,” said Squire Hudson, severely.
”How could I antic.i.p.ate the drought that has diminished my crops?” said Mark Nelson, with spirit.
”That is neither here nor there. You knew that the interest must be paid, drought or no drought, crop or no crop.”
”I cannot argue with you further, since you refuse to consider circ.u.mstances over which I have had no control. You refuse to grant me any delay?”
”I do.”
”Since I have not the money to pay you, will you tell me what you require?”
”How many cows do you keep?”