No wonder you thought I had gone crooked again.
Humph! . . . Well, I'll tell you why I wanted that money. You
see, I've been trying to pay back to the man in Middleford the
money of his which--which I took before. It is two thousand
dollars and," with a shrug, "that looks a good deal bigger sum to
me now than it used to, you can bet on that. I had a few hundred
in a New York savings bank before I--well, before they shut me up.
No one knew about it, not even Sis. I didn't tell her because--
well, I wish I could say it was because I was intending to use it
to pay back what I had taken, but that wasn't the real reason why I
kept still about it. To tell you the truth, Jed, I didn't feel--
no, I don't feel yet any too forgiving or kindly toward that chap
who had me put in prison. I'm not shirking blame; I was a fool and
a scamp and all that; but he is--he's a hard man, Jed."
Jed nodded. "Seems to me Ru--your sister said he was a consider'ble
of a professer," he observed.
"Professor? Why no, he was a bond broker."
"I mean that he professed religion a good deal. Called himself a
Christian and such kind of names."
Phillips smiled bitterly. "If he is a Christian I prefer to be a
heathen," he observed.
"Um-hm. Well, maybe he ain't one. You could teach a parrot to
holler 'Praise the Lord,' I cal'late, and the more crackers he got
by it the louder he'd holler.
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