The next morning David called John into the rear room. "Busy?" he asked.
"No," said John. "Nothing that can't wait."
"Set down," said Mr. Harum, drawing a chair to the fire. He looked up
with his characteristic grin. "Ever own a hog?" he said.
"No," said John, smiling.
"Ever feel like ownin' one?"
"I don't remember ever having any cravings in that direction."
"Like pork?" asked Mr. Harum.
"In moderation," was the reply. David produced from his pocketbook the
dispatch received the day before and handed it to the young man at his
side. "Read that," he said.
John looked at it and handed it back.
"It doesn't convey any idea to my mind," he said.
"What?" said David, "you don't know what 'Bangs Galilee' means? nor who
'Raisin' is?"
"You'll have to ask me an easier one," said John, smiling.
David sat for a moment in silence, and then, "How much money have you
got?" he asked.
"Well," was the reply, "with what I had and what I have saved since I
came I could get together about five thousand dollars, I think."
"Is it where you c'n put your hands on't?"
John took some slips of paper from his pocketbook and handed them to
David.
"H'm, h'm," said the latter. "Wa'al, I owe ye quite a little bunch o'
money, don't I? Forty-five hunderd! Wa'al! Couldn't you 'a' done better
'n to keep this here at four per cent?"
"Well," said John, "perhaps so, and perhaps not. I preferred to do this
at all events."
"Thought the old man was _safe_ anyway, didn't ye?" said David in a tone
which showed that he was highly pleased.
"Yes," said John.
"Is this all?" asked David.
"There is some interest on those certificates, and I have some balance
in my account," was the reply; "and then, you know, I have some very
valuable securities--a beautiful line of mining stocks, and that
promising Pennsylvania property."
At the mention of the last-named asset David looked at him for an
instant as if about to speak, but if so he changed his mind. He sat for
a moment fingering the yellow paper which carried the mystic words.
Presently he said, opening the message out, "That's from an old friend
of mine out to Chicago. He come from this part of the country, an' we
was young fellers together thirty years ago. I've had a good many deals
with him and through him, an' he never give me a wrong steer, fur 's I
know. That is, I never done as he told me without comin' out all right,
though he's give me a good many pointers I never did nothin' about.
'Tain't nec'sary to name no names, but 'Bangs Galilee' means 'buy pork,'
an' as I've ben watchin' the market fer quite a spell myself, an'
standard pork 's a good deal lower 'n it costs to pack it, I've made up
my mind to buy a few thousan' barrels fer fam'ly use. It's a handy thing
to have in the house," declared Mr. Harum, "an' I thought mebbe it
wouldn't be a bad thing fer you to have a little. It looks cheap to me,"
he added, "an' mebbe bime-by what you don't eat you c'n sell."
"Well," said John, laughing, "you see me at table every day and know
what my appetite is like. How much pork do you think I could take care
of?"
"Wa'al, at the present price," said David, "I think about four thousan'
barrels would give ye enough to eat fer a spell, an' mebbe leave ye a
few barrels to dispose of if you should happen to strike a feller later
on that wanted it wuss 'n you did."
John opened his eyes a little. "I should only have a margin of a dollar
and a quarter," he said.
"Wa'al, I've got a notion that that'll carry ye," said David. "It may go
lower 'n what it is now. I never bought anythin' yet that didn't drop
some, an' I guess nobody but a fool ever did buy at the bottom more'n
once; but I've had an idee for some time that it was about bottom, an'
this here telegraph wouldn't 'a' ben sent if the feller that sent it
didn't think so too, an' I've had some other cor'spondence with him."
Mr. Harum paused and laughed a little.
"I was jest thinkin'," he continued, "of what the Irishman said about
Stofford. Never ben there, have ye? Wa'al, it's a place eight nine mile
f'm here, an' the hills 'round are so steep that when you're goin' up
you c'n look right back under the buggy by jest leanin' over the edge
of the dash. I was drivin' 'round there once, an' I met an Irishman with
a big drove o' hogs.
"'Hello, Pat!' I says, 'where 'd all them hogs come from?'
"'Stofford,' he says.
"'Wa'al,' I says, 'I wouldn't 'a' thought the' was so many hogs _in_
Stofford.'
"'Oh, be gobs!' he says, 'sure they're _all_ hogs in Stofford;' an',"
declared David, "the bears ben sellin' that pork up in Chicago as if the
hull everlastin' West was _all_ hogs."
"It's very tempting," said John thoughtfully.
"Wa'al," said David, "I don't want to tempt ye exac'ly, an' certain I
don't want to urge ye. The' ain't no sure things but death an' taxes, as
the sayin' is, but buyin' pork at these prices is buyin' somethin'
that's got value, an' you can't wipe it out. In other words, it's buyin'
a warranted article at a price consid'ably lower 'n it c'n be produced
for, an' though it may go lower, if a man c'n _stick_, it's bound to
level up in the long run."
Our friend sat for some minutes apparently looking into the fire, but he
was not conscious of seeing anything at all. Finally he rose, went over
to Mr. Harum's desk, figured the interest on the certificates up to the
first of January, indorsed them, and filling up a check for the balance
of the amount in question, handed the check and certificate to David.
"Think you'll go it, eh?" said the latter.
"Yes," said John; "but if I take the quantity you suggest, I shall have
nothing to remargin the trade in case the market goes below a certain
point."
"I've thought of that," replied David, "an' was goin' to say to you that
I'd carry the trade down as fur as your money would go, in case more
margins had to be called."
"Very well," said John. "And will you look after the whole matter for
me?"
"All right," said David.
John thanked him and returned to the front room.
* * * * *
There were times in the months which followed when our friend had reason
to wish that all swine had perished with those whom Shylock said "your
prophet the Nazarite conjured the devil into;" and the news of the world
in general was of secondary importance compared with the market reports.
After the purchase pork dropped off a little, and hung about the lower
figure for some time. Then it began to advance by degrees until the
quotation was a dollar above the purchase price.
John's impulse was to sell, but David made no sign. The market held firm
for a while, even going a little higher. Then it began to drop rather
more rapidly than it had advanced, to about what the pork had cost, and
for a long period fluctuated only a few cents one way or the other. This
was followed by a steady decline to the extent of half-a-dollar, and, as
the reports came, it "looked like going lower," which it did. In fact,
there came a day when it was so "low," and so much more "looked like
going lower" than ever (as such things usually do when the "bottom" is
pretty nearly reached), that our friend had not the courage to examine
the market reports for the next two days, and simply tried to keep the
subject out of his mind. On the morning of the third day the Syrchester
paper was brought in about ten o'clock, as usual, and laid on Mr.
Harum's desk. John shivered a little, and for some time refrained from
looking at it. At last, more by impulse than intention, he went into the
back room and glanced at the first page without taking the paper in his
hands. One of the press dispatches was headed: "Great Excitement on
Chicago Board of Trade: Pork Market reported Cornered: Bears on the
Run," and more of the same sort, which struck our friend as being the
most profitable, instructive, and delightful literature that he had ever
come across. David had been in Syrchester the two days previous,
returning the evening before. Just then he came into the office, and
John handed him the paper.
"Wa'al," he said, holding it off at arm's length, and then putting on
his glasses, "them fellers that thought they was _all_ hogs up West, are
havin' a change of heart, are they? I reckoned they would 'fore they got
through with it. It's ben ruther a long pull, though, eh?" he said,
looking at John with a grin.
"Yes," said our friend, with a slight shrug of the shoulders.
"Things looked ruther colicky the last two three days, eh?" suggested
David. "Did you think 'the jig was up an' the monkey was in the box?'"
"Rather," said John. "The fact is," he admitted, "I am ashamed to say
that for a few days back I haven't looked at a quotation. I suppose you
must have carried me to some extent. How much was it?"
"Wa'al," said David, "I kept the trade margined, of course, an' if we'd
sold out at the bottom you'd have owed me somewhere along a thousan' or
fifteen hunderd; but," he added, "it was only in the slump, an' didn't
last long, an' anyway I cal'lated to carry that pork to where it would
'a' ketched fire. I wa'n't worried none, an' you didn't let on to be,
an' so I didn't say anythin'."
"What do you think about it now?" asked John.
"My opinion is now," replied Mr. Harum, "that it's goin' to putty near
where it belongs, an' mebbe higher, an' them 's my advices. We can sell
now at some profit, an' of course the bears 'll jump on agin as it goes
up, an' the other fellers 'll take the profits f'm time to time. If I
was where I could watch the market, I'd mebbe try to make a turn in 't
'casionally, but I guess as 't is we'd better set down an' let her take
her own gait. I don't mean to try an' git the top price--I'm alwus
willin' to let the other feller make a little--but we've waited fer
quite a spell, an' as it's goin' our way, we might 's well wait a little
longer."
"All right," said John, "and I'm very much obliged to you."
"Sho, sho!" said David.
It was not until August, however, that the deal was finally closed out.