The two men sat for a while smoking in silence, John taking an occasional sip of his grog.  Mr. Harum had swallowed his own liquor “raw,” as was the custom in Homeville and vicinity, following the potation with a mouthful of water.  Presently he settled a little farther down in his chair and his face took on a look of amused recollection.

He looked up and gave a short laugh.  “Speakin’ of canals,” he said, as if the subject had only been casually mentioned, “I was thinkin’ of somethin’.”

“Yes?” said John.

“E-up,” said David.  “That old ditch f’m Albany to Buffalo was an almighty big enterprise in them days, an’ a great thing fer the prosperity of the State, an’ a good many better men ’n I be walked the ole towpath when they was young.  Yes, sir, that’s a fact.  Wa’al, some years ago I had somethin’ of a deal on with a New York man by the name of Price.  He had a place in Newport where his fam’ly spent the summer, an’ where he went as much as he could git away.  I was down to New York to see him, an’ we hadn’t got things quite straightened out, an’ he says to me, ‘I’m goin’ over to Newport, where my wife an’ fam’ly is, fer Sunday, an’ why can’t you come with me,’ he says, ‘an’ stay over till Monday? an’ we c’n have the day to ourselves over this matter?’ ‘Wa’al,’ I says, ‘I’m only down here on this bus’nis, an’ as I left a hen on, up home, I’m willin’ to save the time ‘stid of waitin’ here fer you to git back, if you don’t think,’ I says, ‘that it’ll put Mis’ Price out any to bring home a stranger without no notice.’

“‘Wa’al,’ he says, laughin’, ‘I guess she c’n manage fer once,’ an’ so I went along.  When we got there the’ was a carriage to meet us, an’ two men in uniform, one to drive an’ one to open the door, an’ we got in an’ rode up to the house—­cottige, he called it, but it was built of stone, an’ wa’n’t only about two sizes smaller ’n the Fifth Avenue Hotel.  Some kind o’ doin’s was goin’ on, fer the house was blazin’ with light, an’ music was playin’.

“‘What’s on?’ says Price to the feller that let us in.

“’Sir and Lady somebody ‘s dinin’ here to-night, sir,’ says the man.

“‘Damn!’ says Price, ’I fergot all about the cussed thing.  Have Mr. Harum showed to a room,’ he says, ‘an’ serve dinner in my office in a quarter of an hour, an’ have somebody show Mr. Harum there when it’s ready.’

“Wa’al,” pursued David, “I was showed up to a room.  The’ was lace coverin’s on the bed pillers, an’ a silk an’ lace spread, an’ more dum trinkits an’ bottles an’ lookin’-glasses ’n you c’d shake a stick at, an’ a bathroom, an’ Lord knows what; an’ I washed up, an’ putty soon one o’ them fellers come an’ showed me down to where Price was waitin’.  Wa’al, we had all manner o’ things fer supper, an’ champagne, an’ so on, an’ after we got done, Price says, ’I’ve got to ask you to excuse me, Harum,’ he says.  ‘I’ve got to go an’ dress an’ show up in the drawin’-room,’ he says.  ‘You smoke your cigar in here, an’ when you want to go to your room jest ring the bell.’