Of late Uncle Bushrod had not been without worry.  It was on account of Marse Robert.  For nearly a year Mr. Robert had been known to indulge in too much drink.  Not enough, understand, to become tipsy, but the habit was getting a hold upon him, and every one was beginning to notice it.  Half a dozen times a day he would leave the bank and step around to the Merchants and Planters’ Hotel to take a drink.  Mr. Robert’s usual keen judgment and business capacity became a little impaired.  Mr. William, a Weymouth, but not so rich in experience, tried to dam the inevitable backflow of the tide, but with incomplete success.  The deposits in the Weymouth Bank dropped from six figures to five.  Past-due paper began to accumulate, owing to injudicious loans.  No one cared to address Mr. Robert on the subject of temperance.  Many of his friends said that the cause of it had been the death of his wife some two years before.  Others hesitated on account of Mr. Robert’s quick temper, which was extremely apt to resent personal interference of such a nature.  Miss Letty and the children noticed the change and grieved about it.  Uncle Bushrod also worried, but he was one of those who would not have dared to remonstrate, although he and Marse Robert had been raised almost as companions.  But there was a heavier shock coming to Uncle Bushrod than that caused by the bank president’s toddies and juleps.

Mr. Robert had a passion for fishing, which he usually indulged whenever the season and business permitted.  One day, when reports had been coming in relating to the bass and perch, he announced his intention of making a two or three days’ visit to the lakes.  He was going down, he said, to Reedy Lake with Judge Archinard, an old friend.

Now, Uncle Bushrod was treasurer of the Sons and Daughters of the Burning Bush.  Every association he belonged to made him treasurer without hesitation.  He stood AA1 in coloured circles.  He was understood among them to be Mr. Bushrod Weymouth, of the Weymouth Bank.

The night following the day on which Mr. Robert mentioned his intended fishing-trip the old man woke up and rose from his bed at twelve o’clock, declaring he must go down to the bank and fetch the pass-book of the Sons and Daughters, which he had forgotten to bring home.  The bookkeeper had balanced it for him that day, put the cancelled checks in it, and snapped two elastic bands around it.  He put but one band around other pass-books.

Aunt Malindy objected to the mission at so late an hour, denouncing it as foolish and unnecessary, but Uncle Bushrod was not to be deflected from duty.

“I done told Sister Adaline Hoskins,” he said, “to come by here for dat book to-morrer mawnin’ at sebin o’clock, for to kyar’ it to de meetin’ of de bo’d of ’rangements, and dat book gwine to be here when she come.”