You do not understand,” said Mr. Whipple patiently. “Your mother can keep the cow until the note that she will sign comes due in sixty days from now. This new obligation will be an added incentive to spur you on to success.
-- Mr. Whipple (chapter 2 paragraph 6)

Importance: This is our first introduction to the shady side of Mr. Whipple and the first time the rhetoric of American mythology is used to justify an immoral action. Mr. Whipple knows Lemuel and his mother are about to lose their house and that he has know money to set out to find the funds to stop it. He offers him a vastly unfair loan of 30 dollars on their only cow, which is worth 100, and only gives Lemuel 60 days to pay it back, when he has 90 days to get the money for his house. In sum, it is extremely unlikely that Lemuel can meet these terms, and Mr. Whipple...