"Cotton had bought one of these estates, tallow another, and lucifer-matches the other." "Plague take them all three!" roared the Colonel.
"Well, then, sir," said Walter, "I could not help thinking there must be some magic in trade, and I had better go into it.

I didn't think you would consent to that.

I wasn't game to defy you; so I did a meanish thing, and slipped away into a merchant's office." "And made your fortune in three months ?" inquired the Colonel.
"No, I didn't; and don't think trade is the thing for _me_.

I saw a deal of avarice and meanness, and a thief of a clerk got his master to suspect me of dishonesty; so I snapped my fingers at them all, and here I am.
But," said the poor young fellow, "I do wish, father, you would put me into something where I can make a little money, so that when _this_ estate comes to be sold, I may be the purchaser." Colonel Clifford started up in great emotion.
"Sell Clifford Hall, where I was born, and you were born, and everybody was born! Those estates I sold were only outlying properties." "They were beautiful ones," said Walter.

"I never see such peaches now." "As you did when you were six years old," suggested the Colonel.