The stock, farming utensils, &c, which he took with it, came to three hundred and sixty dollars.

The purchaser was to pay, of this money, four hundred dollars in three months, and the balance in six months.

Mary Erskine, therefore, had to make provision for investing the four hundred dollars first.
She determined, after a great deal of consideration and inquiry, to lay out this money in buying four shares in the Franconia bridge.
These shares were originally one hundred dollars each, but the bridge had become so profitable on account of the number of persons that passed it, and the amount of money which was consequently collected for tolls, that the shares would sell for a hundred and ten dollars each.

This ten dollars advance over the original price of the shares, is called _premium_.

Upon the four shares which Mary Erskine was going to buy, the premium would be of course forty dollars.