Now these holdings were recalled sharply to memory, and both of them took train to Coldriver.

Scattergood had not worried about it.  He had simply gone along selling hardware in his own way—­and selling a good deal of it.  His store had a new front, his stock was augmented.  It was his business to sell goods, and he sold them.

For instance, Lem Jones stopped and hitched his team before the store, one chilly day.  His horses he covered with old burlap, lacking blankets.  While Lem was buying groceries, Scattergood selected two excellent blankets, carried them out, and put them on the horses.  Then he went back into the store to attend to other matters.  Presently Lem came in.

“Where’d them blankets come from?” he asked.

“Hosses looked a mite chilly,” said Scattergood, without interest, “so I covered ’em.”

“Bleeged,” said Lem.  Then, awkwardly, “I calc’late I need a pair of blankets, but I can’t afford ’em this year.  Wife’s been sick—­”

“Sure,” said Scattergood, “I know.  If you want them blankets take ’em along.  Pay me when you kin....  Jest give me a sort of note for a memorandum.  Glad to accommodate you.”

So Scattergood marketed his blankets, taking in exchange a perfectly good, interest-bearing note.  Also, he made a friend, for Lem could not be convinced but Scattergood had done him a notable favor.

Scattergood now had money in the bank.  No longer did he have to stretch his credit for stock.  He was established—­and all in less than a year.  Hardware, it seemed, had been a commodity much needed in that locality, yet no one had handled it in sufficient stock because of the twenty-four-mile haul.  That had been too costly.  It cost Scattergood just as much, but his customers paid for it....  The difference between him and the other merchants was that he sold goods while they allowed folks to buy.

So, wisely, he kept on building up in a small way, while waiting for bigger things to develop.  And as he waited he studied the valley until he could recite every inch of it, and he studied the future until he knew what the future would require of that valley.  He knew it before the future knew it and before the valley knew it, and was laying his plans to be ready with pails to catch the sap when others, taken by surprise, would be running wildly about seeking for buckets.

Then Crane and Keith arrived in Coldriver....  That day marked Scattergood’s emergence from the ranks of country merchants, though he retained his hardware store to the last.  That day marked distinctly Scattergood’s launching on a greater body of water.  For forty years he sailed it with varying success, meeting failures sometimes, scoring victories; but interesting, characteristic in every phase—­a genius in his way and a man who never took the commonplace course when the unusual was open to him.

“I suppose you’ve looked this man Baines up,” said Crane to Keith when they met in the Coldriver tavern.