“No,” said John.  “Nothing that can’t wait.”

“Set down,” said Mr. Harum, drawing a chair to the fire.  He looked up with his characteristic grin.  “Ever own a hog?” he said.

“No,” said John, smiling.

“Ever feel like ownin’ one?”

“I don’t remember ever having any cravings in that direction.”

“Like pork?” asked Mr. Harum.

“In moderation,” was the reply.  David produced from his pocketbook the dispatch received the day before and handed it to the young man at his side.  “Read that,” he said.

John looked at it and handed it back.

“It doesn’t convey any idea to my mind,” he said.

“What?” said David, “you don’t know what ‘Bangs Galilee’ means? nor who ‘Raisin’ is?”

“You’ll have to ask me an easier one,” said John, smiling.

David sat for a moment in silence, and then, “How much money have you got?” he asked.

“Well,” was the reply, “with what I had and what I have saved since I came I could get together about five thousand dollars, I think.”

“Is it where you c’n put your hands on’t?”

John took some slips of paper from his pocketbook and handed them to David.

“H’m, h’m,” said the latter.  “Wa’al, I owe ye quite a little bunch o’ money, don’t I?  Forty-five hunderd!  Wa’al!  Couldn’t you ‘a’ done better ’n to keep this here at four per cent?”

“Well,” said John, “perhaps so, and perhaps not.  I preferred to do this at all events.”

“Thought the old man was safe anyway, didn’t ye?” said David in a tone which showed that he was highly pleased.

“Yes,” said John.

“Is this all?” asked David.

“There is some interest on those certificates, and I have some balance in my account,” was the reply; “and then, you know, I have some very valuable securities—­a beautiful line of mining stocks, and that promising Pennsylvania property.”

At the mention of the last-named asset David looked at him for an instant as if about to speak, but if so he changed his mind.  He sat for a moment fingering the yellow paper which carried the mystic words.  Presently he said, opening the message out, “That’s from an old friend of mine out to Chicago.  He come from this part of the country, an’ we was young fellers together thirty years ago.  I’ve had a good many deals with him and through him, an’ he never give me a wrong steer, fur ’s I know.  That is, I never done as he told me without comin’ out all right, though he’s give me a good many pointers I never did nothin’ about.  ’Tain’t nec’sary to name no names, but ‘Bangs Galilee’ means ‘buy pork,’ an’ as I’ve ben watchin’ the market fer quite a spell myself, an’ standard pork ’s a good deal lower ’n it costs to pack it, I’ve made up my mind to buy a few thousan’ barrels fer fam’ly use.  It’s a handy thing to have in the house,” declared Mr. Harum, “an’ I thought mebbe it wouldn’t be a bad thing fer you to have a little.  It looks cheap to me,” he added, “an’ mebbe bime-by what you don’t eat you c’n sell.”