“Well,” said John, laughing, “you see me at table every day and know what my appetite is like.  How much pork do you think I could take care of?”

“Wa’al, at the present price,” said David, “I think about four thousan’ barrels would give ye enough to eat fer a spell, an’ mebbe leave ye a few barrels to dispose of if you should happen to strike a feller later on that wanted it wuss ’n you did.”

John opened his eyes a little.  “I should only have a margin of a dollar and a quarter,” he said.

“Wa’al, I’ve got a notion that that’ll carry ye,” said David.  “It may go lower ‘n what it is now.  I never bought anythin’ yet that didn’t drop some, an’ I guess nobody but a fool ever did buy at the bottom more’n once; but I’ve had an idee for some time that it was about bottom, an’ this here telegraph wouldn’t ‘a’ ben sent if the feller that sent it didn’t think so too, an’ I’ve had some other cor’spondence with him.”  Mr. Harum paused and laughed a little.

“I was jest thinkin’,” he continued, “of what the Irishman said about Stofford.  Never ben there, have ye?  Wa’al, it’s a place eight nine mile f’m here, an’ the hills ‘round are so steep that when you’re goin’ up you c’n look right back under the buggy by jest leanin’ over the edge of the dash.  I was drivin’ ‘round there once, an’ I met an Irishman with a big drove o’ hogs.

“‘Hello, Pat!’ I says, ’where ‘d all them hogs come from?’

“‘Stofford,’ he says.

“‘Wa’al,’ I says, ’I wouldn’t ‘a’ thought the’ was so many hogs in Stofford.’

“‘Oh, be gobs!’ he says, ‘sure they’re all hogs in Stofford;’ an’,” declared David, “the bears ben sellin’ that pork up in Chicago as if the hull everlastin’ West was all hogs.”

“It’s very tempting,” said John thoughtfully.

“Wa’al,” said David, “I don’t want to tempt ye exac’ly, an’ certain I don’t want to urge ye.  The’ ain’t no sure things but death an’ taxes, as the sayin’ is, but buyin’ pork at these prices is buyin’ somethin’ that’s got value, an’ you can’t wipe it out.  In other words, it’s buyin’ a warranted article at a price consid’ably lower ’n it c’n be produced for, an’ though it may go lower, if a man c’n stick, it’s bound to level up in the long run.”

Our friend sat for some minutes apparently looking into the fire, but he was not conscious of seeing anything at all.  Finally he rose, went over to Mr. Harum’s desk, figured the interest on the certificates up to the first of January, indorsed them, and filling up a check for the balance of the amount in question, handed the check and certificate to David.

“Think you’ll go it, eh?” said the latter.

“Yes,” said John; “but if I take the quantity you suggest, I shall have nothing to remargin the trade in case the market goes below a certain point.”

“I’ve thought of that,” replied David, “an’ was goin’ to say to you that I’d carry the trade down as fur as your money would go, in case more margins had to be called.”