“Easy, boy, easy,” he whispered.  “It won’t do you any harm.”

The instrument, as drawn up by Lawyer Means, also stipulated, at Simon Basset’s insistence, that the said twenty-five thousand dollars should come into Jerome’s possession within ten years from date, and be given away by him within one month’s time after his acquisition of the same.  Lawyer Means, without objection, filed carefully all Basset’s precautionary conditions; then he proceeded to make it clearly evident, with no danger of quibble, that “in case the said Jerome Edwards should comply with all the said conditions, the said Doctor Seth Prescott and Simon Basset, Esquire, of Upham Corners, do covenant and engage by these presents to remise, release, give, and forever quitclaim, each of the aforesaid, one-quarter of the property of which he may at the time of the acquisition by the said Jerome Edwards of the said twenty-five thousand dollars, stand possessed, to all those persons of adult age residing within the boundaries of the town of Upham Corners who shall not own at the time of said acquisition homesteads free of encumbrance and the sum of twelve thousand dollars in bank, to be divided among the aforesaid in equal measure.

“In witness whereof we, the said Doctor Seth Prescott and Simon Basset, have hereunto set our hands and seals,” etc.

This document, being duly signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of the witnesses John Jennings, Eben Merritt, Esquire, and Cyrus Robinson, was stored away in the pocket of Lawyer Eliphalet Means’s surtout, to be later locked safely in his iron box of valuables.

Simon Basset’s writing lore was limited, being, many claimed, confined to the ability to sign his name, and even that seemed likely in this case to fail him.  Simon Basset faltered as if he had forgotten either his name or his spelling, and it was truly a strange signature when done, full of sharp slants of rebellion and curves of indecision.  As for Doctor Seth Prescott, who had sat aloof, with a fine withdrawn majesty, all through the discussion, when it was signified to him that everything was in readiness for his signature he arose, went to the desk amid a hush of attention, and signed his name in characters like the finest copper-plate.  Then he went out of the store without a word, and the minister, forgetting his quarter of tea, slid after him as noiselessly as his shadow.

Lawyer Means, when once out in the frosty night with his three mates, bound at last for cards and punch, shook his long sides with husky merriment.  “I tell you,” he said, “if I were worth enough, I’d give every dollar of the twenty-five thousand to that boy before morning, just for the sake of seeing Prescott and Basset.”

“Of course, when it comes to a question of legality, that document isn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” the Colonel said, chuckling.

“Of course,” replied the lawyer, dryly.  “Basset didn’t know it, though, nor Jerome, nor scarcely a soul in the store beside.”