The boy did not see how he could possibly keep his good fortune to himself until his mother came home that night.  His first impulse was to go over to the neighbor’s house, and tell her all about it, but he was restrained by the thought that that would be a waste of time.  He could make one trap in the hour and a half that it would take him to go and return, and the sooner his traps were all completed, the sooner he could get to work.  His next thought was that he would let the traps rest for that day, go down to the landing, purchase some nice present for his mother and surprise her with it when she came home.  Of course he had no money to pay for it, but what did that matter?  Silas Jones was always willing to trust anybody whom he knew to be reliable, and when he learned that his customer would have a hundred and fifty dollars of his own in a few weeks, he would surely let him have a warm dress or a pair of shoes.  When his money came he would get his mother something fine to wear to church; and, while he was about it, wouldn’t it be a good plan for him to send to Memphis for a nice hunting outfit and a few dozen steel traps?  Like his father, when he first thought of the barrel with the eighty thousand dollars in it, David looked upon himself as rich already; and if he had attempted to carry out all the grand ideas that were continually suggesting themselves to him, it was probable that his hundred and fifty dollars would be gone before he had earned them.

“Halloo, there!” shouted a voice.

David looked up and saw another horseman standing beside the fence—­Silas Jones, who kept the store at the landing, and the very man of whom he had been thinking but a moment before.

“Come here, David,” continued Silas.  “I am out collecting bills, and I thought I would ride around and see if you have heard anything of that respected father of yours during the last few days.”

“No, sir; we haven’t,” answered David, hanging his head.

“Well, I suppose you know that he owes me eight dollars, don’t you?” said Silas.

“I knew he owed you something, but I didn’t think it was as much as that,” replied David, opening his eyes.  In his estimation, eight dollars was a debt of some magnitude.

“That’s the amount, as sure as you live, and if I had charged him as much as I charge others, it would have been more.  I made a little reduction to him, because I knew that he didn’t own more of this world’s goods than the law allows.  What is to be done about it?  Am I to lose my money because he has run away?”

“O, no,” said David, quickly.  “I’ll pay it, and be glad to do so.  We may want groceries some time, you know, when we have no money to pay for them.”

“That’s the way to talk.  Pay up promptly and your credit will always be good.”

“All I ask of you,” continued David, “is that you will wait about a month longer, until——­”

“Can’t do it; can’t possibly do it,” exclaimed Silas, shaking his head and waving his hands up and down in the air.  “Must have money to-day.  My creditors are pushing me, and I must push everybody whose name is on my books.”