“All right,” said Eph; “I want my turn first.”  

  

  

 CHAPTER FOUR 

When the two men had settled the treasurer question, they smoked awhile in silence, each lost in thought; and as they thought their brows clouded. 

W

 “Say, Eph,” said Phineas at length, “what be you thinkin' that makes you look so glum?” Eph shook his head sadly. 

 “I been lookin' ahead, Phin,” he said—“'way ahead. An' I see a snag. I don't hold it ag'in' you, Phin; but the thing won't pan out.” “What—what you run up ag'in', Eph?” asked Phineas, solicitously. 

 “Fruit,” said Eph, dolefully. “Loads of it. Phin, what if we do gather in all the fruit that comes to town? Ain't there just dead loads an' loads o' fruit in these here United States? An' the minute we git to puttin' up the price, it'll git noised about, an' Dagos an' Guinnies'll pile in here with fruit an' cut under us.” He sighed. “'Twas a good business while it lasted, Phin; but it didn't last long.” Phineas lay back on the grass and laughed long and squeakily. 

 “Is that all the farther ahead you looked, Eph Deacon?” he asked when he had recovered his breath. “Any old fool ought to know that the second year we was in business we'd buy up all the fruit in the United States.”  

 Eph's face cleared and he smiled again, but Phineas's face clouded. 

 “What worried me, Eph,” he said, “was 'bout payin' sich high prices for fruit as them blame farmers would likely ask. Ner I won't stand it, neither. Will you?”  

 “Not by a blame sight, Phin,” said Eph. “I won't let nobody downtrod me. But,” he asked anxiously, “how you goin' to stop it?”  

 Phineas dug his heel in the soft turf. 

 “We got to buy out the farms,” he announced decisively, “an' hire the farmers to run 'em.”  

 “Think we can afford it, Phin?” asked Eph. “We don't want to go puttin' our money into nothin' losing?”  

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