Arriving at the landing, Dan got the bill changed for
notes of smaller denomination, and, while he was picking up his
money, was surprised by his father, who was greatly amazed to see his
son with such a roll of greenbacks in his hand. Knowing that Dan
was too lazy to work--too much of a gentleman was the way Godfrey
expressed it--he could not imagine where the money came from, and Dan
refused to enlighten him on this point, fearing that if he did his
father would go straight to Don Gordon and ask for the rest of the
ten dollars. Godfrey urged and commanded to no purpose, and was
obliged to be satisfied with the loan of a dollar, which he promised
to return with heavy interest as soon as the barrel was found. He
paid seventy-five cents of it for the privilege of entering as one
of the contestants in the shooting-match, and the rest he used in
purchasing the plug of tobacco for which the grocer had refused
to credit him. He won nothing during the match, while Dan, to his
father's great disgust, came in for one of the first prizes--a fine
quarter of beef.
When the shooting-match was over, the father and son returned to the
little hovel they called home. Dan at once put the mule into the cart
and started back to the landing to bring home his quarter of beef;
while Godfrey, by pretending to fall asleep on the bench in front of
the cabin, was able to carry out a little stratagem that suddenly
suggested itself to him.
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