He'll beat me out of my own as long as he can, but old Miz Nature's got
her eye on him. Yes, I'll try it again and next year I'll let you sell
the crop. But say, John, at one time I had them fellows on the hip, and
if I had cashed in at the right time I would have hit 'em big. Get your
horse and we'll hook the satchel over the horn of the saddle."
Along the road they walked toward home, the Major leading the horse. For
a time they were silent, and then the Major said: "As I came along I was
thinking of that bully from Natchez. He would have killed me with his
Derringer if you hadn't broken his arm with your cane."
"Oh, yes; that red-headed fellow. It has been a long time since I
thought of him. How the pleasant acquaintances of our younger days do
slip away from us."
"Yes," the Major laughed, "and our friends fall back as we grow old.
Friendship is more a matter of temperament than----"
"Of the honesty of the other party," Gid suggested.
"Yes, you are right. Honesty doesn't always inspire friendship, for we
must be interested in a man before we can become his friend; and mere
honesty is often a bore."
When they reached the gate that opened into Gid's yard, the Major shook
hands with the old fellow and told him to resume his authority as if
nothing had happened to interrupt it.
"I will, John; but something has happened to interrupt it, and that
interruption has been my second birth, so to speak.
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