When I first came to Moorfield, I bought a piece of property from Laxton--this business transaction made us acquainted--and paid, cash down, one-third of the purchase-money, the property remaining as security for the two-thirds, which I was under contract to settle at a certain time. My first payment was two thousand dollars. Unfortunately, when the final payment became due, I was not in funds, and the prospect of receiving money within five or six months was any thing but good. In this dilemma, I waited upon Laxton, and informed him of my disappointment. His face became grave. "I hope it will not put you to any serious inconvenience." "What?" he asked. "My failure to meet this payment on the property. You are fully secured, and within six months I will be able to do what I had hoped to do at this time." "I am sorry, Mr. Jones," he returned, "but I have made all my calculations to receive the sum due at this time, and cannot do without it." "But I haven't the money, Mr. Laxton, and have fully explained to you the reason why." "That is your affair, not mine, Mr. Jones. If you have been disappointed at one point, it is your business to look to another. A contract is a contract." "Will you not extend the time of payment?" said I. "No, sir, I cannot." "What will you do?" "Do? You ask a strange question." "Well, what will you do?" "Why, raise the money on the property." "How will you do that?" "Sell it, of course." I asked no further questions, but left him and went away. Before reaching home, to which place I was retiring in order to think over the position in which I was placed, and determine what steps to take, if any were left to me, I met the pleasant acquaintance I had made at the town-meeting. "You look grave, Mr. Jones," said he, as we paused, facing each other. "What's the matter?" I frankly told him my difficulty. "So Laxton has got you in his clutches, has he?" was the simple, yet, I perceived, meaning reply that he made. "I am in his clutches, certainly," said I. "And will not get out of them very easily, I apprehend." "What will he do?" "He will sell the property at auction." "It won't bring his claim under the hammer." "No, I suppose not, for that is really more than the property is worth." "Do you think so?" "Certainly I do. I know the value of every lot of ground in the township, and know that you have been taken in in your purchase." "What do you suppose it will bring at a forced sale?" "Few men will bid over twenty-five hundred dollars." "You cannot be serious?" "I assure you I am. He, however, will overbid all, up to four thousand. He will, probably, have it knocked down to him at three thousand, and thus come into the unencumbered possession of a piece of property upon which he has received two thousand dollars." "But three thousand dollars will not satisfy his claim against me." "No. You will still owe him a thousand dollars." "Will he prosecute his claim?"