"There's trouble over at the mill," was remarked by a gentleman with whom I had some business transactions in the afternoon. He spoke to a person who sat in his office. "Ah! what's the matter?" said the other. "All the hands were discharged at noon, and the mill shut down." "How comes that?" "They've been losing money from the start." "Rather bad practice, I should say." "It involves some bad practices, no doubt." "On Willy's part?" "Yes. He is reported to have squandered the means placed in his hands, after a shameless fashion." "Is the loss heavy?" "So it is said." "How much?" "Reaching to thirty or forty thousand dollars. But this is rumor, and, of course, an exaggeration." "Of course. No such loss as that could have been made. But what was done with the money? How could Willy have spent it? He dashes about a great deal; buys fast horses, drinks rather freely, and all that; but thirty or forty thousand dollars couldn't escape in this way." At the moment a swift trotting horse, bearing a light sulky and a man, went by. "There goes young Hammond's three hundred dollar animal," said the last speaker. "It was Willy Hammond's yesterday. But there has been a change of ownership since then; I happen to know." "Indeed." "Yes. The man Green, who has been loafing about Cedarville for the last few years--after no good, I can well believe--came into possession to-day." "Ah! Willy must be very fickle-minded. Does the possession of a coveted object so soon bring satiety?" "There is something not clearly understood about the transaction. I saw Mr. Hammond during the forenoon, and he looked terribly distressed." "The embarrassed condition of things at the mill readily accounts for this." "True; but I think there are causes of trouble beyond the mere embarrassments." "The dissolute, spendthrift habits of his son," was suggested. "These are sufficient to weigh down the father's spirits,--to bow him to the very dust." "To speak out plainly," said the other, "I am afraid that the young man adds another vice to that of drinking and idleness." "What?" "Gaining." "No!" "There is little doubt of it in my mind. And it is further my opinion, that his fine horse, for which he paid three hundred dollars only a few days ago, has passed into the hands of this man Green, in payment of a debt contracted at the gaming table." "You shock me. Surely, there can be no grounds for such a belief." "I have, I am sorry to say, the gravest reasons for what I allege. That Green is a professional gambler, who was attracted here by the excellent company that assembled at the 'Sickle and Sheaf' in the beginning of the lazy miller's pauper-making experiment, I do not in the least question. Grant this, and take into account the fact that young Hammond has been much in his company, and you have sufficient cause for the most disastrous effects."