The Squire looked appealingly at Crupp; Crupp winked encouragingly at the Squire; the Squire coughed feebly; Crupp plucked a stem of timothy grass, and gazed at it as if he had never seen such a thing before; the Squire took out a pocket-knife, and began to scrape his finger-nails, and then Crupp remarked that it was a fine day. Bunley having cheerfully assented to this expression of opinion, there was a moment or two of awkward silence, which was finally relieved by Bunley, who drew from his pocket a plug of tobacco, from which he took a bite, after first offering it to his visitors. A little more facial pantomime went on between Tomple and Crupp, and then the Squire spoke. “Bunley,” said he, “you don’t seem to get along very fast in the world.” “That’s a fact,” answered Bunley with hearty emphasis. “Luck seems to go against me, no matter how I lay myself out. There ain’t a man in this town that wants to do the right thing any more than I do, but somehow I don’t get the chance. I signed the pledge t’other night at the meetin’; but how I’m goin’ to stick to it, with all the trouble I’m in, is more than I can see through.” “We’ve come down to help you do it,” said the Squire. “To help you with money--not talk,” supplemented Crupp. Bunley looked at both men quickly, from under the extreme inner edge of his upper eyelid. “We propose, between us, to show you that we’re in dead earnest to help you keep the pledge,” continued the Squire. “We’re going to give you, week after week, whatever you need to live on for the next three months, so you won’t have any excuse for drinking to drown trouble, and so you’ll have a chance to find something to do.” Old Bunley sprang to his feet. “Gentlemen,” said he, “you’re--you’re _gentlemen_. It’s the first time in my life that anybody ever cared _that_ much for me, though. You shan’t lose anything by it, I promise you _that_; I’ll pay you back again the first chance I get to make anything.” “We don’t _want_ it back,” said Crupp. “We won’t _take_ it back. We want to _give_ it to you, out and out----” “To show you that it’s _you_ that we’re interested in, not ourselves,” interrupted the Squire. Then Old Virginia came to the surface again; Bunley seemed to grow an inch or two, and to swell several more as he replied, “I’m not a pauper, gentlemen.” “Certainly not,” said the Squire hastily; “but you can’t pay your debts nor your current expenses, and Crupp and I are a little ahead in the world, and willing to give you a hundred, say--a little at a time.” “You’ve got a couple of boys to bring up, you know, Bunley,” suggested Crupp. “And they ought to go among the best people, too,” said the Squire. “You came of a good family----” “And their mother was a lady, too--every inch of her!” exclaimed Bunley.