"Well, now, Lije, it's mighty kind of you to be givin' out that sort of artickle. Puts me in mind of the old feller that give away his shirts when he didn't have none to spare." "Good natchul talk, Starbuck--natchul as the squawk of a duck. But I didn't come here to swop the perlitenesses of the season." "No?" said Starbuck. "You know I have been out of the neighborhood an' ain't had a chance to talk business until lately." "That's so." "And you ought to know what that business is." "Yes, I know." "Even if a man is gittin' old, Starbuck, thar ain't no reason why he should be a fool." "That's a fact, Lije." "And the biggest fool in the world, Starbuck, is the man that won't keep out of trouble when he kin." "That's true." "Starbuck, ain't yo' eyes wide enough open to see that I kin ruin you?" "Yes, Lije, with his eyes half shet a man kin see a rattlesnake." "Then with both of 'em wide open he ought to see a panther." "I'm a lookin' at you." "That's all right, Starbuck. But we've passed the time fur beatin' about the bush." "I ain't a beatin', Lije." "Starbuck, do you want to be ruined?" "Stop!" "Do you want to see yo' wife with her head bowed down on the table?" "Stop!" "Do you want to hear yo' daughter cryin' down thar in the valley?" "I tell you to stop!" "Do you want to know that the little grave down yander--" "Stop, Peters, stop!" the old man cried, and then held forth his hands. "You don't see nuthin' red on my hands, do you? Look, they are jest as nature made 'em. Peters, fur God's sake don't turn 'em red." "That's good talk, Starbuck, an' it mout belong to the pulpit but not to business, an' I'm a business man." "Yes, you look like it." "And I'll act like it, too; I'll tell you that fur yo' own infermation. An' thar ain't a man in the country that likes to give out infermation better'n I do--when I see that it's goin' to be of use to somebody. But I don't like to waste my wisdom, Starbuck. Look, here, don't you know the right to ruin you has come down to me from my folks, like er old spinnin' wheel? It's a fact, and you know it. But I don't want to do it if I can help it. I know I would make yo' daughter a good husband, but frum what I kin gether she wouldn't wipe her feet on me." "Oh, yes, Peters, she mout if she had been walkin' in the mud." "Yes, ah, hah. So I've got another plan." "Oh, I don't reckon you're slow, Lije, when it comes to gittin' up plans." "That's true. An' I'm jest a little slow about askin' favors, but I want to borry a thousand dollars, an' I don't want no time sot when it must be paid back, nuther. I want that understood." "Why, that's what they call blackmail, ain't it?" "Oh, I don't care whut they call it, but I want you to git it fur me. That p'int is settled. You've got to git it, an' git it quick." "Why, Peters, I'd have to sell my land."