Page 132 - In A New World

"Then I don't think we'll sell, eh, Harry?"

"We had better give it away than take that sum," said Harry, carefully
veiling his inward exultation.

They went to their cabin at the usual time and indulged themselves in a
better supper than usual, feeling that they could afford to do so. It is

wonderful how success stimulates the appetite.

"I don't know when I have been so hungry, Obed," said Harry.

"I feel the same way," chimed in Jack.

"A light heart increases the appetite, boys, but sometimes I've felt wolfish

when my heart was heavy. Fifteen months ago I was in Californy, and
down on my luck. Things had been goin' contrary, and I hadn't money
enough to buy a square meal. I didn't like to tell my friends, bein' a bit

proud. One day when I was feelin' so hungry that I wouldn't have turned up
my nose at a Chinaman's diet--rat pie--an old acquaintance met me and

asked me to dine with him. Did I accept? Well, I should smile. I did smile
all over my face, as I sat down to the table. You'd better calculate that I
made my knife and fork fly. Finally my friend remarked, looking kind of

queer, 'You've got a healthy appetite, Stackpole.' I answered, 'It sort of runs
in our family to eat whenever we get a chance.' 'Good joke!' said he,

laughing. But it was no joke when he came to pay the bill, I tell you."

"I'll remember that, Obed," said Harry, smiling, "and when I invite you to

dinner, I'll first inquire whether you've had anything to eat for a week
back."

"I generally eat for a weak stomach," returned Obed, venturing on a little
joke at which the boys felt bound to laugh.

As they sat at the door of their cabin, they kept a good lookout in the

direction of their claim. They could not afford, now that success was in
their grasp, to have it snatched away. But they discovered no suspicious