After a time Carroll descended1 the stairs, chuckling2. "Jack," she called into the sitting-room3, "come out on the porch. What do you suppose the young man did to-night?"
"Give it up," replied Orde promptly4. "No good guessing when it's a question of that youngster's performances. What was it?"
"He said his 'Now I lay me,' and asked blessings5 on you and me, and the grandpas and grandmas, and Auntie Kate, as usual. Then he stopped. 'What else?' I reminded him. 'And,' he finished with a rush, 'make-Bobby-a-good-boy-and-give-him-plenty-of-bread-'n-butter-'n apple-sauce!'"
They laughed delightedly over this, clinging together like two children. Then they stepped out on the little porch and looked into the fathomless6 night. The sky was full of stars, aloof7 and calm, but waiting breathless on the edge of action, attending the word of command or the celestial8 vision, or whatever it is for which stars seem to wait. Along the street the dense9 velvet10 shade of the maples11 threw the sidewalks into impenetrable blackness. Sounds carried clearly. From the Welton's, down the street, came the tinkle12 of a mandolin and an occasional low laugh from the group of young people that nightly frequented the front steps. Tree toads13 chirped14 in unison15 or fell abruptly16 silent as though by signal. All up and down the rows of houses whirred the low monotone of the lawn sprinklers, and the aroma17 of their wetness was borne cool and refreshing18 through the tepid19 air.
Orde and his wife sat together on the top step. He slipped his arm about her. They said nothing, but breathed deep of the quiet happiness that filled their lives.
The gate latch20 clicked and two shadowy figures defined themselves approaching up the concrete walk.
"Hullo!" called Orde cheerfully into the darkness.
"Hullo!" a man's voice instantly responded.
"Taylor and Clara," said Orde to Carroll with satisfaction. "Just the man I wanted to see."
The lawyer and his wife mounted the steps. He was a quick, energetic, spare man, with lean cheeks, a bristling21, clipped moustache, and a slight stoop to his shoulders. She was small, piquant22, almost child-like, with a dainty up-turned nose, a large and lustrous23 eye, a constant, bird-like animation24 of manner--the Folly25 of artists, the adorable, lovable, harmless Folly standing26 tiptoe on a complaisant27 world.
"Just the man I wanted to see," repeated Orde, as the two approached.
Clara Taylor stopped short and considered him for a moment.
"Let us away," she said seriously to Carroll. "My prophetic soul tells me they are going to talk business, and if any more business is talked in my presence, I shall EXPIRE!"
Both men laughed, but Orde explained apologetically:
"Well, you know, Mrs. Taylor, these are my especially busy days for the firm, and I have to work my private affairs in when I can."
"I thought Frank was very solicitous28 about my getting out in the air," cried Clara. "Come, Carroll, let's wander down the street and see Mina Heinzman."
The two interlocked arms and sauntered along the walk. Both men lit cigars and sat on the top step of the porch.
"Look here, Taylor," broke in Orde abruptly, "you told me the other day you had fifteen or twenty thousand you wanted to place somewhere."
"Yes," replied Taylor.
"Well, I believe I have just the proposition."
"What is it?"
"California pine," replied Orde.
"California pine?" repeated Taylor, after a slight pause. "Why California? That's a long way off. And there's no market, is there? Why way out there?"
"It's cheap," replied Orde succinctly29. "I don't say it will be good for immediate30 returns, nor even for returns in the near future, but in twenty or thirty years it ought to pay big on a small investment made now."
Taylor shook his head doubtfully.
"I don't see how you figure it," he objected. "We have more timber than we can use in the East. Why should we go several thousand miles west for the same thing?"
"When our timber gives out, then we'll HAVE to go west," said Orde.
Taylor laughed.
"Laugh all you please," rejoined Orde, "but I tell you Michigan and Wisconsin pine is doomed31. Twenty or thirty years from now there won't be any white pine for sale."
"Nonsense!" objected Taylor. "You're talking wild. We haven't even begun on the upper peninsula. After that there's Minnesota. And I haven't observed that we're quite out of timber on the river, or the Muskegon, or the Saginaw, or the Grand, or the Cheboygan--why, Great Scott! man, our children's children's children may be thinking of investing in California timber, but that's about soon enough."
"All tight," said Orde quietly. "Well, what do you think of Indiana as a good field for timber investment?"
"Indiana!" cried Taylor, amazed. "Why, there's no timber there; it's a prairie."
"There used to be. And all the southern Michigan farm belt was timbered, and around here. We have our stumps32 to show for it, but there are no evidences at all farther south. You'd have hard work, for instance, to persuade a stranger that Van Buren County was once forest."
"Was it?" asked Taylor doubtfully.
"It was. You take your map and see how much area has been cut already, and how much remains33. That'll open your eyes. And remember all that has been done by crude methods for a relatively34 small demand. The demand increases as the country grows and methods improve. It would not surprise me if some day thirty or forty millions would constitute an average cut. [*] 'Michigan pine exhaustless!'--those fellows make me sick!"
* At the present day some firms cut as high as 150,000,000 feet.
"Sounds a little more reasonable," said Taylor slowly.
"It'll sound a lot more reasonable in five or ten years," insisted Orde, "and then you'll see the big men rushing out into that Oregon and California country. But now a man can get practically the pick of the coast. There are only a few big concerns out there."
"Why is it that no one--"
"Because," Orde cut him short, "the big things are for the fellow who can see far enough ahead."
"What kind of a proposition have you?" asked Taylor after a pause.
"I can get ten thousand acres at an average price of eight dollars an acre," replied Orde.
"Acres? What does that mean in timber?"
"On this particular tract35 it means about four hundred million feet."
"That's about twenty cents a thousand."
Orde nodded.
"And of course you couldn't operate for a long time?"
"Not for twenty, maybe thirty, years," replied Orde calmly.
"There's your interest on your money, and taxes, and the risk of fire and--"
"Of course, of course," agreed Orde impatiently, "but you're getting your stumpage for twenty cents or a little more, and in thirty years it will be worth as high as a dollar and a half." [*]
* At the present time (1908) sugar pine such as Orde described would cost $3.50 to $4.
"What!" cried Taylor.
"That is my opinion," said Orde.
Taylor relapsed into thought.
"Look here, Orde," he broke cut finally, "how old are you?"
"Thirty-eight. Why?"
"How much timber have you in Michigan?"
"About ten million that we've picked up on the river since the Daly purchase and three hundred million in the northern peninsula."
"Which will take you twenty years to cut, and make you a million dollars or so?"
"Hope so."
"Then why this investment thirty years ahead?"
"It's for Bobby," explained Orde simply. "A man likes to have his son continue on in his business. I can't do it here, but there I can. It would take fifty years to cut that pine, and that will give Bobby a steady income and a steady business."
"Bobby will be well enough off, anyway. He won't have to go into business."
"I know a man--Bobby is going to work. A man is not a success in life unless he does something, and Bobby is going to be a success. Why, Taylor," he chuckled37, "the little rascal38 fills the wood-box for a cent a time, and that's all the pocket-money he gets. He's saving now to buy a thousand-dollar boat. I've agreed to pool in half. At his present rate of income, I'm safe for about sixty years yet."
"How soon are you going to close this deal?" asked Taylor, rising as he caught sight of two figures coming up the walk.
"I have an option until November 1," replied Orde. "If you can't make it, I guess I can swing it myself. By the way, keep this dark."
Taylor nodded, and the two turned to defend themselves as best they could against Clara's laughing attack.
1 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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2 chuckling | |
轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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3 sitting-room | |
n.(BrE)客厅,起居室 | |
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4 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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5 blessings | |
n.(上帝的)祝福( blessing的名词复数 );好事;福分;因祸得福 | |
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6 fathomless | |
a.深不可测的 | |
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7 aloof | |
adj.远离的;冷淡的,漠不关心的 | |
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8 celestial | |
adj.天体的;天上的 | |
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9 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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10 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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11 maples | |
槭树,枫树( maple的名词复数 ); 槭木 | |
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12 tinkle | |
vi.叮当作响;n.叮当声 | |
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13 toads | |
n.蟾蜍,癞蛤蟆( toad的名词复数 ) | |
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14 chirped | |
鸟叫,虫鸣( chirp的过去式 ) | |
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15 unison | |
n.步调一致,行动一致 | |
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16 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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17 aroma | |
n.香气,芬芳,芳香 | |
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18 refreshing | |
adj.使精神振作的,使人清爽的,使人喜欢的 | |
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19 tepid | |
adj.微温的,温热的,不太热心的 | |
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20 latch | |
n.门闩,窗闩;弹簧锁 | |
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21 bristling | |
a.竖立的 | |
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22 piquant | |
adj.辛辣的,开胃的,令人兴奋的 | |
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23 lustrous | |
adj.有光泽的;光辉的 | |
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24 animation | |
n.活泼,兴奋,卡通片/动画片的制作 | |
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25 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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26 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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27 complaisant | |
adj.顺从的,讨好的 | |
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28 solicitous | |
adj.热切的,挂念的 | |
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29 succinctly | |
adv.简洁地;简洁地,简便地 | |
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30 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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31 doomed | |
命定的 | |
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32 stumps | |
(被砍下的树的)树桩( stump的名词复数 ); 残肢; (板球三柱门的)柱; 残余部分 | |
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33 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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34 relatively | |
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35 tract | |
n.传单,小册子,大片(土地或森林) | |
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36 puckered | |
v.(使某物)起褶子或皱纹( pucker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 chuckled | |
轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38 rascal | |
n.流氓;不诚实的人 | |
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