It was wholly against his wish that any thing so artificial should be done at all, and his sense of religion condemned it.

He said, in his very first letter to me, that even a heathen must acknowledge this champion nugget as the grandest work of the Lord yet discovered in America--a country more full of all works of the Lord than the rest of the world put together.

And to keep it in a cellar, without any air or sun, grated harshly upon his ideas of right.
However, he did not expect every body to think exactly as he did, and if they could turn a few dollars upon it, they were welcome, as having large families.

And the balance might go to his credit against the interest on any cash advanced to him.

Not that he meant to be very fast with this, never having run into debt in all his life.
This, put shortly, was the reason why I could not run to the pump any longer.