'Wa'al,' says Jim, 'I didn't _kill_ it, an' it didn't _die_ nuther--it jest kind o' _gin out_.'" John joined in the laugh with which the narrator rewarded his own effort, and David went on: "Yes, sir, they jest petered out.

Old Billy, Billy P.'s father, inheritid all the prop'ty--never done a stroke of work in his life.

He had a collidge education, went to Europe, an' all that', an' before he was fifty year old he hardly ever come near the old place after he was growed up.

The land was all farmed out on shares, an' his farmers mostly bamboozled him the hull time.

He got consid'able income, of course, but as things went along and they found out how slack he was they kept bitin' off bigger chunks all the time, an' sometimes he didn't git even the core.