The Southern wife had died early and the man had been lonely and given to frequent friendly meetings with Mr.Carroll, who had valued him.
"He's the right sort, Arthur," he had often told the boy; "you can depend on him.

He has given his gold and his flesh and blood for the South, although he came on one side of another race and might have sided against us.

He's the right sort." So the Scotch-Southern planter had been one of the bearers at the old Carroll's funeral, and the son, when he had formulated his business schemes, had gone to this friend with them, and with his proposal for the sale of the Carroll property.

The boy, who was honorable to the finish, had been loath to ask, in the then reduced state of the property, for a loan on mortgage to the extent which he would require; therefore he proposed this conditional sale as offering rather better, or at least more evident, security, and he regarded it in his own mind as practically amounting to the same thing.

He was as sure of his being able to purchase back his own, should he secure the necessary funds, as he would have been of paying up the mortgage.