himself, and, with a certain grimness, he hoped the young man was not
happy in his surroundings.

"I calc'late," he said to himself, "that Ovid, bein' shet up with his
own figgerin's and imaginin's, hain't in no jubilant frame of mind....
Meanest punishment you kin give a feller is to lock him in for a spell
with himself, callin' himself names...." When the office opened,
Scattergood and Pansy were at the door, where Mr. Peaney welcomed them,
not without a certain uneasiness at the prospect of intrusting his money
to Scattergood.

"Let's git started right off," Scattergood said. "I'd like to tell it to
the folks how I gained five thousand dollars in one mornin'--jest doin'
nothin' but settin'."

"Very well," said Mr. Peaney. "You buy a thousand shares of
International Utilities on a one-point margin.... Sign this order slip."

"And you set out five thousand dollars right where I kinn see it," said
Scattergood, with anxious fatuity.

"Certainly.... Certainly."

Mr. Peaney deposited on his desk a bundle of currency which Scattergood
counted meticulously, and then laid his own thousand beside it.

"It's as good as yours, right now," said Pansy.

"We'll stay right here in my private room," said Peaney. "We can watch
the board from here, and nobody will disturb us."