"Are you a thief, then?"

"Don't you dare to call me a thief!" said the tramp, menacingly.

"Then, if you are an honest man, why do you ask that question?"

"Because I am going to borrow what money you have."

"Borrow!"

"Yes," said the man, with a grin. "I'll hand it back when I come
around again."

Under ordinary circumstances there would not have been money enough
in the farmhouse to be anxious about, but it so happened that Farmer
Cole had sold a yoke of oxen, and the money received, a hundred
dollars, was upstairs in a bureau drawer. The thought of this,
though she didn't suppose the tramp to be aware of it, was enough to
terrify Mrs. Cole, and she sank back in the chair in a panic. Of
course the tramp inferred that there was a considerable sum in the
house.

"Come, hurry up!" he said, roughly, "I can't wait here all day.
Where do you keep the money?"

"It is my husband's," said Mrs. Cole, terrified out of all prudence.

"All right! I'll pay it back to him. While you're about it, you may
collect all the spoons, too. I'm going to open a boarding house," he
continued, with a chuckle, "and I shall need them."