Bunce was a long-sighted fellow, and beheld the
promise which it held forth, at a distance, of a large and thriving
business in the neighborhood; and he had too much sagacity not to be
perfectly aware of the advantage, to a tradesman, resulting from a prior
occupation of the ground. He had not lost everything in the
conflagration which destroyed his cart-body and calicoes; for, apart
from sundry little debts due him in the surrounding country, he had
carefully preserved around his body, in a black silk handkerchief,
a small wallet, holding a moderate amount of the best bank paper.
Bunce, among other things, had soon learned to discriminate between
good and bad paper, and the result of his education in this respect
assured him of the perfect integrity of the three hundred and odd
dollars which kept themselves snugly about his waist--ready to be
expended for clocks and calicoes, horn buttons and wooden combs, knives,
and negro-handkerchiefs, whenever their proprietor should determine upon
a proper whereabout in which to fix himself.
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