‚Äú Mrs. ¬ÝVanderpool gave it to me to use in helping the colored people.‚Äù
“What are you going to do with it?”
“Well, that’s just what I came to see you about. You see, I might give it to the school, but I’ve been thinking that I’d like to buy some land for some of the tenants.”
“I’ve got no land to sell,” said the Colonel.
“I was thinking you might sell a bit of the swamp.”
Cresswell and Taylor glanced at each other and the Colonel re-lit his cigar.
“How much of it?” he asked finally.
“I don’t know; I thought perhaps two hundred acres.”
“Two hundred acres? Do you expect to buy that land for five dollars an acre?”
“Oh, no, sir. I thought it might cost as much as twenty-five dollars.”
“But you’ve only got a thousand dollars.”
“Yes, sir; I thought I might pay that down and then pay the rest from the crops.”
“Who’s going to work on the place?”
Zora named a number of the steadiest tenants to whom she had spoken.
“They owe me a lot of money,” said the Colonel.
“We’d try to pay that, too.”