Some unscrupulous
dealer learned that Farley had three hundred dollars--it goes to show
what has happened even when the motive of the seller could hardly be
endorsed as honest business. Well, this dealer learned that Farley had
three hundred dollars, and by means of much conviviality he induced him
to invest that amount in a pair of lots on a cut-bank in the most
outlandish place you can imagine. When Farley came to himself he was
so sick over it he moved on to the Coast, and took up his trade of
plastering.
"Well, in a couple of years things had happened. The principal thing,
so far as Farley's fortunes were concerned, was the decision of a new
transcontinental railway to build into this centre. Now it so happened
that nature or geology or topography or whatever it is that controls
such matters had decreed that the railway must cross Farley's lots.
There was no other way in. It became the duty of Conward & Elden to
buy those lots. We ascertained his address and wired him an offer of
two thousand dollars. There was no time to lose, and we felt that that
offer would cinch it. But we had overlooked the fact that Farley was
Scotch. Did he accept our offer? He did not. He reasoned like this:
'If I am worth two thousand dollars I can afford a little holiday.' So
he threw up his job and in a couple of days he walked into our office.
Would he listen to reason? He would not. He knew that an eagle would
scarcely choose his property as a building site.
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