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"Yes, of course, friend Haddock, I always do so; keep it, keep it. We are glad to see you."

"Thank you, sir; I am glad to return the compliment."

"How are you?" said Savage, reaching out his hand.

"Very well, indeed. How is your own health, sir?"

"First rate; sound as a nut," said the second selectman.

"I suppose, gentlemen, you are getting on rapidly with business?"

"Why, Haddock!" exclaimed the Squire; "we have done nothing -- nothing. We were just looking out for you, hoping you'd be on hand to help us. We are none too many, altogether, to manage this town's affairs. I am getting old and clumsy. Haddock. I can't do much, any how. But you and Savage, now, are just in the prime of life. Yes, yes -- well, so it is. But -- er -- where were we. Savage? What business were we on when Haddock came in? Let's see -- er -- ah! ai! -- I have it! You see it strikes us, Haddock, in regard to the taxes, that the collector is dilatory, and ought to be pricked up. What do you think?"

Mr. Haddock wasn't posted up, he said.

"How can we get on with town affairs, if the collector fails to bring in the money?"

"That is every body's honest opinion," said Savage. "Now I reckon that whereas we ought to have eighteen hundred dollars, we shall fall short near to seventeen. We want to know about it -- must know. We have a world of money to make out. There's the extra expenses, roads to be repaired injured by the great rain, cost of Rundel's old horse that fell through the Little Bear's Bridge, and extra funerals of the paupers that Buuce says the town ought to pay for: all these call for close calculation. We can't go headlong any longer. We must bring up somewhere; and I think it is as well to do it now as by-and-bye, when we've got to.'"

"Just so," said Squire Ben. "It won't do to run the town in debt. We must get the town out of debt, then we can go on."

"That's it, that's it!" said Savage. "The town won't hear to any extra expenses."

"No, gentlemen, I agree with you," said Mr. Haddock "The town don't wish a large, heavy bill brought in beyond the money raised. But the town is willing to take just views of its own responsibilities, and guard against future expenses and contingencies, by timely provision. As, for example, it is better that the Little Bear Bridge should be built of stone, with an arch, though it should cost fifty dollars more, than of wood, with string-pieces and plank."

"Well, now, I differ from that idea," said Savage. "The town can't afford to spend fifty dollars here and a hundred there, just for improvements. The Little Bear's Bridge can be put up in good, thorough shape for a hundred and fifty dollars. And who will give a job to the masons, and saddle a bill on the town of two hundred, just to have a stone arch there instead of solid old-fashioned timbers? For my part, I'm satisfied with a plank bridge. It's good enough, if stone is better. What do you say, Squire?"

"I should think, on the whole, that the town would be afraid -- under the circumstances of so many extras and abatements -- to build of stone. I think we must have the plank bridge, Mr. Haddock, for the town is in honor bound to pay every thing that's lawful, and we must consult for the honor of the town."

"Yes," said Mr. Haddock. "But you recollect the Little Bear Bridge has been swept off twice in five years, besides this wearing out of the plank, while the Slip-Slop Bridge of stone has stood without any repairs, or a cent of cost, ten years already."

"True enough!" said Savage. "But the Slip-Slop cost the town a deal of cash, and made a mighty grumbling. Folks said if town money was to be squandered in that way, every body would have to pawn his farm to pay taxes; so they turned out the selectmen, you know, and put in a new sett."

"That's about as it was, to be sure," said the Squire.

"Yes, and Haddock knows it," said Mr. Savage, "Ha! ha!"

"But that is not the whole of the story," replied he. "I remember that when the '39 freshet swept all the bridges off but the arch-bridge of the Slip-Slop, and cost the town an extra one per cent. tax, every body was satisfied, and said it was money well laid out."

"Oh! that was merely on the excitement of the moment," replied Savage. "The town has never voted any stone bridges since."

"No, nor is it likely to, as long as some of the influential tax payers go dead against it," said Haddock. "But every body knows that it is true economy to do things well, when they are done."

"I go in for that," said Squire Ben, "and so does Savage -- I dare say -- only -- that is -- Savage is sharp and sees a long way ahead, hey, Savage?"

"Why, as for that, I ain't proud of myself, by no means. But I do hold that a sixpence saved is sixpence earned."

"Ha! ha! ha! I thought so," was the merry reply of the Squire.

"There are two ways to save sixpences," said Mr. Haddock, who very well knew that it was two to one in all the talk of this Board, and consequently kept his temper whatever provocation might seem calculated to inflame it. "One other way is so to spend sixpences, that they will not need spending again very soon."