"My home is farther than the stars from me."
"It is a little sum," urged Mr. Plade; "one hundred dollars should pay
the whole passage."
Mr. Simp, in response, mimicked a man shovelling gold pieces, but was
too weak to prolong the pleasantry, and sat down on his empty trunk and
wept, as Plade thought, like a calf.
"Your case seems indeed hopeless," said the elder. "Suppose I should
borrow five hundred dollars on your credit, would you give me two
hundred for my trouble?"
Mr. Simp said, bitterly, that he would give four hundred and ninety-five
dollars for five; but Plade pressed for a direct answer to his original
proffer, and Simp cried "Yes," with an oath.
"Then listen to me! there is no reason to doubt that your neighbors have
made full crops for two years--cotton, sugar, tobacco. All this remains
at home unsold and unshipped--yours with the rest. Take the oath of
allegiance to the Yankee Government before its _charge des affaires_ in
Paris. That will save your crops from confiscation, and be your passport
to return. Then write to your former banker here, promising to consign
your cotton to him, if he will advance five hundred dollars to take you
to Louisiana. He knows you received of old ten thousand dollars per
annum.
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