"He must have sold a great deal of liquor in six years."
"And he has. I don't think I'm wrong in saying that in the six years which have gone by since the 'Sickle and Sheaf' was opened, more liquor has been drank than in the previous twenty years."
"Say forty," remarked a man who had been a listener to what we said.
"Let it be forty then," was the according answer.
"How comes this?" I inquired. "You had a tavern here before the Sickle and Sheaf was opened."
"I know we had, and several places besides, where liquor was sold. But, everybody far and near knew Simon Slade the miller, and everybody liked him. He was a good miller, and a cheerful, social, chatty sort of a man, putting everybody in a good humor who came near him. So it became the talk everywhere, when he built this house, which he fitted up nicer
