10
��PAYING THE MORTGAGE.
��"There, I knew you wouldn't, for all she said there wan't many poor girls that had such a chance. We don't care if we are poor, do we?"
"We will try not to care. Now tell me what you have been doing to-day. and what company you have had."
"I didn't have anybody but Cam Bas- sett to work with me, and he didn't talk much, though he worked like a house-a- fire. He*s growing handsome and I like him. He said grandmother was his best friend. I didn't know that before, did you?"
"No, indeed, but she was a friend to every one. I am glad he remembers her kindly."
"So am I. After dinner, he asked me if I thought you'd ever marry Mr. Green- leaf,and I told him I knew you wouldn't, any sooner than you'd marry him, and I guessed not half so soon."
"Why, Regis;" and a blush suffused the sister's cheek, which he did not see.
Mr. Eldridgehad fulfilled his promise to pray for his young parishioners, and waited for some token that his prayers had been heard, when Cameron Bassett was shown into his study.
"I don't see you very often," he said, in a tone which expressed the surprise he felt at receiving so unexpected a visit."
"No, sir, but I thought 'twas right for me to come, because I could trust you not to tell."
"Not to tell what, my young friend ?" After looking a moment into the clergy- man's face, as if to assure himself that his confidence was not misplaced, the visitor proceeded to make known his business with a straight-forward earnest- nestness one could hardly have believed possible to him.
Five years before he had drifted into the quiet country town, a poor, ignorant boy. Since then, he had clone the hard- est, coarsest work uncomplainingly, yet always stipulating for wages which were so faithfully earned, that they could not be refused. He was kind and obliging, but few thought of him except when present, and then only as of a servant.
"I don't know why I came here, only I happened to," he said in reply to a
��question asked by Mr. Eldridge. "I fol- lowed the river, and when I got opposite Mrs. Bradshaw's, I was so hungry, I went up to the house and asked her to give me something to eat and let me work and pay for it. She did, and talked to me besides, and the talk was better than the bread and milk. She told me what I could do if I tried, and I've tried ever since. I couldn't go to school and meeting like other boys, but I've done the best I knew how. I've saved some money, and I want you to take it and pay Mr. Greenleaf on that mortgage as far as 'twill go, until I can earn some more to finish up. Will you do it, sir?"
"I am not sure that I ought to. You need this money tor yourself. You saved it for a special purpose."
"Yes, sir, I saved it to buy a piece of land, but I can wait for that, I ain't too old to start again."
"But Elsie might object to your doing this."
"I'm afraid she would, but you see, she ain't to know it. That's why I come to you, because I thought you wouldn't tell. They've all done me more than that worth good. I don't think I'd ever had the money but for what Mrs. Bradshaw said to me ; so in a way, it belongs to her, and that mortgage must be paid. It must, Mr. Eldridge."
"It shall be paid, every dollar of it. I will try to raise what is lacking of the full amount and consider you my debtor for the balance."
"Yes, sir, do, and I will bring you the money as fast as I earn it. You can trust me. I always do as I say."
"I believe you, and shall be glad to see you, even if you have no money to bring."
"Thank you," and as the young man thus acknowledged the courtesy of his host, his eyes wandered to a plain book case filled to overflowing.
"Do you care for books?" was asked.
"Yes,sir, more than I care for anything else. When I came here, I only knew the letters, but I've learned since."
"What have you learned?"
"All I could. I bought an old arith- metic and I've been ftirough it. It was hard work; but I kept at it, till I fin-
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