asked, facing him
in sudden resolution.

"We'll git in the buggy," said he, with new friendliness, seeing that he
had won, "and drive over to Judge Little's. He can make out the papers
in a few minutes, and I'll pay you a month's wages in advance. That will
fix you up for groceries and garden seeds and everything, and you'll be
as snug and happy as any woman in the county."

In less than two hours the transaction was completed, and Sarah Newbolt
was back again in the home upon which she had secured her slipping
tenure at the sacrifice of her son's liberty. As she began "stirring the
pots for supper," as she called it, she also had time to stir the deep
waters of reflection.

She had secured herself from the threat of the county farm, and Joe had
been the price; Joe, her last-born, the sole remaining one of the six
who had come to her and gone on again into the mists.

She began to fear in her heart when she stood off and viewed the result
of her desperate panic, the pangs of which Isom Chase had adroitly
magnified. If Joe could work for Isom Chase and thus keep her from the
poorhouse, could he not have worked for another, free to come and go as
he liked, and with the same security for her?

Chase said that he had not taken a mortgage on sentiment, but he had
made capital out of it in the end, trading upon her affection for the
old home and its years-long associations. As the gloomy evening deepened
and she stood in the door watching for her son's return, she saw through
the scheme of Isom Chase. She never would have been thrown on the county
with Joe to depend on; the question of his ability to support both of
them admitted of no debate.

Joe's industry spoke for that, and that was Isom Chase's reason for
wanting him. Isom wanted him because he was strong and trustworthy,
honest and faithful. And she had bargained him in selfishness and sold
him in cowardice, without a word from him, as she might have sold a cow
to pay a pressing debt.

The bargain was binding. Judge Little had pressed that understanding of
it upon her. It was as irrevocable as a deed signed and sealed. Joe
could not break it; she could not set it aside. Isom Chase was empowered
with all the authority of absolute master.

"If he does anything that deserves thrashing for, I've got a right to
thrash him, do you understand that?" Isom had said as he stood there in
the presence of Judge Little, buttoning his coat over the document which
transferr