e ten dollars to-morrow, I'll let you have the cow six
months longer on the same contrack."

"I don't see any possibility of my paying you the money, Squire Green. I
haven't got it."

"Why don't you borrer somewhere?"

"I might as well owe you as another man, Besides, I don't know anybody
that would lend me the money."

"You haven't tried, have you?"

"No."

"Then you'd better. I thought I might as well come round and remind you
of the note as you might forget it."

"Not much danger," said Hiram Walton. "I've had it on my mind ever since
I gave it."

"Well, I'll come round to-morrow night, and I hope you'll be ready. Good
night."

No very cordial good night followed Squire Green as he hobbled out of
the cottage--for he was lame--not--I am sure the reader will agree with
me--did he deserve any. He was a mean, miserly, grasping man, who had no
regard for the feelings or comfort of anyone else; whose master passion
was a selfish love of accumulating money. His money did him little good,
however, for he was as mean with himself as with others, and grudged
himself even the necessaries of life, because, if purchased, it must be
at the expense of his hoards. The time would come when he and his money
must part, but he did not think of that.

CHAPTER XXXV. SETTLED

There was a general silence after Squire Green's departure. Hiram Walton
looked gloomy, and the rest of the family also.

"What an awful mean man the squire is!" Tom broke out, indignantly.

"You're right, for once," said Mary.

In general, such remarks were rebuked by the father or mother; but
the truth of Tom's observation was so clear, that for once he was not
reproved.

"Squire Green's money does him very little good," said Hiram Walton. "He
spends very little of it on himself, and it certainly doesn't obtain him
respect in the village. Rich as he is, and poor as I am, I would rather
stand in my shoes than his."

"I should think so," said his wife. "Money isn't everything."

"No; but it is a good deal I have suffered too much from the want of it,
to despise it."

"Well, Hiram," said Mrs. Walton, who felt that it would not do to look
too persistently upon the dark side, "you know that the song says,
'There's a good time coming.'"

"I've waited for it a long time, wife," said the farmer, soberly.

"Wait a little longer," said Mrs. Walton, quoting the refrain of the
song.

He smiled faintly.

"Very well, I'll wait a little lon