Harry, as I
shall now describe.

As the family were sitting around the kitchen table, on which was placed
the humble tallow candle by which the room was lighted, there was heard
a scraping at the door, and presently a knock. Mr. Walton answered it
in person, and admitted the thin figure and sharp, calculating face of
Squire Green.

"How are you, neighbor?" he said, looking about him with his parrotlike
glance. "I thought I'd just run in a minute to see you as I was goin'
by."

"Sit down, Squire Green. Take the rocking-chair."

"Thank you, neighbor. How's the cow a-doin'?"

"Middling well. She don't give as much milk as the one I lost."

"She'll do better bymeby. She's a good bargain to you, neighbor."

"I don't know," said Hiram Walton, dubiously. "She ought to be a good
cow for the price you asked."

"And she is a good cow," said the squire, emphatically; "and you're
lucky to get her so cheap, buyin' on time. What are you doin' there,
Harry? School through, ain't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"I hear you're a good scholar. Got the prize, didn't you?"

"Yes," said Mr. Walton; "Harry was always good at his books."

"I guess he knows enough now. You'd ought to set him to work."

"He is ready enough to work," said Mr. Walton. "He never was lazy."

"That's good. There's a sight of lazy, shiftless boys about in these
days. Seems as if they expected to earn their bread 'n butter a-doin'
nothin'. I've been a thinkin', neighbor Walton, that you'll find it hard
to pay for that cow in six months."

"I am afraid I shall," said the farmer, thinking in surprise, "Can he be
going to reduce the price?"

"So I thought mebbe we might make an arrangement to make it easier."

"I should be glad to have it made easier, squire. It was hard on me,
losing that cow by disease."

"Of course. Well, what I was thinkin' was, you might hire out your boy
to work for me. I'd allow him two dollars a month and board, and the
wages would help pay for the cow."

Harry looked up in dismay at this proposition. He knew very well the
meanness of the board which the squire provided, how inferior it was
even to the scanty, but well-cooked meals which he got at home; he knew,
also that the squire had the knack of getting more work out of his men
than any other farmer in the town; and the prospect of being six months
in his employ was enough to terrify him. He looked from Squire Green's
mean, crafty face to his father's in anxiety and apprehension.