for such favours Mr. Hartman could
not have kept up thus far. Now the difficulty was to pay the few notes
given as they matured.

A note of five hundred dollars was to fall due on the next day, and Mr.
Hartman found himself with but a hundred dollars to meet it. The firm
from which he had bought the goods for which the note was given had
trusted him when others refused credit to the amount of a single
dollar, and had it in their power to forward his interests very greatly
if he was punctual in his payments. It was the first bill of goods they
had sold him, and Hartman could not go to them for assistance in
lifting the note, for that would effectually cut off all hope of
further credit. He could not borrow, for there was no one to lend him
money. There was a time when he could have borrowed thousands on his
word; but now he knew that it would be folly to ask for even hundreds.

In a state of deep discouragement, he left his store in the evening and
went home. After tea, while sitting alone, Jessie, who came to see him
often, tapped at his door.

"Are you not well?" she asked, with much concern, as soon as the smile
with which he greeted her faded from his face, and she saw its drooping
expression.

"Yes, dear," he replied, trying to arouse himself and appear cheerful;
but the effort was in vain.

"Indeed, uncle, you are not well," remarked Jessie, breaking in upon a
longer period of silent abstraction into which Mr. Hartman had fallen,
after in vain trying to converse cheerfully with his niece.

"I am well enough in body, Jessie; but my mind is a little anxious just
now," he replied.

"Isn't your business coming out as well as you expected?" inquired the
affectionate girl.

"I am sorry to say that it is not," returned Mr. Hartman. "In fact, I
see but little hope of succeeding. I have no capital, and the little
credit I possess is likely to be destroyed through my inability to
sustain it. I certainly did anticipate a better reward for my efforts,
and am the more disappointed at this result. To think that, for the
want of three or four hundred dollars, the struggle of a whole year
must prove in vain! As yet, even that small sum I cannot command."

The face of Jessie flushed instantly, as her uncle uttered the last two
sentences.

"And will so small an amount as three or four hundred dollars save you
from what you fear?" she asked, in a trembling voice.

"Yes, even so small an amount as that. But the sum might