ave! We have five more rooms furnished. It is all we
have for this room, however. These rooms are all larger than our rooms
were at home, and so the things look scanty. But I shall get more by
degrees."

"Hm! hm! Want any thing out o' my lumber-room? Have it's well's not.
Things no good to anybody."

"Oh, no, thank you, Mr. Wheeler. We have all we need. I could not think of
taking any thing more from you. We are under great obligation to you now
for the clock," said Mercy; and Mrs. Carr bewilderedly ejaculated, "Oh,
no, sir,--no, sir! There isn't any call for you to give us any thin'."

While they were speaking, the old man was rapidly going out of the house;
with quick, short steps like a child, and tapping his cane on the floor at
every step. In the doorway he halted a moment, and, without looking back,
said, "Well, well, let me know, if you do want any thing. Have it's well's
not," and he was gone.

"Oh, Mercy! he's crazy, sure's you're alive. You'll get took up for hevin'
this clock. Whatever made you take it, child?" exclaimed Mrs. Carr,
walking round and round the clock, and dusting it here and there with a
corner of her apron.

"Well, mother, I am sure I don't know. I couldn't seem to help it: he was
so determined, and the clock was such a beauty. I don't think he is crazy.
I think he is simply very queer; and he is ever, ever so rich. The clock
isn't really of any value to him; that is, he'd never do any thing with
it. He has a huge room half as big as this house, just crammed with
things, all sorts of things, that he took for debts; and this clock was
among them. I think it gave the old man a real pleasure to have me take
it; so that is one more reason for doing it."

"Well, you know best, Mercy," said Mrs. Carr, a little sadly; "but I can't
quite see it's you do. It seems to me amazin' like a charity. I wish he
hadn't never found you out."

"I don't, mother. I believe he is going to be my best crony here," said
Mercy, laughing; "and I'm sure nobody can say any thing ill-natured about
such a crony as he would be. He must be seventy years old, at least."

When Stephen came home that night, he received from his mother a most
graphic account of the arrival of the clock. She had watched the
procession from her window, and had heard the confused sounds of talking
and moving of furniture in the house afterward. Marty also had supplied
some details, she having been surreptitiously overlooking the whole
affair