d Toby, in awe. "An' what d'ye s'pose?
He done buyed a heap of Corson's spec'mens an' paid him more'n a hundred
dollars for 'em. And that ain't countin' that there dead-head butterfly
ye made sech a time about.

"I reckoned," pursued Toby, "that you was right crazy about that there
bug. One bug's as bad as another to my way of thinkin'. But it seems
that Chicago feller thinked dif'rent."

"It really was one of the very rare death's-head moths?" cried Nan,
delighted.

"So he said. And he was willin' ter back up his belief with cold cash,"
declared Toby, smiting his leg for emphasis. "He paid us harnsome for
it; and he said he'd take a lot more spec'mens if--

"Har! Here ye be, Hen," he added, breaking off to greet Nan's uncle. "I
got suthin' to say to you. I kin say it now, for I ain't beholden ter
nobody. With what me and the ol' woman had scrimped and saved, an' what
this feller from Chicago give Corson, I done paid off my debt to ol' Ged
Raffer, an' the little farm's free and clear."

"I'm glad to hear it, Tobe," Uncle Henry declared, shaking hands with
the old lumberman again. "I certain sure am glad to hear it! I'm pleased
that you shouldn't have that worry on your mind any longer."

"And it has been a worry," said Old Toby, shaking his head. "More'n you
think for. Ye see, it snarled me all up so's I warn't my own master."

"I see."

"Ye see, Ged was allus after me to go inter court an' back up his claim
ag'in you on that Perkins Tract."

"I see," said Henry Sherwood again, nodding.

"On the other hand, you wanted me, if I knowed which was right, to
witness, too. If I'd witnessed for Ged, ev'rybody wuld ha' thought I
done it because he had a mortgage on the farm."

"I s'pose so," admitted Uncle Henry.

"Or, if I helped you, they'd ha' thought you'd bribed me--mebbe helped
me git square with Ged."

"I couldn't. Too poor just now," said Uncle Henry, grimly. "But I'd the
mind for it, Toby."

"Well, there ye be. Whichever way the cat jumped, I'd lost the respect
of the community," said the old lumberman. "But now I am independent, I
don't give a dern!"

Mr. Sherwood looked at him expectantly. Toby's "wizzled" face shone.

"I got a debt owin' to that leetle gal you got here, and somethin' to
pay off to Tommy, too. But money won't do it, ef I had money. I am goin'
to tell what I know about that boundary, though, Hen, and it will do YOU
good! I can find another old feller, livin' down Pale Lick way, tha