tt.

"I've signed one mortgage," said she, firmly; "I put my name under my
husband's. I ain't goin' to sign another."

"But nobody wants you to sign anything, Mrs. Edwards. The mortgage
note is simply transferred to Squire Merritt here. We only want you
to understand it," said Lawyer Means. He had a curiously impersonal
manner of dealing with women, being wont to say that only a man who
expected good sense in womenkind was surprised when he did not find
it.

"I ain't goin' to put two mortgages on this place," said Ann,
fronting him with the utter stupidity of obstinacy.

"Let me explain it to you, Mrs. Edwards," said Eliphalet Means, with
no impatience. He regarded a woman as so incontrovertibly a
patience-tryer, from the laws of creation, that he would as soon have
waxed impatient with the structural order of things. He endeavored to
explain matters with imperturbable persistency, but Ann was still
unconvinced.

"I ain't goin' to sign my name to any other mortgage," said she.

Jerome, who had stood listening in the door, slid up to his mother
and touched her arm. "Oh, mother," he whispered, "I know all about
it--it's all right!"

Ann gave him a thrust with a little sharp elbow. "What do you know
about it?" she cried. "I'm here to look out for you and your sister,
and take care of what little we've got, an' I'm goin' to. Go out an'
tend to your work."

"Oh, mother, do let me stay!"

"Go right along, I tell you." And Jerome, who was the originator of
all this, went out helplessly, slighted and indignant. He did think
the Squire might have interceded for him to stay, knowing what he
knew. Even youth has its disadvantages.

But Squire Eben stood somewhat aloof, looking at the small, frail,
pugnacious woman in the rocking-chair with perplexity and growing
impatience. He wanted to go fishing that morning, and the vision of
the darting trout in their still, clear pool was before him, like a
vision of his own earthly paradise. He gave a despairing glance at
Doctor Prescott, who had hitherto said little. "Can't you convince
her it is all right? She knows you better than the rest of us," he
whispered.

Doctor Prescott nodded, arose--he had been sitting apart--went to
Mrs. Edwards, and touched her shoulder. "Mrs. Edwards," said he--Ann
gave a terrified yet wholly unyielding flash of her black eyes at
him--"Mrs. Edwards, will you please attend to what we have come to
tell you. I have transferred the mortgage note