said on that subject,
she might as well remain silent; so she merely remarked,--

"Oh, yes, a visit,--_for her_. She a'n't no great hand to make long
stops, ye know."

"Only when she's needed," said Sophronia; "then she never thinks of
going as long as she sees anything to do. Reuben! you mustn't talk,
Reuben!"

"I was saying," remarked Neighbor Jepworth, "it'll be too bad now, if
you have to give up this place; but he"----

Sophronia, unseen by her husband, made anxious signs to the speaker to
avoid so distressing a topic in the invalid's presence.

"We are not going to worry about that'," she hastened to say. "After we
have been favored by Providence so far, and in such extraordinary ways,
we think we can afford to trust still further. We have all we can think
of and attend to to-day; and the future will take care of itself."

"That's right; that's the way to talk!" said Mr. Ducklow. "Providence
'll take care of ye, you may be sure!"

"I should think you might get Ditson to renew the mortgage," observed
Neighbor Ferring. "He can't be hard on you, under such circumstances.
And he can't be so foolish as to want the money. There's no security
like real estate. If I had money to invest, I wouldn't put it into
anything else."

"Nor I," said Mr. Ducklow; "nothin' like real estate!"--with an
expression of profound conviction.

"What do you think of Gov'ment bonds?" asked Neighbor Jepworth.

"I don't know." Mr. Ducklow scratched his cheek and wrinkled his brow
with an expression of thoughtfulness and candor. "I haven't given much
attention to the subject. It may be a patriotic duty to lend to
Gov'ment, if one has the funds to spare."

"Yes," said Jepworth, warming. "When we consider that every dollar we
lend to Government goes to carry on the war, and put down this cursed
Rebellion,----"

"And to pay off the soldiers," put in Reuben, raising himself on his
elbow. "Nobody knows the sufferings of soldiers and soldiers' families
on account of the Government's inability to pay them off. If that
subject was felt and understood as some I know feel and understand it,
I'm sure every right-minded man with fifty dollars to spare would make
haste to lend it to Uncle Sam. I tell ye, I got a little excited on this
subject, coming on in the cars. I heard a gentleman complaining of the
Government for not paying off its creditors; he did n't say so much
about the soldiers, but he thought contractors ought to have their
claims