M there was one way to make amends. 'I will
help him to a wife,' I said, 'who will gladly take poverty with him
and for his sake.' I forced him, against his will, to say that he was a
hired hand on this place, and that Susan must be content to be a hired
housekeeper. Now that I know Susan, I see that this proof might have
been left out; but I guess it has done no harm. The place is not so
heavily mortgaged as people think, and it will be Jacob's after I am
gone. And now forgive me, all of you,--Lucy first, for she has most
cause; Jacob next; and Susan,--that will be easier; and you, Friend
Meadows, if what I have said has been hard for you to hear."

The farmer stood up like a man, took Samuel's hand and his wife's, and
said, in a broken voice: "Lucy, I ask you, too, to forgive him, and I
ask you both to be good friends to each other."

Susan, dissolved in tears, kissed all of them in turn; but the happiest
heart there was Jacob's.

It was now easy for him to confide to his wife the complete story of
his troubles, and to find his growing self-reliance strengthened by her
quick, intelligent sympathy. The Pardons were better friends than
ever, and the fact, which at first created great astonishment in the
neighborhood, that Jacob Flint had really gone upon a journey and
brought home a handsome wife, began to change the attitude of the
people towards him. The old place was no longer so lonely; the nearest
neighbors began to drop in and insist on return visits. Now that Jacob
kept his head up, and they got a fair view of his face, they discovered
that he was not lacking, after all, in sense or social qualities.

In October, the Whitney place, which had been leased for several years,
was advertised to be sold at public sale. The owner had gone to the city
and become a successful merchant, had outlived his local attachments,
and now took advantage of a rise in real estate to disburden himself of
a property which he could not profitably control.

Everybody from far and wide attended the sale, and, when Jacob Flint and
his father arrived, everybody said to the former: "Of course you've
come to buy, Jacob." But each man laughed at his own smartness, and
considered the remark original with himself.

Jacob was no longer annoyed. He laughed, too, and answered: "I'm afraid
I can't do that; but I've kept half my word, which is more than most men
do."

"Jake's no fool, after all," was whispered behind him.

The bidding commen