form."

"Then he deceived you. I have just received a note from him telling me
to look to you."

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE HOUSE IS MORTGAGED.

Job Stanton would not have been more utterly overwhelmed if he had seen
his treasured home reduced to ashes before his eyes. That he should be
responsible for a debt of five hundred dollars seemed to him almost
incredible. The trader's representation that indorsing the note was only
a matter of form he had accepted as strictly true.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" asked the major, impatiently.

"'Goin' to do about it'?" ejaculated Job.

"Certainly. When a man indorses a note he knows that he may be called
upon to pay, and of course has some plan for doing it."

"I don't know what to do," said the poor shoemaker, sadly. "I can't pay
the note."

"Humph! There seems to be only one thing to do, then."

"What is it?"

"You must sell or mortgage your place."

"What! sell or mortgage my house? I can't do that, Major Sturgis."

"Very well. I won't insist on it if you can pay the note in any other
way."

"Heaven knows I can't."

"Then, Mr. Stanton," said the major, sharply, "it's time to speak
plainly. Unless you do as I suggest, I shall attach your property and
compel you to raise the money in the way I indicate."

Job Stanton was mortally afraid of legal proceedings, and after a while
he acceded to the major's proposal, which was himself to accept a
mortgage for the sum of five hundred dollars secured upon the place. His
wife, who had to be told, wept bitterly, for it seemed to her as if they
were parting with their main reliance. But Major Sturgis carried his
point, and walked off triumphant.

And now for the major's motive, for he had one, and he had artfully made
use of Richmond to forward his plan: He was desirous of getting
possession of the poor shoemaker's house and land, having in view the
purchase of the lot adjoining. Then he would move the house off, throw
down the fence between the two lots, build a nice dwelling, and rent it
to a city friend who wished to spend his summers in Hampton. He knew
very well that Job Stanton wouldn't listen to a proposition for selling
his house, and he therefore tried to accomplish by stratagem what he
could not fairly.

"Pa, you are looking in good spirits," said Sam Sturgis when his father
came home.

"I don't feel so," said the major, hypocritically. "I have had to do a
very disagreeable thing this mor