other shop, and
he spoke out at once, very fast, but with a voice that sounded as if it
came through a bag of meal.

"Ogden," said he, "got him shod? If you have, I'll take him. What do
you say about that trade?"

"I don't want any more room than there is here," said the blacksmith,
"and I don't care to move my shop."

"There's nigh onto two acres, mebbe more, all along the creek from
below the mill to Deacon Hawkins's line, below the bridge," wheezed the
mealy, floury, dusty man, rapidly. "I'll get two hundred for it some
day, ground or no ground. Best place for a shop."

"This lot suits me," said the smith, hammering away. "'Twouldn't pay
me to move--not in these times."

The miller had more to say, while he unhitched his horse, but he led
him out without getting any more favorable reply about the trade.

"Come and blow, Jack," said the smith, and the boy in the door turned
promptly to take the handle of the bellows.

The little heap of charcoal and coke in the forge brightened and sent
up fiery tongues, as the great leathern lungs wheezed and sighed, and
Jack himself began to puff.

"I've got to have a bigger man than you are, for a blower and striker,"
said the smith. "He's coming Monday morning. It's time you were doing
something, Jack."

"Why, father," said Jack, as he ceased pulling on the bellows, and the
shoe came out of the fire, "I've been doing something ever since I was
twelve. Been working here since May, and lots o' times before that.
Learned the trade, too."

"You can make a nail, but you can't make a shoe," said his father, as
he sizzed the bit of bent iron in the water-tub and then threw it on
the ground. "Seven. That's all the shoes I'll make this morning, and
there are seven of you at home. Your mother can't spare Molly, but
you'll have to do something. It is Saturday, and you can go fishing,
after dinner, if you'd like to. There's nothin' to ketch 'round here,
either. Worst times there ever were in Crofield."

There was gloom as well as charcoal on the face of the blacksmith, but
Jack's expression was only respectfully serious as he walked away,
without speaking, and again stood in the door for a moment.

"I could catch something in the city. I know I could," he said, to
himself. "How on earth shall I get there?"

The bridge, at the lower end of the sloping side-street on which the
shop stood, was long and high. It was made to fit the road and was a
number of sizes