ee, from April to
November is seven months. Yes, it is nearer three years than two. She
will outlive me, though.

'I say, Williams!'

'Yes, sir.'

'Williams, have you heard how Mr. Hill is to-day? I am told he is not
expected to live.'

'No more he wasn't sir; but I met his man this morning, at market, and
he says as how Mr. Hill is very much better, sir, very much better.'

'Humph!

'Williams, who was that young man I saw come to the door this morning?'

'I really couldn't say, sir--I didn't know of any, sir--oh, now I
recollect, sir: it was a messenger from the Doctor, sir, with the new
friction gloves.'

'Humph!--

'You understand, Williams, if _that_ young man ever comes near the
house--you know who I mean--I say, you--you understand what I told you?'

'Oh, yes, sir--certainly, sir.'

'That will do, Williams.--Hill is getting better, is he?' pursues Hiram
to himself. 'Let me see--Hill must be at least four years older than I.
Yes, I recollect perfectly when he was at Joslin's, the time I came down
from Burnsville. Why, I was a mere boy, then, and Hill--Hill was a young
man of five-and-twenty. Yes, I recollect perfectly'--and Hiram smiled,
as if his encounter with Joslin and his clerk was fresh in his mind. 'So
Hill is better to-day,' he continued. 'He will outlive me too. Yet he is
certainly four years older--four years older.'

* * * * *

There may be some of my readers who have taken sufficient interest in
'that scapegrace Hill' to wish to know something about him during these
last thirty years.

I will say, therefore, that when Hiram jilted Emma Tenant, Hill took a
perfect disgust toward him. He presently quit drinking and swearing, and
married a pretty--indeed, a very charming--rosy-cheeked girl, whose only
fault was, as he said, that she was foolish enough to love him. This
girl was the daughter of his landlady, and not worth a penny--in money.
Till Hiram's 'affair' with Emma Tenant, he had exercised sufficient
influence over Hill to prevent his committing himself. That resulted in
Hill's throwing off the yoke, and announcing his independence. Hill was
no fool. The fact is, Hiram, to a certain extent, was in his power. The
parties never quarrelled. But all accounts were closed between them the
following season. I am constrained to add Hill continued in the liquor
business, in which he amassed a pretty large fortune. He was afterward
made President of the Globe B