cknowledge; and one of the
first signs of this relapse into fatuity was the resumption of work on
the unfinished house, and the ornamentation of the neglected grounds.

"I will make it such a place as she cannot refuse," he said to himself,
more or less hopefully. "She will have to accept the house and grounds,
with me thrown in. And whatever she is pining for, she _is_ pining,
_that_ I can see. It may be for outdoor air and recreation, and the care
which a husband only can give her. If it be that she can take them along
with me."

Thus it was, that when Chillis brought Willie home from his long visit
to the woods and streams, he saw the workmen busy on the Captain's
house. He heard, too, about the excursion to the cape, and the
inevitable comments upon Rumway's proceedings. But he said nothing about
it to Mrs. Smiley, though he spent the evening in the snug little
parlor, and they talked together of many things personally interesting
to both; especially about Willie's education and profession in life.

"He ought to go to college," said his mother. "I wish him to be a
scholarly man, whatever profession he decides upon afterward. I could
not bear that he should not have a liberal education."

"Yes, Willie must be a gentleman," said Chillis; "for his mother's sake
he must be that."

"But how to provide the means to furnish such an education as he ought
to have, is what puzzles me," continued Mrs. Smiley, pausing in her
needle-work to study that problem more closely, and gazing absently at
the face of her guest. "Will ten years more of school-teaching do it, I
wonder?"

"Ten years o' school-teachin', an' house-work, an' sewin'!" cried he.
"Yes, long before that you will be under the sod o' the grave-yard!
_You_ cannot send the boy to college."

"Who, then?"--smiling at his vehemence.

"_I_ will."

"You, Mr. Chillis? I thought...." She checked herself, fearing to hurt
his pride.

"You thought I was poor, an' so I am, for I never tried to make money.
_I_ don't want money. But there is land belongin' to me out in the
valley--five or six hundred acres--an' land is growin' more valuable
every year. Ten years from now I reckon mine would pay a boy's
schoolin'. So you needn't work yourself to death for that, Mrs. Smiley."

The tears sprang to the gray eyes which were turned upon him with such
eloquent looks. "It is like you," she said, in a broken voice, "and I
have nothing to say."

"You are welcome to my land, W