After God,
my business and my family were my only care. I attended to my
occupation faithfully and quietly as long as I had any to attend to,
but now I haven't any to take care of. O God! it is hard. It will bring
me to the grave."

"You are a land cultivator?"

"Yes, sir."

"Shund intends to have you sold out?"

"Yes; immediately after the election he intends to complete my ruin."

"How much money would you need in order with industry to get along?"

"A great deal of money, a great deal--at least a thousand florins. I
have given him a mortgage for a thousand florins on my house and what
was left to me. A thousand florins would suffice to help me out of
trouble. I might save my little cottage, my two cows, and a field. I
might then plough and sow for other people. I could get along and
subsist honestly. But as I told you, nothing less than a thousand
florins would do; and where am I to get so much money? You see there is
no hope for me, no help for me. I am doomed!"

"The mortgaged property is considerable," said Gerlach. "A house, even
though a small one, moreover, a field, a barn, a garden, all these
together are surely worth a much higher price. Could you not borrow a
thousand florins on it and pay off the usurer?"

"No, sir. Nobody would be willing to lend me that amount of money upon
property mortgaged to a man like Shund. Besides, my little property is
out of town, and who wants to go there? I, for my part, of course, like
no spot as much, for it is the house my father built, and I was born
and brought up there."

The man lapsed into silence, and walked at Seraphin's side like one
weighed down by a heavy load. The delicate sympathy of the young man
enabled him to guess what was passing in the breast of the man under
the load. He knew that Holt was recalling his childhood passed under
the paternal roof; that little spot of home was hallowed for him by
events connected with his mother, his father, his brothers and sisters,
or with other objects more trifling, which, however, remained fresh and
bright in memory, like balmy days of spring.

From this consecrated spot he was to be exiled, driven out with wife
and children, through the inhumanity and despicable cunning of an
usurer. The man heaved a deep sigh, and Gerlach, watching him sidewise,
noticed his lips were compressed, and that large tears rolled down his
weather-browned cheeks. The tender heart of the young man was deeply
affected at this sight,