aimed, making a
furious gesture with his brawny arm. "The Squire isn't one of your
sot-up men who thinks working-folks are made of different stuff, and
haven't any more souls than a beast. He lives his religion right
straight through the week instead o' keeping it bottled up for Sunday
use, like some long-faced men I could name."

"Jes so," answered Jim, with an approving nod.

"Do you suppose I'd ever cheat him out of the valley of a cent arter
such a lesson as that boy give me? No, not for my right arm. I know when
I'm treated like a man."

"You got a pretty hard hit this morning, then," muttered Jim, glancing
sideways in his companion's face.

"Wall, I deserved it, I'll own up to that. I'd no business to talk such
stuff before the Squire, letting alone the boy. I'll let him do the
swearing in futer, as he's agreed to."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE UNDERPINNING.

"What are you going to the blacksmith's for?" inquired Bertie, as he
took the reins, proud to show his father how well he could drive.

"I'm going to engage him to mend the tools that the men break. It's very
convenient to have a blacksmith so near. In the town where my parents
lived, there was no blacksmith within three miles. My father was obliged
to go all that distance to get his horse shod."

Mr. Hunt, the man they wished to see, had left his shop before they
reached it, and was sitting in an open room at the back of his house
eating his dinner. His red flannel shirt sleeves were rolled up to the
elbow, showing his coarse, sinewy arms; and his hair was all in a
tangle; but the moment Mr. Curtis saw him, he stepped forward, and shook
hands as cordially as if they had been acquainted for years.

"I suppose you want your horse shod, Squire?" the man asked, looking
well pleased at the cordial greeting. "I'll leave my dinner and go right
to the shop with you."

"No, indeed. Sit down; and if your wife will allow me, I'll do my
business here. I see you know me."

"Yes, sir, I've seen you at church; and I'm thankful that a man in your
station has a heart to go there."

"And I listened to you teaching your Sabbath School class," added Mr.
Curtis, laughing. "After that we couldn't be strangers long. You
remember your text, 'If ye love me keep my commandments.' But now to
business! I'm going to build a house and barn; and my men tell me you're
the one to mend all my tools, shoe my horses, a kind of general Jack at
all trades. I want to engage you to