id not yearn for the widow. He did not know much
about her, but had very unfavorable impressions. Mrs. Holcroft had not
been given to speaking ill of anyone, but she had always shaken her
head with a peculiar significance when Mrs. Mumpson's name was
mentioned.

The widow had felt it her duty to call and counsel against the sin of
seclusion and being too much absorbed in the affairs of this world.

"You should take an interest in everyone," this self-appointed
evangelist had declared, and in one sense she lived up to her creed.
She permitted no scrap of information about people to escape her, and
was not only versed in all the gossip of Oakville, but also of several
other localities in which she visited.

But Holcroft had little else to deter him from employing her services
beyond an unfavorable impression. She could not be so bad as Bridget
Malony, and he was almost willing to employ her again for the privilege
of remaining on his paternal acres. As to marrying the widow--a slight
shudder passed through his frame at the thought.

Slowly he began, as if almost thinking aloud, "I suppose you are right,
Lemuel Weeks, in what you say about selling the place. The Lord knows
I don't want to leave it. I was born and brought up here, and that
counts with some people. If your wife's cousin is willing to come and
help me make a living, for such wages as I can pay, the arrangement
might be made. But I want to look on it as a business arrangement. I
have quiet ways of my own, and things belonging to the past to think
about, and I've got a right to think about 'em. I aint one of the
marrying kind, and I don't want people to be a-considering such notions
when I don't. I'd be kind and all that to her and her little girl, but
I should want to be left to myself as far as I could be."

"Oh, certainly," said Mr. Weeks, mentally chuckling over the slight
prospect of such immunity, "but you must remember that Mrs. Mumpson
isn't like common help--"

"That's where the trouble will come in," ejaculated the perplexed
farmer, "but there's been trouble enough with the other sort."

"I should say so," Mr. Weeks remarked emphatically. "It would be a pity
if you couldn't get along with such a respectable, conscientious woman
as Mrs. Mumpson, who comes from one of the best families in the
country."

Holcroft removed his hat and passed his hand over his brow wearily as
he said, "Oh, I could get along with anyone who would do the wo