“Squire Green’s money does him very little good,” said Hiram Walton. “Rich as he is, and poor as I am, I would rather stand in my shoes than his.”
“I should think so,” said his wife. “Money isn’t everything.”
“No; but it is a good deal. I have suffered too much from the want of it to despise it.”
“Well, Hiram,” said Mrs. Walton, “you know that the song says, `There’s a good time coming.’ ”
“I’ve waited for it a long time, wife,” said the farmer, soberly.
“Wait a little longer,” said Mrs. Walton, quoting the refrain of the song.
He smiled faintly.
“Children, it’s time to go to bed,” said Mrs. Walton.
“Mayn’t I sit up a little longer?” pleaded Mary.
“ `Wait a little longer,’ mother,” said Tom laughing, as he quoted his mother’s words against her.
“Ten minutes only, then.”
Before ten minutes were over, there was great and unexpected joy in the little house. Suddenly the outer door opened, and, without the slightest warning to any one, Harry walked in.
“Where did you come from, Harry?” asked Mary.
“Dropped down from the sky,” said Harry, laughing.
“Has the professor been giving exhibitions up there?” asked Tom.
“I’ve discharged the professor,” said Harry, gayly.
“I’m my own man now.”
“And you’ve come home to stay, I hope,” said his mother.
“Not long, mother,” said Harry. “I can only stay a few days.”
“What a bully overcoat you’ve got on!” said Tom.
“The professor gave it to me.”
“Hasn’t he got one for me, too?”
Harry took off his overcoat, and Tom was struck with fresh admiration as he surveyed his brother’s inside suit.
“I guess you spent all your money on clothes,” he said.
“I hope not,” said Mrs. Walton, whom experience had made prudent.
“Not quite all,” said Harry, cheerfully. “How much money do you think I have brought home?”
“Ten dollars,” said Tom.
“Twenty,” said Mary.
“What do you say to fifty dollars?”
“Oh, what a lot of money!” said Mary.
“You have done well, my son,” said Mr. Walton.
“You must have been very economical.”
“I tried to be, father. But I didn’t say fifty dollars was all I had.”
“You haven’t got more?” said his mother, incredulously.
“I’ve got a hundred dollars, mother,” said Harry.
“Here are fifty dollars for you, father. It’ll pay your note to Squire Green, and a little over. Here are thirty dollars, mother, of which you must use ten for yourself, ten for Mary, and ten for Tom. I want you all to have some new clothes, to remember me by.”
“But, Harry, you will have nothing left for yourself.”
“Yes, I shall. I have kept twenty dollars, which will be enough till I can earn some more.”
“I don’t see how you could save so much money, Harry,” said his father.
“It was partly luck, father, and partly hard work. I’ll tell you all about it.”
He sat down before the fire, and they listened to his narrative.
The cloud that Squire Green had brought with him had vanished, and all was sunshine and happiness.
It was agreed that no hint should be given to Squire Green that his note was to be paid. He did not even hear of Harry’s arrival, and was quite unconscious of any change in the circumstances of the family, when he entered the cottage the next evening.
“Well, neighbor,” he said, “I’ve brought along that ‘ere note. I hope you’ve raised the money to pay it.”
“Where do you think I could raise money, squire?” asked Hiram Walton.
“I thought mebbe some of the neighbors would lend it to you.”
“Money isn’t very plenty with any of them, squire, except with you.”
“I calc’late better than they. Hev you got the ten dollars that you agreed to pay ef you couldn’t meet the note?”
“Don’t you think, squire, it’s rather hard on a poor man, to make him forfeit ten dollars because he can’t meet his note?”
“A contrack’s a contrack,” said the squire. “It’s the only way to do business.”
“I think you are taking advantage of me, squire.”
“No, I ain’t. You needn’t hev come to me ef you didn’t want to. I didn’t ask you to buy the cow. I’ll trouble you for that ten dollars, neighbor, as I’m in a hurry.”