Year: 1872

up."fy ... ...... ....


Thedinncr seemed very meagre to little
IIetty as she ran over the items in her
mind-potatoes, peas, pork, biscuit, butter,
cucumbers milk and water. She had
wanted to make tea for her visitor, but she
declined decidedly. The poor child said,
apologetically;


"When father and mother were alive we
used to have good many things for dinner,
and Martha, our hired girl, used to get
them all, but when they died, and Squire
John said he bought mortgage on our
farm, and that we had got 20 pay every
cent the day it was due, or lose everything,
we had to do without good many things,
and are very poor now, and Ben is afraid
we can't have enough to pay it, and they
all say we may look for no mercy from
Squire Johns, for he is a very hard man to
the poor, and he has always wanted our
farm, because it joins some of his own land
where he wants to build. heard all about
it when one of the neighbors was talking
with Ben, though he didn't want me to
know about it"


Millic had listened to this with a curious
mixture of feelings, for Squire Johns was
a declared lover of hers, and though she had
not accepted him, she had been both pleas
ed and fattered with his attention but had
certainly given him no encouragement. He
was to receive his final answer in three
days from that time, and she was not sure
the answer reserved and laid away for that
time was "no." True Millie was not in
love with him, but she had waited so long
in vain for that estactic state of feeling she
had read and heard so much about, that
she was quite decided that she was not Ca
pable of love, and that to like any one was
as much as she could expect But she
certainly liked Squire Johns as well if not
better than any one, and his love must
certainly be disinterested, for he could not
know that. But now Millie stopped.
Could he not Might he not have found out
in some way? If this story were true,
would such a man be likely to marry poor
girl? For Millie Warner was really an
heiress in small way. She was sole inher-
itor of fine unencumbered farm from her
father, and five thousand in bank stock.
But the farm was two hundred miles south
of this town, where she was visiting cous-
in and nobody knew of it; and during her
visit she had helped her cousin in her work
as she had always helped her mother when
she was at home-capable, industrious little
girl that she was.


This story agreed with things that she
had heard limited at, and even that the next
moment Das smoothed over, for Squire
Johns was a rich and influential man, and
people could not afford, without som e
reason, to lose his favor. She remembered
it all now. Could he in reality be such n
scOundrel?


She could judge better about the truth of
the story when she had seen Ben.-Who
was Ben? Two or three inquiries had
amounted to nothing. The children spoke
as though everybody knew who Ben was.
Was he an uncle, cousin, hired man or
what? Evidently somebody very old by
the way Hetty spoke Of him. Whoever it
was, what would he think of her instrusion
But she couldn't help what she thought,
and she shrugged her shoulders as she
looked out at the still pouring rain.


''Ilen has tum p echoed the little one,
clapping her hands, rs he came in, bright
and smiling.


AS he came in he caught her up in his
arms and gave her kiss, while she laugh
ed and shouted but his eyes were seeking
the stranger. ...


Hetty said, prettily my brother Ben
Then to him "This lady got caught in
the shower, Ben, and is staying until it
clears up. She has been so kind as to help
me to get dinner, and has made some splen-
did biscuit"


They both stood mute moment, she
with surprise at the real Ben, young, hand
some, and well-bred ; he with admiration,
and a strange new feeling he could not de-
fine. He had hardly bade her welcome,
with return of his self-possession, when
there was a loud rap at the street door.
lIetty went to the door, came back pale, and
whispered to Ben: esquire Johns"


Mile drew quickly back from the half
open door. Ben went in to his visitor,
closing the door after him, but every word
was distinctly heard by Millie, for Squire
Johns did not speak in the low, suayc tone
she was accustomed to hear him, but loud
and peremptory.


" am in haste, young man ! just stop
6ped TO say that the time for the payment