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She is too useful there, and the family is so poor."
"Tell them that both your wages, for the first year, shall go to

them. It'll be my business to rake and scrape the money together
somehow. Say, too, that the housekeeper's place can't be kept for

her--must be filled at once. Push matters like a man, if you mean
to be a complete one, and bring her here, if she carries no more

with her than the clothes on her back!"
During the following days Jacob had time to familiarize his mind

with this startling proposal. He knew his father's stubborn will
too well to suppose that it could be changed; but the inevitable

soon converted itself into the possible and desirable. The sweet
face of Susan as she had stood before him in the wheat-field was

continually present to his eyes, and ere long, he began to place
her, in his thoughts, in the old rooms at home, in the garden,

among the thickets by the brook, and in Ann Pardon's pleasant
parlor. Enough; his father's plan became his own long before the

time was out.
On his second journey everybody seemed to be an old acquaintance

and an intimate friend. It was evening as he approached the
Meadows farm, but the younger children recognized him in the dusk,

and their cry of, "Oh, here's Jacob!" brought out the farmer and
his wife and Susan, with the heartiest of welcomes. They had all

missed him, they said--even the horses and oxen had looked for him,
and they were wondering how they should get the oats harvested

without him.
Jacob looked at Susan as the farmer said this, and her eyes seemed

to answer, "I said nothing, but I knew you would come." Then,
first, he felt sufficient courage for the task before him.

He rose the next morning, before any one was stirring, and waited
until she should come down stairs. The sun had not risen when she

appeared, with a milk-pail in each hand, walking unsuspectingly to
the cow-yard. He waylaid her, took the pails in his hand and said

in nervous haste, "Susan, will you be my wife?"
She stopped as if she had received a sudden blow; then a shy, sweet

consent seemed to run through her heart. "O Jacob!" was all she
could say.

"But you will, Susan?" he urged; and then (neither of them exactly
knew how it happened) all at once his arms were around her, and

they had kissed each other.
"Susan," he said, presently, "I am a poor man--only a farm hand,

and must work for my living. You could look for a better husband."
"I could never find a better than you, Jacob."

"Would you work with me, too, at the same place?"
"You know I am not afraid of work," she answered, "and I could

never want any other lot than yours."
Then he told her the story which his father had prompted. Her face

grew bright and happy as she listened, and he saw how from her very
heart she accepted the humble fortune. Only the thought of her

parents threw a cloud over the new and astonishingvision. Jacob,
however, grew bolder as he saw fulfilment of his hope so near.

They took the pails and seated themselves beside neighbor cows, one
raising objections or misgivings which the other manfully

combated. Jacob's earnestnessunconsciously ran into his hands, as
he discovered when the impatient cow began to snort and kick.

The harvesting of the oats was not commenced that morning. The
children were sent away, and there was a council of four persons

held in the parlor. The result of mutual protestations and much
weeping was, that the farmer and his wife agreed to receive Jacob

as a son-in-law; the offer of the wages was four times refused by
them, and then accepted; and the chance of their being able to live

and labor together was finally decided to be too fortunate to let
slip. When the shock and surprise was over all gradually became

cheerful, and, as the matter was more calmly discussed, the first
conjectured difficulties somehow resolved themselves into trifles.

It was the simplest and quietest wedding,--at home, on an August
morning. Farmer Meadows then drove the bridal pair half-way on

their journey, to the old country tavern, where a fresh conveyance
had been engaged for them. The same evening they reached the farm-

house in the valley, and Jacob's happy mood gave place to an
anxious uncertainty as he remembered the period of deception upon

which Susan was entering. He keenly watched his father's face when
they arrived, and was a little relieved when he saw that his wife

had made a good first impression.
"So, this is my new housekeeper," said the old man. "I hope you

will suit me as well as your husband does."
"I'll do my best, sir," said she; "but you must have patience

with me for a few days, until I know your ways and wishes."
"Mr. Flint," said Sally, "shall I get supper ready?"

Susan looked up in astonishment at hearing the name.
"Yes," the old man remarked, "we both have the same name. The fact

is, Jacob and I are a sort of relations."
Jacob, in spite of his new happiness, continued ill at ease,

although he could not help seeing how his father brightened under
Susan's genial influence, how satisfied he was with her quick,

neat, exact ways and the cheerfulness with which she fulfilled her
duties. At the end of a week, the old man counted out the wages

agreed upon for both, and his delight culminated at the frank
simplicity with which Susan took what she supposed she had fairly

earned.
"Jacob," he whispered when she had left the room, "keep quiet one

more week, and then I'll let her know."
He had scarcely spoken, when Susan burst into the room again,

crying, "Jacob, they are coming, they have come!"
"Who?"

"Father and mother; and we didn't expect them, you know, for a week
yet."

All three went to the door as the visitors made their appearance on
the veranda. Two of the party stood as if thunderstruck, and two

exclamations came together:
"Samuel Flint!"

"Lucy Wheeler!"
There was a moment's silence; then the farmer's wife, with a

visible effort to compose herself, said, "Lucy Meadows, now."
The tears came into Samuel Flint's eyes. "Let us shake hands,

Lucy," he said: "my son has married your daughter."
All but Jacob were freshly startled at these words. The two shook

hands, and then Samuel, turning to Susan's father, said: "And this
is your husband, Lucy. I am glad to make his acquaintance."

"Your father, Jacob!" Susan cried; "what does it all mean?"
Jacob's face grew red, and the old habit of hanging his head nearly

came back upon him. He knew not what to say, and looked wistfully
at his father.

"Come into the house and sit down," said the latter. "I think we
shall all feel better when we have quietly and comfortably talked

the matter over."
They went into the quaint, old-fashionedparlor, which had already

been transformed by Susan's care, so that much of its shabbiness
was hidden. When all were seated, and Samuel Flint perceived that

none of the others knew what to say, he took a resolution which,
for a man of his mood and habit of life, required some courage.

"Three of us here are old people," he began, "and the two young
ones love each other. It was so long ago, Lucy, that it cannot be

laid to my blame if I speak of it now. Your husband, I see, has an
honest heart, and will not misunderstand either of us. The same

thing often turns up in life; it is one of those secrets that
everybody knows, and that everybody talks about except the persons

concerned. When I was a young man, Lucy, I loved you truly, and I
faithfully meant to make you my wife."

"I thought so too, for a while," said she, very calmly.
Farmer Meadows looked at his wife, and no face was ever more

beautiful than his, with that expression of generous pity shining
through it.

"You know how I acted," Samuel Flint continued, "but our children
must also know that I broke off from you without giving any reason.

A woman came between us and made all the mischief. I was
considered rich then, and she wanted to secure my money for her

daughter. I was an innocent and unsuspecting young man, who
believed that everybody else was as good as myself; and the woman

never rested until she had turned me from my first love, and
fastened me for life to another. Little by little I discovered the

truth; I kept the knowledge of the injury to myself; I quickly got
rid of the money which had so cursed me, and brought my wife to

this, the loneliest and dreariest place in the neighborhood, where
I forced upon her a life of poverty. I thought it was a just

revenge, but I was unjust. She really loved me: she was, if not
quite without blame in the matter, ignorant of the worst that had

been done (I learned all that too late), and she never complained,
though the change in me slowly wore out her life. I know now that

I was cruel; but at the same time I punished myself, and was
innocently punishing my son. But to HIM there was one way to

make amends. `I will help him to a wife,' I said, `who will
gladly take poverty with him and for his sake.' I forced him,

against his will, to say that he was a hired hand on this place,
and that Susan must be content to be a hired housekeeper. Now that

I know Susan, I see that this proof might have been left out; but
I guess it has done no harm. The place is not so heavily mortgaged

as people think, and it will be Jacob's after I am gone. And now
forgive me, all of you,--Lucy first, for she has most cause; Jacob

next; and Susan,--that will be easier; and you, Friend Meadows, if
what I have said has been hard for you to hear."

The farmer stood up like a man, took Samuel's hand and his wife's,
and said, in a broken voice: "Lucy, I ask you, too, to forgive

him, and I ask you both to be good friends to each other."
Susan, dissolved in tears, kissed all of them in turn; but the

happiest heart there was Jacob's.
It was now easy for him to confide to his wife the complete story

of his troubles, and to find his growing self-reliance strengthened
by her quick, intelligentsympathy. The Pardons were better

friends than ever, and the fact, which at first created great
astonishment in the neighborhood, that Jacob Flint had really gone

upon a journey and brought home a handsome wife, began to change
the attitude of the people towards him. The old place was no

longer so lonely; the nearest neighbors began to drop in and insist
on return visits. Now that Jacob kept his head up, and they got a

fair view of his face, they discovered that he was not
lacking, after all, in sense or social qualities.

In October, the Whitney place, which had been leased for several
years, was advertised to be sold at public sale. The owner had

gone to the city and become a successful merchant, had outlived his
local attachments, and now took advantage of a rise in real estate

to disburden himself of a property which he could not profitably
control.

Everybody from far and wide attended the sale, and, when Jacob
Flint and his father arrived, everybody said to the former: "Of

course you've come to buy, Jacob." But each man laughed at his own
smartness, and considered the remark original with himself.

Jacob was no longer annoyed. He laughed, too, and answered: "I'm
afraid I can't do that; but I've kept half my word, which is more

than most men do."
"Jake's no fool, after all," was whispered behind him.

The bidding commenced, at first very spirited, and then gradually
slacking off, as the price mounted above the means of the

neighboring farmers. The chief aspirant was a stranger, a well-
dressed man with a lawyer's air, whom nobody knew. After the usual

long pauses and passionate exhortations, the hammer fell, and the
auctioneer, turning to the stranger, asked, "What name?"

"Jacob Flint!"
There was a general cry of surprise. All looked at Jacob, whose

eyes and mouth showed that he was as dumbfoundered as the rest.
The stranger walked coolly through the midst of the crowd to

Samuel Flint, and said, "When shall I have the papers drawn up?"


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