irit of his sons.
Greeba also shook her head, but from another cause, for though she
grudged her brothers nothing she knew that her father was fast being
impoverished. Once she hinted as much, but old Adam made light of her
misgivings, saying that if the worst came to the worst he had still
his salary, and what was the good of his money if he might not use
it, and what was the virtue of charity if it must not begin at home?

But the evil was not ended there for the six lumbering men who
objected to work without pay were nothing loth to take pay without
work. Not long after the first of the visits to Government House,
Lague began to be neglected.

Asher lay in the ingle and dozed; Thurstan lay about in the
"Hibernian" and drank; Ross and Stean started a ring of gamecocks,
Jacob formed a nest of private savings, and John developed his taste
for dress and his appetite for gallantries. Mrs. Fairbrother soon
discovered the source of the mischief, and railed at the name of her
husband, who was ruining her boys and bringing herself to beggary.

Thus far had matters gone, during the four years following the death
of Stephen Orry, and then a succession of untoward circumstances
hastened a climax of grave consequence to all the persons concerned
in this history. Two bad seasons had come, one on the end of the
other. The herring fishing had failed, and the potato crop had
suffered a blight. The fisher folk and the poor farming people were
reduced to sore straits. The one class had to throw the meal bag
across their shoulders and go round the houses begging, and the other
class had to compound with their landlords or borrow from their
neighbors.

Where few were rich and many were poor, the places of call for either
class were not numerous. But two houses at least were always open to
those who were in want--Lague and Government House; though their
welcome at the one was very unlike their welcome at the other. Mrs.
Fairbrother relieved their necessities by lending them money on
mortgage on their lands or boats, and her interest was in proportion
to their necessities. They had no choice but accept her terms,
however rigid, and if in due course they could not meet them they had
no resource but to yield up to her their little belongings. In less
than half a year boat after boat, croft after croft, and even farm
after farm had fallen into her hands. She grew rich, and the richer
she grew the more penurious she became. There were no