low the wisdom of their elders," said the
doctor. He would not even deign to explain to this boy the absurdity
of his scheme.

He replaced the great gold watch in his pocket. "I will be in soon,
and talk over matters with your mother," he said, turning away.

Jerome gave a gasp. He stumbled forward, as if to fall on his knees
at the doctor's feet.

"Oh, sir, don't, don't!" he cried out.

"Don't what?"

"Don't foreclose the mortgage. It will kill mother."

"You don't know what you are talking about," said the doctor, calmly.
"Children should not meddle in matters beyond them. I will settle it
with your mother."

"Mother's sick!" gasped Jerome. The doctor was moving with his
stately strut to the door. Suddenly the boy, in a great outburst of
boldness, flung himself before this great man of his childhood and
arrested his progress. "Oh, sir, tell me," he begged--"tell me what
you're going to do!"

The doctor never knew why he stopped to explain and parley. He was
conscious of no softening towards this boy, who had so repelled him
with his covert rebellion, and had now been guilty of a much greater
offence. An appeal to a goodness which is not in him is to a
sensitive and vain soul a stinging insult. Doctor Prescott could have
administered corporal punishment to this boy, who seemed to him to be
actually poking fun at his dignity, and yet he stopped and answered:

"I am going to take your house into my hands," said Doctor Prescott,
"and your mother can live in it and pay me rent."

"We can't pay rent any better than interest money."

"If you can't pay the rent, I shall be willing to take that wood-lot
of your father's," said Doctor Prescott. "I will talk that over with
your mother."

Jerome looked at him. There was a dreadful expression on his little
boyish face. His very lips were white. "You are goin' to take our
woodland for rents?"

"If you can't pay them, of course. Your mother ought to be glad she
has it to pay with."

"Then we sha'n't have anything."

Doctor Prescott endeavored to move on, but Jerome fairly crowded
himself between him and the door, and stood there, his pale face
almost touching his breast, and his black eyes glaring up at him with
a startling nearness as of fire.

"You are a wicked man," said the boy, "and some day God will punish
you for it."

Then there came a grasp of nervous hands upon his shoulders, like the
clamp of steel, the door was opened before him, and he was pushed