given me by your late
husband to Squire Eben Merritt; there is nothing for you to sign. You
will simply pay the interest money to him, instead of to me."

"You can tear me to pieces, if you want to," said Ann, "but I won't
sign away what little my poor husband left to me and my children, for
you or any other man."

"Look at me," said the doctor.

Ann never stirred her head.

"Look at me."

Ann looked.

"Now," said the doctor, "you listen and you understand. I can't waste
any more time here. Squire Merritt has bought that mortgage which
your husband gave me, and paid me for it in land. You have simply
nothing to do with it, except to understand. Nobody wants you to sign
anything."

Ann looked at him with some faint light of comprehension through her
wild impetus of resistance. "I'd ruther it would stay the way it was
before," said she. "My husband gave you the mortgage. He thought you
were trustworthy. I'd jest as soon pay you interest money as Squire
Merritt."

Then Eliphalet Means spoke dryly, still with that utter patience of
preparation and expectation: "If Doctor Prescott retains this
mortgage he intends to foreclose."

Ann looked at him, and then at Doctor Prescott. She gasped,
"Foreclose!"

Doctor Prescott nodded.

"You mean to foreclose? You mean to take this place away from us?"
Ann cried, shrilly. "You with all you've got, and we a widow and
orphans! And you callin' yourself a good man an' a pillar of the
sanctuary!"

Doctor Prescott's face hardened. "Your husband owed me for a
half-year's interest," he began, calmly.

"My husband didn't owe you any interest money. He paid you in work
and wood."

"That was for medical attendance," proceeded the doctor,
imperturbably. "He owed me half a year's interest. I considered it
best for your interests, as well as mine, to foreclose, and should
have done so had not Squire Merritt taken the matter out of my hands.
I should advise him to a like measure, but he is his own best judge."

"Squire Merritt will not foreclose," said Eliphalet Means; "and he
will be easy about the payments."

"Well," said Ann, with a strange, stony look, "I guess I understand.
I'm satisfied."

Doctor Prescott gathered up his medicine-chest, bade the others a
gruff, ceremonious good-morning, and went out. His sulky had been
drawn up before the gate for some time, and Jake Noyes had been
lounging about the yard.

The lawyer and the Squire lingered, as they had yet the busi