to
Gershom, and when he had been there a year no advance had been made in
the way of actual work.

The greater part of the land on the north side of the river, as far up
as Ythan Brae, had always belonged to the Holts. During the past year
the land of Mark Varney, on the south side, had also fallen into their
hands. For poor Mark's wife died, and any hope that his friends were
beginning to have that he might redeem his character was quite lost for
the time. He sold his place, already heavily burdened with debt, to
Jacob Holt; his mother became Mr Maxwell's housekeeper in the new
parsonage, taking her little grandchild with her, and poor Mark went
away--none for a while knew whither.

But the chief thing that concerned the people of Gershom was that Jacob
Holt had got his land, and the conclusion at once arrived at was that at
the point on the river where his pasture and wood-lot met, the new dam
was to be made, and that on his land, and on the land opposite, the new
factories, and the new town that must grow out of them, were to be
built.

"What Jacob ought to do now would be to go right on and make a good
beginning on his own account. If there is ever going to be anything
done in Gershom, that is the spot for it, and the company would have to
come to his terms at last."

So said Gershom folks, wondering that the rich man of the place should
"kind o' hang back" when such a chance of money-making seemed to lie
before him. But Jacob knew several things as yet only surmised by
Gershom folks in general. It was by no means certain after all that the
Gershom Manufacturing Company would come into existence immediately.
And even if it should, the chances were that among its members would be
more than one man who would be little likely to yield himself to the
dictation or even to the direction of Jacob Holt, as his townsmen had
fallen into the way of doing where the outlay of capital was concerned.
It would be easy to make a beginning, but Jacob looked further than a
beginning.

Gershom was not the only place whose inhabitants cherished the ambition
to become a manufacturing community and there were other rivers besides
the Beaver running to waste, which might be made available as a
manufacturing power. A company, with sufficient amount of stock
subscribed and paid for, might agree to put Fosbrooke, or Fairfax, or
Crowsville down as the name, and carry their money, and their influence,
and the chance of acquiring w