e has done for many a suffering and miserable man what in
the first days of his coming to Gershom, Mr Maxwell did for him. He
has followed, and comforted, and brought back to life and hope more than
one or two poor besotted wretches, whom the rising prosperity of Gershom
drew thither in the hope of getting bread. And he has never grown weary
of the work, though sometimes he has had to grieve over ill-success.

It would be going beyond the truth to say that all Gershom was satisfied
when the engagement of Miss Holt and the minister was announced, because
there are some people who are never satisfied. But they whose opinion
they valued most were satisfied. Mrs Fleming and Cousin Betsey had
been hoping for it--almost expecting it all along, and one or two of
Elizabeth's special old-lady friends acknowledged that they had been
praying for such a marriage all the while. As for Katie, it was in her
eyes the only fitting end to the romance which she had guessed at long
ago, and which she had been secretly and silently watching all these
years.

As to whether or not she made a good minister's wife, Elizabeth was
never quite sure. But the minister was content, and so were most of the
people. And even those who were never quite contented with anything,
acknowledged that "she did as well as she knew how," and that would be
high praise for the most of us.

Clifton lived in the old home with them, for his good and their
pleasure, till the time came when he made a home of his own, which,
considering all things, was not so very long a time after all.

Although Jacob's change from the first place to the second both in the
business and in the town was not pleasant to him, it was wholesome. He
had never been equal to the _role_ of the great man of the place, and
after the first feelings of humiliation wore away, and their affairs
began to look prosperous again, the fact that "two heads are better than
one" made itself apparent to him even more clearly than had been the
case in the days when he found his father unable, and his brother
unwilling, to give him help and counsel.

He came to be much better liked by his neighbours than he used to be,
and was really a better man. He had fewer worries and fewer
temptations, and though he was not what might be called "a shining
light" either in the church or in the world, it was the opinion of his
brethren and townsmen that his troubles had been blessed to him, and
that he was gettin