nd the carpenter's childer yowled their heads off when she went, and
couldn't very easy be made to understand that Milly was only away for a
few weeks and would soon be back to bide with 'em. William tried hard to
get a bit more cash out of Jonas when he heard the glad news; but, though
feeling kindly to heaven above and earth beneath after his wonnerful
triumph, Milly's future husband felt that with his new calls and doing up
his home and buying poultry for his wife--birds being a thing she doted
on--that William must be content. He paid another fifty down and made it
clear that no more must be counted on for six months. And the horseman
said no more at that time, being a good bit occupied with Daisy Newte by
then. For she was walking with him and very near won. And afore Christmas,
he'd got her.

All went well and everybody wished Jonas joy and Milly luck. 'Twas thought
a very reasonable match, for Bird stood high in the public esteem and the
folk had long since felt that Milly might do much better than William. But
they admired her honesty and the way she'd stuck to him and felt she'd
been richly rewarded. In fact Jonas and Milly were a devoted pair and not
a cloud darkened their wedded life for a good few years.

Then came the fatal affair of the bargain, and though pretty easy about
the instalments till he'd got three children of his own, from that time
forth there's no doubt William began to fret Jonas cruel. Because, you
see, the crafty toad had bargained for interest running, and Jonas, not
understanding these things and guessing such matters was always five per
centum and no more, had agreed to pay it. But this is where William got
the better of him, for White went to a friend of his at Dartmouth and
between them they figured up a very clever scheme which caused Jonas a lot
of inconvenience.

They explained to him the wonderful ways of compound interest, and though
he couldn't see 'em, he had to feel 'em, and he found, as time passed,
that far from paying off William's five hundred, do what he might the
money still piled up against him. There was complications, too, for of
course he had no other secret than this from his wife, and Milly read him
like a book, and after they was wed four years, Jo reached a pitch when he
couldn't conceal his anguish. For presently, puzzling over the figures for
the hundredth time, he came to the fearful conclusion that he'd already
paid William over five hundred pounds, and yet,