lin' me her trouble.

"Wal, it reelly affected me more to have Miry give up so than most gals,
'cause she'd allers held her head up, and hed sich a sight o' grit and
resolution; but she told me all about it.

"It seems old Black Hoss he wa'n't content with worryin' on her,
and gettin' on her up nights, but he kep' a hectorin' her about Bill
Elderkin, and wantin' on her to promise that she wouldn't hev Bill when
he was dead and gone; and Miry she wouldn't promise, and then the old
man said she shouldn't have a cent from him if she didn't, and so they
had it back and forth. Everybody in town was sayin' what a shame 'twas
that he should sarve her so; for though he hed other children, they was
married and gone, and there wa'n't none of them to do for him but jest
Miry.

"Wal, he hung on till jest as the pinys in the front yard was beginnin'
to blow out, and then he began, to feel he was a goin', and he sent for
Parson Lothrop to know what was to be done about his soul.

"'Wal,' says Parson Lothrop, 'you must settle up all your worldly
affairs; you must be in peace and love with all mankind; and, if you've
wronged anybody, you must make it good to 'em.'

"Old Black Hoss he bounced right over in his bed with his back to the
minister.

"'The devil!' says he: ''twill take all I've got.' And he never spoke
another word, though Parson Lothrop he prayed with him, and did what he
could for him.

"Wal, that night I sot up with him; and he went off 'tween two and three
in the mornin', and I laid him out regular. Of all the racks o' bone
I ever see, I never see a human critter so poor as he was. 'Twa'n't
nothin' but his awful will kep' his soul in his body so long, as it was.

"We had the funeral in the meetin'-house a Sunday; and Parson Lothrop he
preached a sarmon on contentment on the text, 'We brought nothin' into
the world, and it's sartin we can carry nothin' out; and having food and
raiment, let us be therewith content.' Parson Lothrop he got round the
subject about as handsome as he could: he didn't say what a skinflint
old Black Hoss was, but he talked in a gineral way about the vanity o'
worryin' an' scrapin' to heap up riches. Ye see, Parson Lothrop he could
say it all putty easy, too, 'cause since he married a rich wife he never
hed no occasion to worry about temporal matters. Folks allers
preaches better on the vanity o' riches when they's in tol'able easy
circumstances. Ye see, when folks is pestered and worried