, if thrown into the market, over
one thousand dollars. Uncle Job had at one time about a hundred dollars
in the savings bank in a neighboring town--a fund to draw from in an
emergency--and this money with his plain home constituted his entire
wealth.

Eleven hundred dollars all told! It was not a very brilliant result for
forty years' labor, beginning with the days of his boyhood; but Job
Stanton was not ambitious, and he actually felt well-to-do. He earned
enough to supply the simple wants of his family, and had something over,
and this satisfied him.

But one day a strong temptation came to Job Stanton, and he yielded to
it.

A trader came riding over from a neighboring town and called on Uncle
Job. The good man thought he had come to order a new pair of shoes, and
felt flattered that such a dashing man should have gone so far out of
his way to patronize him.

"I'm glad to see you, Mr. Richmond," he said. "Won't you set down?"

He should have said _sit_, but Job Stanton's educational advantages had
been very limited.

"I don't care if I do. Snug place you've got here, Mr. Stanton."

"It's very plain and humble, but it's home, and I set by it," answered
Job, who was busily engaged in tapping a shoe belonging to Eliphalet
Nourza, a farm-laborer.

"I've come over to see you on a little business, Mr. Stanton," said the
trader, affably.

"Jest so!" returned Uncle Job cheerfully, glancing over his spectacles
at the trader's shoes to see if they looked much worn. "Want a pair of
new shoes, I reckon?"

"I shall need a new pair soon," said Richmond, "but that isn't exactly
what I meant."

It flashed across Job Stanton's mind that his visitor might be going to
make him an offer for the old place, but he felt that he could not bear
to part with it. He had lived there ever since he was married,
thirty-five years ago, and there Jennie, the child of his old age, had
been born.

But the trader's next sentence relieved him of this thought.

"The fact is, Uncle Job," proceeded the trader, adopting the title by
which the shoemaker was generally known in Hampton, "I've got a favor to
ask of you."

"'A favor to ask of me'?" repeated Job, looking up with some surprise at
the well-dressed merchant, who seemed by his presence to honor the
homely little shop.

"Yes," continued Richmond, with gravity; "I want you to indorse my note
for five hundred dollars."

"What made you come to me?" asked Job Stanton in surprise. "