it cannot be done. We resolved, whatever happened,
we would not go back on our word. You had time enough to think it over."

"Just you wait," said Price, when he heard this. "They've three years
more to wade through, and they'll never hold together all that time. It
has a very queer look, too, that, just as soon as they shoved us out,
they began to make money again. Bob Winston's the sort of fellow to look
out for himself, and he had this thing all cut and dried."

"Look here," remarked a listener, "you signed your own selves out.
Nobody made you. I haven't any faith in the scheme, but I like truth for
all that."

The men worked with a will. The monthly club meetings took on a new
interest; and they decided, if the prosperity continued, to open a
co-operative store another year. They were growing more thoughtful and
intelligent, and Gilman's influence upon them was excellent, while his
experiences widened their views. A little fresh blood certainly worked
no harm.

Jack was very cheery again. It seemed to him they had pulled through the
worst. The larger outlook was better: goods were going abroad, and money
or bonds were coming back. Here and there some new enterprise started,
but still there were hundreds of men out of employment. Yerbury showed
various signs of a new thriftiness. The farms about were better managed.
Some idle men had ventured to hire a little ground the past summer, and
raise sufficient to have something over for their trouble. The Webbers
succeeded beautifully. Of course there were slurs about a Dutchman
living on a cabbage a week, but every one knew the Webbers were not that
kind. What Germans were able to do nicely and wisely, Americans might
copy to their profit. When some of the natives were out of work, they
patched up their fences, painted a bit, laid a bad place in the
sidewalk, instead of hanging round a saloon.

As for those who were living through the sad sweet lesson of loving and
losing, time went on with them also. If they could have stayed his hand!
Sylvie recovered from the first shock: she could never suffer quite so
intensely again, for there was one to share her least thought, her most
trivial to her greatest pain. The explanation had come about very
gently, making only a small ripple. Mrs. Lawrence was delighted: she
always had liked Sylvie, and she was certain that Fred was a better
match than Jack Darcy, though she admitted he was remarkable for a
young man with no better