nloading of
the wagon he was saying to himself: "She's in trouble--something has
gone wrong. She never was knocked out like that before."

On his return he entered at the side-door, and as he was crossing the
yard to reach it he caught sight of her when she thought she was
unobserved. She was pressing her hands to her face, and her whole form
seemed to have wilted. She heard his step and essayed to assume a light
mood of greeting, but it was a poor pretence, at best. She smiled as
she looked up, but it was a cold, bloodless effort.

"I may as well tell you, Alfred, that I'm in trouble," she began,
tremulously, as he sat down near her. "You've always said I had a long
head on me for a girl, but I reckon I can manage just so far, and not a
bit farther. I can plant and sow and gather and reap, and even market
small dribs of things, but I'm a fool in big business matters, and I've
gone and got my foot in it. I'm up to my neck in the mire, and I'm
sinking inch by inch."

"What's wrong, Dixie?" he said, consolingly. "You mustn't let yourself
give up this way. It ain't like you."

"Well, it's about my farm," she said, and she paused to steady her
voice, which seemed to fail her.

"I see," Henley said. "Old Welborne is charging you too high interest.
You ought to shift the mortgage to somebody more human--somebody with at
least a thimbleful of soul. That man is the hardest taskmaster on earth.
He'd skin a flea for its hide and tallow."

"Mortgage? I'm afraid you wouldn't exactly call it a mortgage, Alfred.
Listen; I've just got to tell you about it. You are my friend. I know
you'll tell me the best thing to do, and I'll abide by your advice. When
I bought the farm from Uncle Tom, who, you remember, wanted to sell out
to move to Alabama when the trade was made, I only had a thousand
dollars ready money, and the price was two thousand. Uncle Tom was
anxious to close out and get away, and so he looked about for somebody
that would lend me the balance. Times was awfully hard then, and nobody
had any money on hand but Welborne, and he said he'd let me have it at a
reasonable rate of interest. Somehow Welborne never would get ready to
make out the papers and turn over the money, and Uncle Tom was nearly
out of his head with worry over the delay."

"One of the old dog's tricks!" Henley said, angrily. "I know him through
and through. But go on; go on."

"Well, it was the last day before Uncle Tom was to go that Welborne
final