"`I've got no relations, Guy, except two,' says he, `an' I've no
childer. I never married. The only girl I ever loved lies under the
cold, cold sod. You know that I'm a poor man, an' the two relations I
spoke of are rich--rich--ay, and they're fond o' money. Mayhap that's
the reason they _are_ rich! Moreover, they know I've got the matter o'
forty pounds or thereabouts, and I know that when I die they'll fight
for it--small though it is, and rich though they be--and my poor fortune
will either go to them or to the lawyers. Now, Guy, this must not be;
so I want you to do me a kindness. I'm too old and frail to go about
matters o' business, an' I never was good at wot they call business in
my best days, so I want you to pay all my debts for me, and bring me the
receipts.'

"`I'll do it, Jeph,' said Guy, `and much more than that, if you'll only
tell me how I can serve you; but you mustn't speak in that sorrowful way
about dying.'

"`Sorrowful!' cries the old man, quite surprised like; `bless your
heart, I'm not sorrowful. Don't the Book say, "It's better to be absent
from the body and present with the Lord?"' (ah, you may grin as you
please, Nick, but I give ye the 'xact words o' the old hypocrite.) `No,
no, Guy,' continued Jeph, `I'll be right glad to go; many a sad yet
pleasant hour have I spent here, but I'm weary now, and would fain go,
if the Lord will. Now, it's my opinion that I've just two weeks to
live--'

"`Jeph!' exclaimed Guy.

"`Don't interrupt me, lad. I've got _two weeks to live_, so I want you
to go and arrange about my funeral. Get a coffin made--I used to be six
feet when I was young, but I dessay I'm shorter now--and get the
undertaker to cast up beforehand wot it'll all come to, and pay him, and
bring me the receipts. Will ye do this, lad?'

"`I will, if you wish it, but--'

"`If I didn't wish it I wouldn't ask it.'

"`Well, Jeph,' said Guy, earnestly, `I _will_ do it.'

"`Thank'ee, lad, thank 'ee. I know'd ye would, so I brought the money
with me. Here it is--forty pounds all told; you'll pay for the things,
and bring me the receipts, and _keep the rest and use it in the service
of God_. I know I can trust you, lad, so that's enough. All I want is
to prevent my small savin's goin' to the winds, or to those as don't
need 'em; _you_ understand how to give it to those as do.'"

"Is that all?" said Rodney Nick, impatiently.

"No that's not all," replied his companion, "thoug