Horn
insisted that a brief but courteous note should be sent to him, expressing
regret that the desired loan could not be furnished. It did not need the
persuasion of his sister to induce "Cobbler" Horn to decline all dealings
with the importunate inventor; but it was with great difficulty that she
could dissuade him from making substantial promises to the religious
institutions from which he had received appeals.

"I think I shall consult the minister about such cases," he said.

The investigation of the second batch of letters was postponed until the
afternoon.

During the morning, and at intervals throughout the day, others of
"Cobbler" Horn's neighbours came to offer their congratulations, and were
astonished to find him seated on his cobbler's stool, and quietly plying
his accustomed task. To their remonstrances he would reply, "You see this
work is promised; and if I am rich, I must keep my word. And then the
habits of a lifetime are not to be given up in a day. And, to be honest
with you, friends, I am in no haste to make the change. I love my work,
and would as lief be sitting on this stool as anywhere else in the world."

There came some of his poorer customers, who greatly bewailed what they
regarded as his inevitable removal from their midst. They could not
congratulate him as heartily as they desired. They would rather he had
remained the poor, kind-hearted, Christian cobbler whom they had always
known. Many a pair of boots had he mended free of charge for customers who
could ill afford to pay; not a few were the small debts of poor but honest
debtors which he had forgiven; and not seldom had clandestine gifts of
money or food found their way from his hands to one or another of these
regretful congratulators. Perceiving the grief upon the faces of his
friends, "Cobbler" Horn contrived, by means of various hints, to let them
know that he would still be their friend, and to remind them that his
enrichment would conduce to their more effectual help at his hands.

On one point all his visitors were agreed. Great wealth, they said, could
not have come to any one by whom it was more thoroughly deserved, or who
would put it to a better use. "The Lord," affirmed one quaint individual,
"knew what He was about this time, anyhow."

In the afternoon, "Cobbler" Horn and his sister set about the task of
answering the second batch of letters. They were all, with one exception,
of a similar character to those of the fi