bles and chickens and
eggs all winter, and she was doing a mighty little in repayment. Her
eyes were full of tears as she said this.

"He who gives to the poor," said she, "lends to the Lord; and I don't
know any place where the Lord's credit has been lower than in Monterey
Centre for the past winter. Now le'me show you where things are, Jacob."

I got all the news of the town from her. Several people had moved in;
but others had gone back east to live with their own or their wives'
folks. Elder Thorndyke, encouraged by the favor of "their two rich men,"
had laid plans for building a church, and she believed their fellowship
would be blessed with greater growth if they had a consecrated building
instead of the hall where the secret societies met. On asking who their
two richest men were she mentioned Governor Wade, of course, and
Mr. Gowdy.

"Mr. Gowdy," she ventured, "is in a very hopeful, frame of mind. He is,
I fervently hope and believe, under conviction of sin. We pray for him
without ceasing. He would be a tower of strength, with his ability and
his wealth, if he should, under God, turn to the right and seek
salvation. If you and he could both come into the fold, Jacob, it would
be a wonderful thing for the elder and me."

"I guess I'd ruther come in alone!" I said.

"You mustn't be uncharitable," said she. "Mr. Gowdy is still hopeful of
getting that property for Virginia Royall. He is working on that all the
time. He came to get her signature to a paper this week. He is a changed
man, Jacob--a changed man."

I can't tell how thunderstruck I was by this bit of news. Somehow, I
could not see Buck Gowdy as a member of the congregation of the
saints--I had seen too much of him lately: and yet, I could not now
remember any of the old hardness he had shown in every action back along
the Ridge Road in 1855. But Virginia must have changed toward him, or
she would not have allowed him to approach her with any kind of paper,
not even a patent of nobility.

But I rallied from my daze and took Grandma Thorndyke to see my live
stock--birds and beasts. I discovered that she had been a farmer's
daughter in New England, and I began to suspect that it relieved her to
drop into New England farm talk, like "I snum!" and "Hooraw's nest." I
never saw a hooraw's nest, but she seemed to think it a very
disorderly place.

"This ain't the last time, Jacob," said she, as she climbed into Jim
Boyd's buggy that Henderson L. had bo