me some trouble and anxiety."

"Then I would not take the money," said Mary Erskine. "I don't like
anxiety. I can bear any thing else better than anxiety."

"However, I don't know any thing about it," continued Mary Erskine,
after a short pause. "You can judge best."

They conversed on the subject some time longer, Albert being quite
at a loss to know what it was best to do. Mary Erskine, for her part,
seemed perfectly willing that he should borrow the money to buy more
stock, as she liked the idea of having more oxen, sheep, and cows. But
she seemed decidedly opposed to using borrowed money to build a new
house, or to buy new furniture. Her head would ache, she said, to lie
on a pillow of feathers that was not paid for.

Albert finally concluded not to borrow the money, and so Mr. Keep lent
it to Mr. Gordon.

Things went on in this way for about three or four years, and then
Albert began to think seriously of building another house. He had
now money enough of his own to build it with. His stock had become so
large that he had not sufficient barn room for his hay, and he did not
wish to build larger barns where he then lived, for in the course of
his clearings he had found a much better place for a house than the
one which they had at first selected. Then his house was beginning to
be too small for his family, for Mary Erskine had, now, two children.
One was an infant, and the other was about two years old. These
children slept in a trundle-bed, which was pushed under the great bed
in the daytime, but still the room became rather crowded. So Albert
determined to build another house.

Mary Erskine was very much interested in this plan. She would like to
live in a handsome house as well as any other lady, only she preferred
to wait until she could have one of her own. Now that that time had
arrived, she was greatly pleased with the prospect of having her
kitchen, her sitting-room, and her bed-room, in three separate rooms,
instead of having them, as heretofore, all in one. Then the barns and
barn-yards, and the pens and sheds for the sheep and cattle, were all
going to be much more convenient than they had been; so that Albert
could take care of a greater amount of stock than before, with the
same labor. The new house, too, was going to be built in a much more
pleasant situation than the old one, and the road from it to the
corner was to be improved, so that they could go in and out with a
wagon. In a word, Mary Er