um?"

Lindy continued, "Well, I have told you a dozen times that when people
come to see me that you are not to invite them in."

"Wall, I didn't," said Mrs. Putnam. "When he found you wuz out he said
he wanted to see pa and me, and he stayed here more'n an hour."

"Yes," said Lindy, "no doubt you told him all about pa's turning Second
Advent and how much money I had, and you have killed all my chances."

"Well, I guess not," said Mrs. Putnam. "I told him about your brother
leavin' yer all his money, and I guess that won't drive him away."

Lindy continued, "Money don't count with him; they say his father is
worth more than a million dollars."

Mrs. Putnam answered, "Wall, I s'pose there's a dozen or so to divide it
among."

Lindy said, "Did you tell him who you were going to leave your money
to?"

"No, I didn't," replied Mrs. Putnam. "But I did tell him that you
wouldn't get a cent of it."

Lindy sobbed, "I think it is a shame, mother. I like him better than any
young man I have ever met, and now after what you have told me I sha'n't
see him again. I have a good mind to leave you for good and all and go
to Boston to live."

"Wall, you're your own mistress," replied Mrs. Putnam, "and I'm my own
mistress and pa's. Come to think on't, there was one thing I said to him
that might sot him against yer."

"What was that?" demanded Lindy fiercely.

"Wall," said Mrs. Putnam, "he said he was twenty-three, and I sort a
told him incidentally you was twenty-eight. You know yer thirty, and
p'raps he might object to ye on account of yer age."

This was too much for Lindy. She rushed out of the room and up to her
chamber, where she threw herself on her bed in a passion of tears.

"It's too bad," she cried. "I will see him again, I will find some way,
and I'll win him yet, even if I am twenty-eight."

Two days afterwards Hiram told Mandy that he heard down to Hill's
grocery that that city chap had two strings to his bow now. He was
courting the Deacon's daughter, but had been up to see Mr. and Mrs.
Putnam to find out how much money Lindy had in her own right, and to see
if there was any prospect of getting anything out of the old folks.

CHAPTER X.

VILLAGE GOSSIP.

After supper on the day he had been visiting Mr. and Mrs. Putnam, Quincy
went to his room and wrote a long letter to his father, inquiring if he
ever had an uncle by the name of James Sawyer. Before retiring he sat
and thought over the experie