ng up the trade at the store. The collecting was not so
difficult as she had expected. The Captain and Mr. Hamilton had been
reluctant to ask their friends and neighbors to be prompt in their
payments, and largely through carelessness accounts had been permitted
to drop behind. Mary personally saw the debtors and in most cases, by
offering slight discounts or by accepting installments, she was able
to obtain at least the greater part of the money due. In some cases she
could obtain nothing and expected nothing, but these cases, among them
that of 'Rastus Young, were rather to be considered in the light of good
riddance even at the price. As Shadrach said, it was worth a few dollars
not to have to listen to 'Rastus or Mrs. 'Rastus cry over their troubles
whenever they wanted to hold up the firm for more plunder.

"Last time 'Rastus was in to buy anything," declared the Captain, "he
shed so blamed many tears into my rubber boots that I got wet feet and
sent the boots to the cobbler's to have 'em plugged. I cal'lated they
leaked; I didn't realize 'twas Rat workin' me out of four dollars worth
of groceries by water power."

The collections, then, those from Mr. Young and his ilk excepted, were
satisfactory. Mary was enabled to buy and pay for a modest assortment of
summer supplies, those she had selected while in Boston. The store she
had thoroughly cleaned and renovated. The windows were kept filled with
attractive displays of goods, and the prices of these goods, as set
forth upon tickets, were attractive also. Business began to pick up, not
a great deal at first, but a little, and as May brought the first of
the early-bird summer cottagers to South Harniss, the silent partner
of Hamilton and Company awaited the coming of what should be the firm's
busiest season with hope and some confidence.

CHAPTER XXI

During all this time she had heard from Crawford at least once a week.
He would have written oftener than that, had she permitted it. And in
spite of her determination so bravely expressed in their interview over
the telephone, she had written him more than the one letter she had
promised. In that letter--her first--she told him the exact situation
there at home; of her discovery that her uncles were in trouble, that
the small, but to them precious, business they had conducted so long
was in danger, and of her determination to give up school and remain at
South Harniss where, she knew, she was needed. Then sh