d Fred raised a blood-blister by striking his finger with
the hammer, and Billy ran a huge splinter under his thumb nail.

Then they all went away, and Harold was left alone, for his man had been
obliged to leave, and thus the finishing up devolved upon him. But he
was equal to it. The worst was over, and all that was now required was
hard and constant work if he would accomplish it in time to see Jerrie
graduated, as he greatly wished to do, provided he should have money
enough left for the trip when everything was paid for.

But whoever has repaired an old house needs not to be told that the cost
is always greater than was anticipated, and that there are a thousand
difficulties which beset the unwary workman and hinder his progress. And
Harold found it so. Still he worked bravely on, early and late, taking
no rest except for an hour or so in the afternoon, when he found it a
very pleasant change to walk through the leafy woods, so full of summer
life and beauty, to where Maude waited for him, with her sunny face and
bright smile, which always grew brighter at his coming. How could he
know what was in her mind?--he, who never dreamed it possible that she,
of all other girls, could fall in love with him--'that Hastings chap,
poor as poverty,' as he knew Tom sometimes called him.

That Maude liked him, he was sure; but he supposed it was mostly for the
amusement he afforded her, and for the sake of Jerrie, of whom she was
never tired of talking. Maude's friendship was very sweet to the young
man, who had so few means of enjoyment, and whose life was one of toil
and care. So he went blindly on toward the pitfall in the distance, and
began at last to look forward with a great deal of pleasure to the
readings or talks with Maude, even though he did not find her very
intellectual. She amused and rested him, and that was something to the
tired and overworked man.

The room was finished inside at last, and looked exceedingly cool and
pleasant in its dress of blue and gray, and its two rows of colored
glass in each window; for Harold had carried out Tom's suggestion in
that respect, and by going without a new hat and a pair of pants, which
he needed, had managed to get the glass, which he set himself; for, as
he said to Maude, who assisted him in the matching and arrangement, he
was a kind of jack-at-all-trades. Maude had also helped him to putty up
the nail-holes, and had tried her hand at the painting until it gave her
a s