ce in
living on "under difficulties" might have been the germ of that enormous
strength and power of will for which the man was afterwards so noted.

The professor kept his word with Hannah, and brought her some work. But
the little that he could afford to pay for it was not sufficient to
supply one-fourth of Hannah's necessities.

At last came a day when her provisions were all gone. And Hannah locked
the child up alone in the hut and set off to walk to Baymouth, to try to
get some meal and bacon on credit from the country shop where she had
dealt all her life.

Baymouth was a small port, at the mouth of a small bay making up from
the Chesapeake. It had one church, in charge of the Episcopal minister
who had baptized Nora's child. And it had one large, country store, kept
by a general dealer named Nutt, who had for sale everything to eat,
drink, wear, or wield, from sugar and tea to meat and fish; from linen
cambric to linsey-woolsey; from bonnets and hats to boots and shoes;
from new milk to old whisky; from fresh eggs to stale cheese; and from
needles and thimbles to plows and harrows.

Hannah, as I said, had been in the habit of dealing at this shop all her
life, and paying cash for everything she got. So now, indeed, she might
reasonably ask for a little credit, a little indulgence until she could
procure work. Yet, for all that, she blushed and hesitated at having to
ask the unusual favor. She entered the store and found the dealer alone.
She was glad of that, as she rather shrank from preferring her humble
request before witnesses. Mr. Nutt hurried forward to wait on her.
Hannah explained her wants, and then added:

"If you will please credit me for the things, Mr. Nutt, I will be sure
to pay you the first of the month."

The dealer looked at the customer and then looked down at the counter,
but made no reply.

Hannah, seeing his hesitation, hastened to say that she had been out of
work all the winter and spring, but that she hoped soon to get some
more, when she would be sure to pay her creditor.

"Yes, I know you have lost your employment, poor girl, and I fear that
you will not get it again," said the dealer, with a look of compassion.

"But why, oh! why should I not be allowed to work, when I do my work so
willingly and so well?" exclaimed Hannah, in, despair.

"Well, my dear girl, if you do not know the reason, I cannot be the man
to tell you."

"But if I cannot get work, what shall I do? Oh! wh