g,
and taking hold of all tools by the smooth handle! I hardly think any
hardship in this world as could be put upon you, would be took amiss by
you, Ishmael."

"I am glad you think so well of me, Uncle Reuben; I must try to retain
your good opinion; it was not of myself I wished to speak, however, but
of you. I hope you will learn to keep your own accounts, so as to be
independent of anybody else's assistance. If you would give me a half
an hour's attention every night, I could teach you to do it well in the
course of a few weeks or months."

"Law, Ishmael, that would give you more trouble than keeping the books
yourself."

"I can teach you, and keep the books besides, until you are able to do
it yourself."

"Law, Ishmael, how will you ever find the time to do all that, and keep
school, and read law, and take them long walks besides?"

"Why, Uncle Reuben, I can always find time to do every, duty I
undertake," replied the persevering boy.

"One would think your days were forty-eight hours long, Ishmael, for you
to get through all the work as you undertake."

"But how about the lessons, Uncle Reuben?"

"Oh, Ishmael, I'm too old to larn; it aint worth while now; I'm past
fifty, you know."

"Well, but you are a fine, strong, healthy man, and may live to be
eighty or ninety. Now, if I can teach you in two or three months an art
which will be useful to you every day of your life, for thirty or forty
years, don't you think that it is quite worth while to learn it?"

"Well, Ishmael, you have got a way of putting things as makes people
think they're reasonable, whether or no, and convinces of folks agin'
their will. I think, after all, belike you oughter be a lawyer, if so be
you'd turn a judge and jury round your finger as easy as you turn other
people. I'll e'en larn of you, Ishmael, though it do look rum like for
an old man like me to go to school to a boy like you."

"That is right, Uncle Reuben. You'll be a good accountant yet before the
winter is over," laughed Ishmael.

Christmas came; but it would take too long to tell of the rustic
merry-makings in a neighborhood noted for the festive style in which it
celebrates its Christmas holidays. There were dinner, supper, and
dancing parties in all the cottages during the entire week. Reuben Gray
gave a rustic ball on New Year's evening. And all the country beaus and
belles of his rank in society came and danced at it. And Ishmael, in the
geniality of his nature