on is providing
well for Til--for his wife and children. Sam, she has suffered a lot
through no fault of her own, and most of that suffering came through
happening to meet me up there at Cranston and that silly boy-and-girl
fancy of--of hers and mine. She deserves an easier time from now on, and
that is why I'd like to know how she and Eperson are financially
situated."

Cavanaugh drew his scraggy brows together. His color deepened to red in
his cheeks. "I wish I could make a good report on that line," he
answered, awkwardly, "but I can't give you the best of news. Joel is not
to blame, though. I'll say that. He simply belongs to the class of men
that come, as he did, from landholders and slave-holders. Such men are
highly honorable, but they simply don't know how to make ends meet."

"Then they are poor, very poor?" John said, grimly.

"Yes, very poor," was the reluctant answer. "I'm not blaming Joel. He
has done the best he could. I've never seen a man work harder. If he had
been stingy and grasping he'd have made better headway, but he is always
doing for others. Old Whaley died insolvent, and Joel took care of the
widow and paid out big doctor's bills trying to save her life, through a
long sick spell, and when she passed away he paid all the funeral
expenses and put up a nice stone over the two graves. He doesn't own any
land of his own, but rents a few acres here and there from year to year.
He has to buy his supplies on credit at a high rate of profit, and is
always up to his eyes in debt. Huh! John, you fellers that can work in a
fine office like this, wear clothes like you've got on, and ride home in
a comfortable car, reading your paper or smoking--I say, such as you
have little notion what an easy berth you have compared to fellers like
Joel Eperson. That is the sort of a thing that shakes my faith in the
Almighty a little mite sometimes, but I don't let it get hold of me. In
any case, Joel is blessed by having the wife he got. She is the most
patient little mother that ever lived. I've never heard her complain. I
did hear her say once, though, when I happened to pass along where she
was at work in the cotton-field and stopped to chat a minute--she told
me that she didn't ever worry about what would happen to her and Joel,
because they could die and be done with it, but she did trouble about
the children. She is so anxious for them to grow up and get an education
and be useful in life, and she doesn't see m