for
himself. He reckons it won't fetch more'n eighteen hundred dollars."

"Thats only six hundred over the mortgage."

"It isn't that Nancy. There's about a hundred dollars due in interest.
We won't get more'n five hundred dollars."

"Surely, Cyrus, the farm is worth three thousand dollars."

"So it is, Nancy, but that won't do us any good, as long as no one wants
it more'n the squire."

"I wish Jefferson were at home."

"What good would it do? I surmise he hasn't made any money. He never did
have much enterprise, that boy."

"He was allus a good boy, Cyrus."

"That's so, Nancy, but he didn't seem cut out for makin' money. Still
it would do me good to see him. Maybe we might have a home together, and
manage to live."

Just then a neighbor entered.

"Have you heard the news?" she asked.

"No; what is it?"

"Your nephew Jefferson Pettigrew has got back."

"You don't mean so. There, Jefferson, that's one comfort."

"And they say he has brought home five hundred dollars."

"That's more'n I thought he'd bring. Where is he?"

"Over at the tavern. He's brought a young man with him, leastways a boy,
that's got a lot of money."

"The boy?"

"Yes; he's from New York, and is a friend of Jefferson's."

"Well, I'm glad he's back. Why didn't he come here?"

"It's likely he would if the boy wasn't with him."

"Perhaps he heard of my misfortune."

"I hope it'll all come right, Mr. Hooper. My, if there ain't Jefferson
comin' to see you now. I see him through the winder. I guess I'll be
goin'. You'll want to see him alone."

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE BOY CAPITALIST.

"How are you, Uncle Cyrus?" said Jefferson Pettigrew heartily, as he
clasped his uncle's toil worn hand. "And Aunt Nancy, too! It pays me for
coming all the way from Montana just to see you."

"I'm glad to see you, Jefferson," said his uncle. "It seems a long time
since you went away. I hope you've prospered."

"Well, uncle, I've brought myself back well and hearty, and I've got a
few hundred dollars."

"I'm glad to hear it, Jefferson. You're better off than when you went
away."

"Yes, uncle. I couldn't be much worse off. Then I hadn't a cent that I
could call my own. But how are you and Aunt Nancy?"

"We're gettin' old, Jefferson, and misfortune has come to us. Squire
Sheldon has got a mortgage on the farm and it's likely we'll be turned
out. You've come just in time to see it."

"Is it so bad as that, Uncle Cyrus? Why, when I wen