e as that. It was all run down when Richard
come into possession of it, but now it's one o' the finest places in
the whole state. That's the way it is with families: one generation'll
tear down and another generation'll build up. Richard's buildin' up
all that his father tore down, and I'm in hopes his work'll last for
many a day."

Aunt Jane's voice ceased, and there was a long silence. The full
harvest of the story-telling was over; but sometimes there was an
aftermath to Aunt Jane's tale, and for this I waited. I looked at the
field opposite where the long, verdant rows gave promise of the autumn
reaping, and my thoughts were busy tracing backward every link in the
chain of circumstance that stretched between Milly Baker's boy of
forty years ago and the handsome, prosperous man I had seen that
morning. Ah, a goodly tale and a goodly ending! Aunt Jane spoke at
last, and her words were an echo of my thought.

"There's lots of satisfactory things in this world, child," she said,
beaming at me over her spectacles with the smile of the optimist who
is born, not made. "There's a satisfaction in roundin' off the toe of
a stockin', like I'm doin' now, and knowin' that your work's goin' to
keep somebody's feet warm next winter. There's a satisfaction in
bakin' a nice, light batch o' bread for the children to eat up.
There's a satisfaction in settin' on the porch in the cool o' the
evenin' and thinkin' o' the good day's work behind you, and another
good day that's comin' to-morrow. This world ain't a vale o' tears
unless you make it so on purpose. But of all the satisfactions I ever
experienced, the most satisfyin' is to see people git their just
deserts right here in this world. I don't blame David for bein' out o'
patience when he saw the wicked flourishin' like a green bay tree.

"I never was any hand for puttin' things off, whether it's work or
punishment; and I've never got my own consent to this way o' skeerin'
people with a hell and wheedlin' 'em with a heaven way off yonder in
the next world. I ain't as old as Methuselah, but I've lived long
enough to find out a few things; and one of 'em is that if people
don't die before their time, they'll git their heaven and their hell
right here in this world. And whenever I feel like doubtin' the
justice o' the Lord, I think o' Milly Baker's boy, and how he got
everything that belonged to him, and he didn't have to die and go to
heaven to git it either."

"'Though the m