He opened the letter quickly, and this was what he read: 

“DEAR ANDY:  I am in trouble.  Next Tuesday the semi-annual interest on Squire Carter’s three thousand dollars falls due, and I have but twenty dollars to meet it.  My crops have not been up to the average.  I have lost my best cow, and somehow everything seems to have gone against me.  I expected to sell ten tons of hay, and have had but seven to spare.  This alone made a difference of sixty dollars.

“I saw the squire yesterday, and told him how I was situated.  I asked him if he would kindly wait for the greater part of the interest, accepting twenty dollars on account.  He at once refused.  ‘I am sorry you have been unlucky, Mr. Grant,’ he said, ’but of course I am not responsible for your misfortune.  The three thousand dollars I lent you I regard strictly as an investment.  Had I supposed the interest would not be paid promptly, I should, of course, have declined to lend.  You will have to meet the interest, or take the consequences.’

“I have tried to borrow the money in the village, but thus far I have been unable to do so.  I may have to sell two of my cows, but that will cripple me, for, as you know, I depend a good deal on selling milk and butter.  Of course this worries me a good deal.  I don’t know why I write to you, for with your small pay it is hardly likely that you can help me.  Still, if you have ten or fifteen dollars to spare, it will aid me.  If your friend, Mr. Gale, were near at hand, perhaps he would advance a little money.  I might get along with selling one cow, in that case.  Two would cripple me.

    “Let me know at once what you can do, that I may make plans.  Your
    mother is as well as usual, except that she is worried.  We both send
    love.

    “Your affectionate father,

    “STERLING GRANT.”

When Andy read this letter he felt, with a thrill of joy, that he had it in his power to relieve his father from anxiety.  He had, with the commission received recently from Mr. Crawford, a hundred and fifty dollars in the bank.  He withdrew eighty dollars of this, and then explaining to Mr. Crawford his reason for it, asked for time for a visit home.

“Certainly, Andy,” said the real estate agent.  “Can I lend you any money?”

“No, sir; I have enough.”

As he could not leave till the next day, he telegraphed his father in this way: 

    “Don’t worry.  I shall reach home to-morrow.  ANDY”

CHAPTER XXVIII.

ANDY’S VISIT HOME.

When Andy stepped on the station platform at Arden, he looked about him to see if any of his friends were in sight.

To his great satisfaction he saw Valentine Burns, who had come to escort an aunt to the cars.

“Where did you drop from, Andy?” he asked, in surprise.