“I won’t do nothing skimpy, however,” said Jonas.

“I’m sure you won’t,” she answered, “but in the matter of monuments ’tis a very good rule to wait till the grave be ready to carry ’em; and by that time the bereaved party have generally settled down to take a sensible view of the situation.”

He nodded, and from that evening he began to see what a fine headpiece Milly had got to her.  In fact she was a very entertaining woman and as time went on and his childer grew to love her, Jonas was a lot puzzled at the thoughts that began to move in his brain.  He turned to work, which is a very present help in trouble, and he did overtime and laboured something tremendous at his bench.  In fact, if he’d belonged to a Trades Union, Jonas would have heard of it to his discredit, for there’s nothing the unions dread more than a man who loves work and does all he knows for the pride of it plus the extra money.  But Jonas was on his own and independent to all but his conscience—­and his master didn’t see no sin in paying him what he was worth.

He’d always been a saver, and his wife had helped him in that respect, but now his money was no more than dust in the corners of his mind, for there weren’t no eye to brighten when he told of a bit more put by and no tongue to applaud and tell him what a model sort of man he was.  He found, however, as he came to know Milly Bassett better, that though his good fortune and prosperity was nothing to her, yet she could praise him for it.  So, little by little, he gave her a peep into his affairs and found she was one of them rare people who can feel quite a bit of honest interest in their neighbour’s good luck, with no after-clap of sourness, because their own ain’t so bright.

’Twas natural the woman should contrast her horseman with Jonas and wish he’d got the same orderly sort of mind; but she had the wit to see that it takes all sorts to make a world, and while William liked money a lot better than earning it, Jonas liked the earning and didn’t set no lustful store on the stuff itself.

Still money’s a power, and there’s no doubt ’twas the hidden power of his purse which presently tempted the carpenter to a most unheard of piece of work.  Never a man less likely to do anything out of the common you might have thought, yet life worked on him and time and chance prompted until that everyday sort of chap was finally lifted up to an amazing deed.

Round about a year after his wife died, the thought came to him and gradually growed till it mastered him and led to a wonderful stroke.  And it showed, if that wanted showing, that you never know what gifts be hid in anybody, or what the simplest man will rise to in the way of craft, given the soil to ripe his wits and the prompting to lift him up.