“Ha, ha, ha!” laughed Gray, “I knew you too well, Hannah!  I knew if I had let you know how well off I was, you would never have taken me; your pride would have been up in arms and you would have thought besides as how I was comfortable enough without you, which would have been an idee as I never could have got out of your head!  No, Hannah, I humored your pride, and let you think as how you were marrying of a poor, miserable, desolate old man, as would be apt to die of neglect and privations if you didn’t consent to come and take care of him.  And then I comforted myself with thinking what a pleasant surprise I had in store for you when I should fetch you here.  Enjoy yourself, dear woman! for there isn’t a thing as I have done to this house I didn’t do for your sake!”

“But, Reuben, how is it that you have so much better a house than other men of your station ever have?”

“Well, Hannah, my dear, it is partly accident and partly design in the judge.  You see, this house used to be the mansion of the planters theirselves, until the present master, when he was first married, built the great house back in the woods, and then, ’stead of pulling this one down, he just ’pointed it to be the dwelling of the overseer; for it is the pleasure of the judge to make all his people as comfortable as it is possible for them to be,” answered Reuben.  As he spoke, Phillis placed the last dish upon the table, and they all took their seats and commenced breakfast.

As soon as the meal was over, Ishmael said: 

“Now, Uncle Reuben, if you will give me those farm books you were wanting me to arrange, I will make a commencement.”

“No, you won’t, Ishmael, my lad.  You have worked yourself nearly to death this winter and spring, and now, please the Lord, you shall do no more work for a month.  When I picked you up for dead that day, I promised the Almighty Father to be a father to you; so, Ishmael, you must regard me as such, when I tell you that you are to let the books alone for a whole month longer, until your health is restored.  So just get your hat and come with us; I am going to show your aunt over the place.”

Ishmael smiled and obeyed.  And all three went out together.  And oh! with how much pride Reuben displayed the treasures of her little place to his long-loved Hannah.  He showed her her cows and pigs and sheep; and her turkeys and geese and hens; and her beehives and garden and orchard.

“And this isn’t all, either, Hannah, my dear!  We can have as much as we want for family use, of all the rare fruits and vegetables from the greenhouses and hotbeds up at Tanglewood; and, besides that, we have the freedom of the fisheries and the oyster beds, too; so you see, my dear, you will live like any queen!  Thank the Lord!” said Reuben, reverently raising his hat.

“And oh, Reuben, to think that you should have saved all this happiness for me, poor, faded, unworthy me!” sighed his wife.