“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 went away you were prosperous.”

“Yes, Jefferson, I owned the farm clear, and I had money in the bank, but now the money’s gone and there’s a twelve hundred dollar mortgage on the old place,” and the old man sighed.

“But how did it come about uncle?  You and Aunt Nancy haven’t lived extravagantly, have you?  Aunt Nancy, you haven’t run up a big bill at the milliner’s and dressmaker’s?”

“You was always for jokin’, Jefferson,” said the old lady, smiling faintly; “but that is not the way our losses came.”

“How then?”

“You see I indorsed notes for Sam Sherman over at Canton, and he failed, and I had to pay, then I bought some wild cat minin’ stock on Sam’s recommendation, and that went down to nothin’.  So between the two I lost about three thousand dollars.  I’ve been a fool, Jefferson, and it would have been money in my pocket if I’d had a guardeen.”

“So you mortgaged the place to Squire Sheldon, uncle?”

“Yes; I had to.  I was obliged to meet my notes.”

“But surely the squire will extend the mortgage.”

“No, he won’t.  I’ve asked him.  He says he must call in the money, and so the old place will have to be sold, and Nancy and I must turn out in our old age.”

Again the old man sighed, and tears came into Nancy Hooper’s eyes.

“There’ll be something left, won’t there, Uncle Cyrus?”

“Yes, the place should bring six hundred dollars over and above the mortgage.  That’s little enough, for it’s worth three thousand.”

“So it is, Uncle Cyrus.  But what can you do with six hundred dollars?  It won’t support you and Aunt Nancy?”

“I thought mebbe, Jefferson, I could hire a small house and you could board with us, so that we could still have a home together.”

“I’ll think it over, uncle, if there is no other way.  But are you sure Squire Sheldon won’t give you more time?”

“No, Jefferson.  I surmise he wants the place himself.  There’s talk of a railroad from Sherborn, and that’ll raise the price of land right around here.  It’ll probably go right through the farm just south of the three acre lot.”

“I see, Uncle Cyrus.  You ought to have the benefit of the rise in value.”

“Yes, Jefferson, it would probably rise enough to pay off the mortgage, but its no use thinkin’ of it.  The old farm has got to go.”

“I don’t know about that, Uncle Cyrus.”

“Why, Jefferson, you haven’t money enough to lift the mortgage!” said the old man, with faint hope.

“If I haven’t I may get it for you.  Tell me just how much money is required.”