Squire Floyd lost everything, and narrowly escaped the charge of complicity with Dewey.  Nothing but the fact of their known antagonism for some two or three years, turned the public mind in his favor, and enabled him to show that what appeared collusion, was only, so far as he was concerned, fair business operations.  With the wreck of his fortune he came very near making also a wreck of his good name.  Even as it was, there were some in S——­who thought the Squire had, in some things, gone far beyond the rule of strict integrity.

Judge Bigelow, thanks to the timely and resolute intervention of Mr. Wallingford, stood far away from the crashing wrecks, when the storm swept down in fearful devastation.  It raged around, but did not touch him; for he was safely sheltered, and beyond its reach.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Two years have passed since these disastrous events; and twenty years since the opening of our story.  The causes at work in the beginning, have wrought out their legitimate effects—­the tree has ripened its fruits—­the harvest has been gathered.  The quiet of old times has fallen upon S——.  It was only a week ago that steps were taken to set the long silent mills in motion.  A company, formed in Boston, has purchased the lower mill, and rented from Mr. Wallingford the upper one, which was built on the Allen estate.  Squire Floyd, I learn, is to be the manager here for the company.  I am glad of this.  Poor man!  He was stripped of everything, and has been, for the past two years, in destitute circumstances.  How he has contrived to live, is almost a mystery.  The elegant house which he had built for himself was taken and sold by creditors, with the furniture, plate, and all things pertaining thereto, and, broken-spirited, he retired to a small tenement on the outskirts of the town, where he has since lived.  His unhappy daughter, with her two children, are with him.  Her son, old enough to be put to some business, she has placed in a store, where he is earning enough to pay his board; while she and her daughter take in what sewing they can obtain, in order to lessen, as far as possible, the burden of their maintenance.  Alas for her that the father of those children should be a convicted felon!

I move about through S——­on my round of duties, and daily there comes to me some reminder of the events and changes of twenty years.  I see, here and there, a stranded wreck, and think how proudly the vessel spread her white sails in the wind a few short years gone by, freighted with golden hopes.  But where are those treasures now?  Lost, lost forever in the fathomless sea!

Twenty years ago, and now!  As a man soweth, even so shall he reap.  Spring time loses itself in luxuriant summer, and autumn follows with the sure result.  If the seed has been good, the fruit will be good; but if a man have sown only tares in his fields, he must reap in sorrow and not in joy.  There is no exception to the rule.  A bramble bush can no more bear grapes, than a selfish and evil life can produce happiness.  The one is a natural, and the other a spiritual, impossibility.