? ? ? ? Cyrus Hooper was seventy one, his wife two years younger. During the greater part of their lives they had been well to do, if not prosperous, but now their money was gone, and there was a mortgage on the old home which they could not pay.
? ? ? ? "I don't know whats goin' to become of us, Nancy," said Cyrus Hooper. "We'll have to leave the old home, and when the farm's been sold there won't be much left over and above the mortgage which Louis Sheldon holds."
? ? ? ? "Don't you think the squire will give you a little more time, Cyrus?"
? ? ? ? "No; I saw him yesterday, and he's sot on buyin' in the farm for himself. He reckons it won't fetch more'n eighteen hundred dollars."
? ? ? ? "Thats only six hundred over the mortgage."
? ? ? ? "It isn't that Nancy. There's about a hundred dollars due in interest. We won't get more'n five hundred dollars."
? ? ? ? "Surely, Cyrus, the farm is worth three thousand dollars."
? ? ? ? "So it is, Nancy, but that won't do us any good, as long as no one wants it more'n the squire."
? ? ? ? "I wish Jefferson were at home."
? ? ? ? "What good would it do? I surmise he hasn't made any money.
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