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Sanford got the agency of an insurance company or two and earned a few dollars during the spring. In June things brightened up a little. The money for a note of a thousand dollars fell due–a note he had considered virtually worthless, but the debtor, having had a " streak o’ luck," sent seven hundred and fifty dollars. Sanford at once called a meeting of his creditors, and paid them, pro rata, a thousand dollars. The meeting took place in his wife’s store, and in making the speech Sanford said:

"I tell you, gentlemen, if you’ll only give us a chance, we’ll clear this thing all up–that is, the principal. We can’t–"

"Yes, we can, James. We can pay it all, principal and interest. We owe the interest just as much as the rest. " It was evident that there was to be no letting down while she lived.

The effect of this payment was marked. The general feeling was much more kindly than before. Most of the fellows dropped back into the habit of calling him Jim; but, after all, it was not like the greeting of old, when he was "banker. " Still the gain in confidence found a reflex in him. His shoulders, which had begun to droop a little, lifted, and his eyes brightened.

"We’ll win yet," he began to say.

"She’s a-holdin’ of ‘im right to time," Mrs. Bingham said.

It was shortly after this that he got the agency for a new cash-delivery system, and went on the road with it, traveling in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. He came back after a three weeks’ trip, quite jubilant. "I’ve made a hundred dollars, Nell. I’m all right if this holds out, and I guess it will. "

In the following November, just a year after the failure, they celebrated the day, at her suggestion, by paying interest on the unpaid sums they owed.

"I could pay a little more on the principal," she explained, "but I guess it’ll be better to use it for my stock. I can pay better dividends next year.

"Take y’r time, Mrs. Sanford," Vance said.

Of course she could not escape criticism. There were the usual number of women who noticed that she kept her ‘young uns" in the latest style, when as a matter of fact she sat up nights to make their little things. They also noticed that she retained her house and her furniture.

"If I was in her place, seems to me, I’d turn in some o’ my fine furniture toward my debts," Mrs. Sam Gilbert said spitefully.

She did not even escape calumny. Mrs. Sam Gilbert darkly hinted at certain "goin’s on durin’ his bein’ away. Lit up till after midnight some nights. I c’n see her winder from mine. "

Rose McPhail, one of Mrs. Sanford’s most devoted friends, asked quietly, "Do you sit up all night t’ see?"

"S’posin’ I do!" she snapped. "I can’t sleep with such things goin’ on. "

"If it’ll do you any good, Jane, I’ll say that she’s settin’ up there sewin’ for the children. If you’d keep your nose out o’ other folks’ affairs, and attend better to your own, your house wouldn’t look’ like a pigpen, all’ your children like A-rabs. "

But in spite of a few annoyances of this character Mrs. Sanford found her new life wholesomer and broader than her old life, and the pain of her loss grew less poignant.

VI

One day in spring, in the lazy, odorous hush of the afternoon, the usual number of loafers were standing on the platform, waiting for the train. The sun was going down the slope toward the hills, through a warm April haze.