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Jacob drove away grumblingly. On the road he met Timothy Robinson and stopped to relate his grievances.

* * * * *

It must be admitted that there were times during the next month when Ellis was tempted to repent having refused Jacob Green’s offer. But at the end of the month the work was done and the Fillmore elderberry pasture was an elderberry pasture no longer. All that remained of the elders, root and branch, was piled into a huge heap ready for burning.

“And I’ll come up and set fire to it when it’s dry enough,” Ellis told Mr. Fillmore. “I claim the satisfaction of that.”

“You’ve done the job thoroughly,” said Old Thomas. “There’s your sixteen dollars, and every cent of it was earned, if ever money was, I’ll say that much for you. There ain’t a lazy bone in your body. If you ever want a recommendation just you come to me.”

As Ellis passed Timothy Robinson’s place on the way home that worthy himself appeared, strolling down his lane. “Ah, Ellis,” he said, speaking to his nephew for the first time since their interview two months before, “so you’ve finished with your job?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Got your sixteen dollars, I suppose? It was worth four times that. Old Tom cheated you. You were foolish not to have gone to Green when you had the chance.”

“I’d promised Mr. Fillmore to finish with his pasture, sir!”

“Humph! Well, what are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know. Harvest will be on next week. I may get in somewhere as an extra hand for a spell.”

“Ellis,” said his uncle abruptly, after a moment’s silence, “I’m going to discharge my man. He’s no earthly good. Will you take his place? I’ll give you fifteen dollars a month and found.”

Ellis stared at Timothy Robinson. “I thought you told me that you had no place for my father’s son,” he said slowly.

“I’ve changed my mind. I’ve seen how you went at that elderberry job. Great snakes, there couldn’t be a better test for anybody than rooting out them things. I know you can work. When Jacob Green told me why you’d refused his offer I knew you could be depended on. You come to me and I’ll do well by you. I’ve no kith or kin of my own except you. And look here, Ellis. I’m tired of hired housekeepers. Will your mother come up and live with us and look after things a bit? I’ve a good girl, and she won’t have to work hard, but there must be somebody at the head of a household. She must have a good headpiece–for you have inherited good qualities from someone, and goodness knows it wasn’t from your father.”

“Uncle Timothy,” said Ellis respectfully but firmly, “I’ll accept your offer gratefully, and I am sure Mother will too. But there is one thing I must say. Perhaps my father deserves all you say of him–but he is dead–and if I come to you it must be with the understanding that nothing more is ever to be said against him.”

Timothy Robinson smiled–a queer, twisted smile that yet had a hint of affection and comprehension in it. “Very well,” he said. “I’ll never cast his shortcomings up to you again. Come to me–and if I find you always as industrious and reliable as you’ve proved yourself to be negotiating them elders, I’ll most likely forget that you ain’t my own son some of these days.”