The old face was quite beautiful now.
“Then I will let you,” she said tremulously. “You see, I am a hard-working woman and quite strong, but folks won’t believe that, because I am old; so they won’t hire me to do their work, and they say I should go to the poorhouse. But to old folks there’s nothing like having your own things and your own ways. They get to be a part of you. I was thinking 141 when you rode up that it would kill me not to see the frost on the old poplar, and not to cover up my geraniums on the chill nights.”
Something stirred in David’s heart like pain. He stooped and kissed her gently. Then he rode away, rejoicing that he had worked to this end. Four hours later he rode back to the little home.
“The Judge has paid over the money to Old Skinflint Prickley,” he said blithely, “and the place is all yours. The deacon had compounded the interest, which is against the laws of the state, so here are a few dollars to help tide you over until the Judge gets the pension for you.”
“David,” she said solemnly, “an old woman’s prayers may help you, and some day, when you are a great man, you will do great deeds, but none of them will be as great as that which you have done to-day.”
David rode home with the echo of this benediction in his ears. He had asked the Judge to keep the transaction secret, but of course the Judge told Barnabas, who in turn informed Uncle Larimy. 142
“I told the boy when his ma died,” said Uncle Larimy, “that things go ’skew sometimes, but that the sun would shine. The sun will allers be a-shinin’ fer him when he does such deeds as this.” 143
CHAPTER III
The fare to his college town, his books, and his tuition so depleted David’s capital of one hundred dollars that he hastened to deposit the balance for an emergency. Then he set about to earn his “keep,” as he had done in the country, but there were many students bent on a similar quest and he soon found that the demand for labor was exceeded by the supply.
Before the end of the first week he was able to write home that he had found a nice, quiet lodging in exchange for the care of a furnace in winter and the trimming of a lawn in other seasons, and that he had secured a position as waiter to pay for his meals; also that there was miscellaneous employment to pay for his washing and incidentals.