"Oh, it is so long since you have called on us that we have been talking of going up to the village to see you, as soon as Robert can get away from his cornfield. You don't know how little Lucy has grown. You must stop and see her."
"She's coming to see me herself," replied the Doctor, beckoning to a sweet blue-eyed child in the door-way.
The delighted mother caught up her darling and held her before the Doctor.
"Does n't she look like Robert?" she inquired. "His very eyes and forehead! Bless me! here he is now."
A stout, hale young farmer, in a coarse checked frock and broad straw hat, came up from the adjoining field.
"Well, Robert," said the Doctor, "how do matters now stand with you? Well, I hope."
"All right, Doctor. We've paid off the last cent of the mortgage, and the farm is all free and clear. Julia and I have worked hard; but we're none the worse for it."
"You look well and happy, I am sure," said the Doctor. "I don't think you are sorry you took the advice of the old Doctor, after all."
The young wife's head drooped until her lips touched those of her child.
"Sorry!" exclaimed her husband. "Not we! If there's anybody happier than we are within ten miles of us. I don't know them. Doctor, I'll tell you what I said to Julia the night I brought home that mortgage. 'Well,' said I, 'that debt's paid; but there's one debt we can never pay as long as we live.' 'I know it,' says she; 'but Dr. Singletary wants no better reward for his kindness than to see us live happily together, and do for others what he has done for us.'"