“You would have to if we insisted upon it, but I have the money here in bills. Give me a release and surrender the mortgage, and you shall have your money.”
It was with a crestfallen look that Squire Sheldon left the farmhouse, though his pockets were full of money.
“It’s all up,” he said to his friend Caldwell in a hollow voice. “They have paid the mortgage.”
After all the railway did cross the farm, and Uncle Cyrus was paid two thousand dollars for the right of way, much to the disappointment of his disinterested friend Lemuel Sheldon, who felt that this sum ought to have gone into his own pocket.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A MINISTER’S GOOD FORTUNE.
“I have another call to make, Rodney,” said Mr. Pettigrew, as they were on their way back to the hotel, “and I want you to go with me.”
“I shall be glad to accompany you anywhere, Mr. Pettigrew.”
“You remember I told you of the old minister whose church I attended as a boy. He has never received but four hundred dollars a year, yet he has managed to rear a family, but has been obliged to use the strictest economy.”