“A little over a year.”
“What was his business?”
“When he was a young man he was employed in a manufactory near Providence, but the confinement injured his health and he learned the carpenter's trade.”
“I shouldn't think there would be much for a carpenter to do in a small village like this.”
“My father managed to make a comfortable living but that was all. At the time he died, he considered that our house was mortgaged for only half its value, but Squire Leech thinks otherwise.”
“Squire Leech wants to get possession of your place. So that was all your father was able to leave you?”
“No, not quite all; there was something else which father seemed to think was worth something, but I am afraid it will never do us any good.”
“What is that?” asked Mr. Cameron.
“He was at work in his leisure for the last two years of his life on an invention.”
“An invention! Of what nature?”