"There, old friend, what do you say to that?" asked John Hardy, triumphantly. "Didn't I tell you the boy would succeed? Was my confidence misplaced?"
"He had my confidence from the first," said Anthony, his face luminous with happiness, "but I knew he had an adroit enemy in my nephew Lyman. I didn't dare to expect that a country boy would be equal to the emergency."
"Now, you can go home with a light heart. In a day or two, your grandson will be with you. What are your plans respecting him? Shall you take him to Pocasset?"
"I don't think I can do better. He will need a woman's care, and I know of no one who will prove kinder than Mrs. Manning."
"She has this in her favor at any rate. She has brought up her own boy well. But will the house be large or comfortable enough?"
"I am not very particular for myself. You will judge that when you remember the cabin in the woods, where I spent several years. The house is small, however, but there is another vacant, much larger and handsomer, which I can buy or rent, already furnished. The owner and occupant died recently, and his heirs, living in a distant state, want to sell it. It has a handsome lawn and a garden attached. It stands near the house of Mr. Collins."
"Well, you are able to gratify your own taste in the matter. I will send Mark down as soon as he arrives."
When Anthony reached home, he found Mrs. Manning anxious and perturbed. The cause will require some explanation.
The small cottage in which Mark and his mother lived did not belong to them. They rented it from Deacon Brooks, an old farmer living just out of the village, at five-dollars monthly rental. For a special reason Squire Collins desired to possess it. He owned the lot adjoining, and it occurred to him that the two combined would make a desirable property. The house, which was a cottage, could be raised one story, and made much more commodious. In that case, it would easily command more than twice the rent. The foreman of the shoe-shop stood prepared to rent it of him, as soon as the alteration was made.
He therefore approached Deacon Brooks, with a proposition to purchase it.