"I can afford to pay that myself, cousin. You are too generous. That is what keeps you poor."

Seth Lawton smiled.

"Oh, I am not so unselfish as you suppose," he said. "I make enough to live comfortably."

"Yes, Cousin Seth, but you ought to be saving up money. You are no longer a young man."

"I should think not, at fifty-five."

"And suppose you get sick, how are you to live?"

"Don't you think Ezra Little would take care of me?"

Scott laughed.

"I am afraid not," he answered; "but you have another relative who would be glad to help you."

"Meaning yourself."