"With forty thousand dollars I could weather the storm handsomely," replied Mr. Little.
"You shall have it, if you will secure me well."
"Have you got forty thousand dollars? I thought you a poor man."
"It isn't the only mistake you have made, Cousin Ezra. At the time you looked down upon me I was richer than yourself. But I will only help you on conditions."
"I will agree to any conditions," said Ezra, his pride humbled. "Only help me out of my present trouble."
So the house of Ezra Little was saved, and its head received a lesson. His pride had had a fall. Those whom he looked down upon proved to surpass him in the only thing on which he prided himself—the possession of money.
One of Cousin Seth's conditions was that Loammi should go into his father's store, and exchange his elegant leisure for honest work. He complained a good deal, but Seth Lawton and his father insisted. He may in time become a useful, hard-working man of business, but he has a good deal to learn first.
Scott continues to prosper, and next year will become a partner in the firm of Tower, Douglas & Co. Harold is earning a good salary now, and his father's troubles are over. He gets more remunerative work at his profession, and, with his family, occupies a pleasant home in Bayonne.
Mr. Lawton has leased a handsome house uptown, and Scott lives with him. He is rich—how rich no one knows—and Scott is generally supposed to be his heir.