Poor Geron became unconscious again. In a few hours he revived and wanted to know what it all meant. What had happened to him?
His wife implored him to be patient and not to mind until he was well and by coaxing succeeded in getting him quiet again. But memory would return and with it the awful straits they were in, but he said, “I will not sink under this and leave my helpless family alone. Yes, I will be quiet. I have will power to do that much. I will get well, but I must know one thing; have I lost my situation?” Poor Grace only looked the answer she was afraid to put in words.
“I see,” he said, “it is as I feared. The same schemers who sold those stocks to me have taken all else that I have. It was only a part of the scheme to entice me to risk all.”
“Not all, Geron dear, you have the boys, and am I not worth having?”
“Oh, Grace dear, to think that I should have been so foolish.”
For an answer she kissed him and begged him to go to sleep and they would talk it over when he was stronger. When he revived the first thing he said was, “Thank goodness mother’s property is safe and we can live on that and the mortgage does not close for two years. With the boys’ help we can make a living. Will they be willing to go back to farm life?”
They were just at the age when boys who have lived in the city consider it a great hardship to live in a smaller place.
“Yes,” they said, “we will go if you will only get well.”
In a few weeks he was better and then he would say, “To think of being robbed by your friends. Fiends would be a more appropriate name for them.” And to think that Lear had advised him! They raised enough to appease the landlord until he was better and by selling most of their furniture got back to the old home once more. All was so different now. None of the conveniences he had had in the years past belonged to him and all he could do was to work with the tenant and take it on shares. It was a terrible humiliation, but it was better than the uncertainties of the city. The best part of their mother’s home had never been used by the tenants and all the best furniture had been left there, so old Mrs. Vivian could have gone back had she wished, but she had always found it too lonely and had never gone.
For two years at least Geron would have to pay interest on the mortgage, and after that he could not calculate what would be done. He saw no way of paying the principal and though her land was exempt, still it could not be sufficient to supply the family with the present prices that they would make from the farm.