'No, Sir.'
'But surely you can guess, Loyd,' interrupted his mother.
'I can hope, mother—and I do.'
'The sooner, my son, you both get over it the better, for there is no kind of a prospect for you.'
'My child,' said the good old man, gently laying his hand on the shoulder of his companion of fifty years, 'trust in Providence; our basket and store have been always full, and why should not our children's be? Loyd now does the business of the post-office; while I live they can share with us, and, when I am gone, it may so be, that the heart of the ruler will be so overruled, that the office will be continued to Loyd.'
Loyd, either anticipating his mother's opposing arguments, or himself impelled irresistibly to the argument of love, disappeared, and the old lady, who, it must be confessed, lived less by faith than her gentle spouse, replied:
'The office continued to Loyd! Who ever heard of old Jackson's heart being overruled to do what he had not a mind to?'
'My dear child!'
'Well, my dear, do hear me out; don't the loaves and fishes all go on one side of the table?'
'Why, we have had our plates filled a pretty while, my dear.'