And now the greenhouse was completed, furnished with all the appurtenances that such an establishment requires. Some little changes, too, had been made in the cottage in consideration of the choice spirits who were to occupy it; in short, nothing more could be asked for it in the way of taste and convenience. The deed and the key had been sent as promised, and the Christmas gift had been searched out and found to be no myth, but a joyful reality; two delighted people had pronounced it "cosy," "lovely," "home-like." They were still in wonder and perplexity as to the donor. Mr. Winthrop lay awake nights, going as far back among the families of the city as his memory would travel, to find the name "Hathaway," but could get no clue. He turned over in his mind the names of all his acquaintances whom he knew to be abroad, and surmised it to be this one, and then that one, to whom he was indebted for this princely gift, but could never settle permanently upon any one. As much at home as Mr. Thornton had become in a short time in the household, Mr. Winthrop had never mentioned the matter to him; with true Puritan reticence, he kept his personal affairs, if possible, within his own family. So, as the time drew near for removal, the former could scarcely conceal a smile when Mr. Winthrop, with a touch of his old stateliness in his manner, said that he must make a disclosure that, perhaps, should have been made long ago; that he never liked to sail under false colors, and, while he would not hint that wealth was the sole standard Mr. Thornton set up for his friendships, still he wished him to know that he himself was a poor man, that his home had been taken from him, in fact, he was to leave it in a few days forever, for a small property that "was given to us by some unknown friend, and for which we hourly thank God," he said with moist eyes. "But that is not all," he went on, as if determined to further mortify his remaining pride. "We are to be known hereafter as those who earn their daily bread by the toil of their own hands. I have been among the fools who thought it a disgrace to do so, but I have been rebuked for my foolish pride of birth, and now I lay it down forever; but I wish every one who seeks friendship with us to know the truth." Mr. Thornton heard this speech with kindling eyes, and simply said, as he gave him a warm hand clasp, "Then, sir, you may have fewer friends, but truer. "'The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel.' "May I be so happy as to be one such friend?" "What a thing it would be, eh? To be the father of such a son!" Mr. Winthrop said within himself, as he watched the young man spring lightly down the steps and walk away; and there were tears in the old eyes as he remembered a handsome profligate son who had found an early grave.