His fears were realized. The widow's money was swept away, and a sort of paralysis fell upon the country-house and all its surroundings. The carpenters went away from the kiosks, the masons from the face-walls, the smiths from the graperies, the gardeners from the lawns, and everything came to a stand-still. The extra farm-hands were discharged, and much of the work was left unfinished. What was to be done? The mother and daughter wept in secret. Their careers had been interrupted. Desolation was out-of-doors, and desolation was in their hearts. The earth lay in ragged heaps; beams and timbers leaned half erect; barns were party-colored with the old paint and the new, and the shrubbery was bare to the frosts. Joys which had smiled had fled into the far distance, and now looked surly enough; all pleasures were unhorsed, and hope was down. It was under these circumstances that Fields wrote a second time to the honorable board of directors to ask them to pay him better wages. Friday came. There was a meeting, and Fields knew that his case must now be receiving consideration. At eleven o'clock the directors emerged from their parlor, and passed by his desk in twos and threes, chatting and telling watery jokes, as most great men do. "They look as if they had entirely forgotten me," said Fields to himself. Pretty soon the cashier came and placed a letter upon his counter. "Ah!" thought the teller, "I was mistaken. I wonder if I can read it here without changing countenance?" He could but try it. He tore off the envelope. It went thus: "_Mr.----Fields, Paying Teller._ "DEAR SIR: The president and directors, to whom you addressed a request for an increase of salary, must beg to criticise the arguments advanced in your polite note. "They do not understand why you should place a new value upon your honesty because in other people there happens to be sometimes such a thing as dishonesty. It is a popular notion that honesty among men is rare, but the idea is a mistaken one. Honesty of the purest kind, as honesty is usually understood, is very common. They cannot help feeling, also, that you somewhat overestimate the value of your work, which to them seems to be only a higher sort of routine, calling for no intellectual endeavor, and requiring but little more than an ordinary bookkeeper's care for its perfect performance. But for the differences that _do_ exist between your tasks and those of the bookkeeper you will remember you are already compensated by a salary a fourth larger.