Time flew drearily away. Four days were gone; the fifth came bright and clear. The mortgagee had come for his pay, and the five hundred remained unpaid. With sad and sorrowful hearts the husband and wife sat, when a man drove up to the door and handed the wife a package. She tore it open, and out rolled eight hundred dollars. She handed it to her husband as she said, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” “My dear, how did you come to get such an amount of money?” asked her husband, while the tears stood in his eyes. “My dear,” answered his wife, “I have earned it, when I was not able to do anything else, with my pen, and by God’s help I have been able to help you a little while you were doing all you could.” “God bless you, my noble little wife.” The mortgage was paid, and one little home was made happy; and a happy surprise it was to this noble young farmer to think he had a lovely little helpmate. The End. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Notes The Table of Contents for this eBook was created by the transcriber for the reader's convenience. Except for the places noted below, spelling and grammar has been retained from the original text Pg. 5 - Corrected typo: Missing space inserted: “Warren,the eldest” Pg. 5 - Corrected typo: ‘.’ > ‘,’: “pleasure it afforded. except” Pg. 5 - Corrected typo: Missing ‘s’: “her cousin were” Pg. 5 - Corrected typo: ‘boquet’ > ‘bouquet’ Pg. 5 - Corrected typo: “Her cousin. Nettie” > “Her cousin, Nettie” Pg. 6 - Changed ‘surprized’ > ‘surprised’ to match rest of text Pg. 7 - Corrected typo: ‘boquet’ > ‘bouquet’ Pg. 8 - Corrected typo: ‘your’ > ‘young’: “What a handsome your man” Pg. 9 - Corrected typo: ‘for’ > ‘far’: “wandered for out” Pg. 9 - Corrected typo: ‘.’ > ‘?’: “great act of kindness.” Pg. 11 - Added missing close quote at chapter end Pg. 12 - Removed extra comma: “Why, does mother not tell me” Pg. 13 - Missing ‘.’ inserted at paragraph end: “this little lady” Pg. 13 - Corrected typo: “resolved never to do” > “resolved ever to do” Pg. 14 - Corrected typo: “The depth of love I owe” > “The debt of love I owe” Pg. 15 - Corrected typo: ‘.’ > ‘,’: “in the street. springing” Pg. 16 - Changed Tis > ’Tis to match rest of text Pg. 17 - Corrected typo: ‘boquets’ > ‘bouquets’ Pg. 17 - Corrected typo: ‘boquet’ > ‘bouquet’ Pg. 19 - ‘?’ moved inside quote: “where is cousin”? Pg. 20 - Corrected typo: ‘.’ > ‘,’: “No. no, I can not” Pg. 20 - Corrected typo: single quote to double: “since Monday?’” Pg. 21 - Removed extraneous single quote: “‘As he spoke he” Pg. 22 - Removed extraneous opening quote: ““Warren saw he was” Pg. 22 - Missing double quote inserted at paragraph end: “packing your trunk.” Pg. 30 - Corrected typo: ‘then’ > ‘than’: “sooner then” Pg. 31 - Changed double quotes to single: ““no” for an answer”