Mr. Green had a son who, during his term at college, exhibited talents of so decided a character that his father, after some deliberation, concluded to place him under the care of an eminent lawyer in Boston. In this position he had now been for two years, and was about applying for admission to the bar. As children, Henry Green and Mary Bacon had been to the same school together, and, as children, they were much attached to each other. Their intercourse, as each grew older, was suspended by the absence of Henry at college, and by other circumstances that removed the two families from intimate contact, and they had ceased to think of each other except when some remembrance of the past brought up their images. After paying Mr. Green the amount of money which she had saved from her earnings during the first three months of her factory life, Mary left his house, and was walking along the carriage way leading to the public road, when she saw a young man enter the gate and approach her. Although it was three years since she had met Henry Green, she knew him at a glance, but he did not recognize her, although struck with something familiar in her face as he bowed to her in passing. "Who can that be?" said he to himself, as he walked thoughtfully along. "I have seen her before. Can that be Mary Bacon? If so, how much she has improved!" On meeting his father, the young man asked if he was right in his conjecture about the young person he had just passed, and was answered in the affirmative. "She was only a slender girl when I saw her last. Now, she is a handsome young woman," said Henry. "Yes, Mary has grown up rapidly," replied Mr. Green, evincing no particular interest in the subject of his remark. "How is her father doing now?" asked Henry. "Better than he did a short time ago," was replied "I'm glad to hear that. Does he drink as much as ever?" "No. He has given up that bad habit." "Indeed! Then he must be doing better." "He ran himself down very low," said Mr. Green, "and was about losing every thing, when Mary, like a brave, right-minded girl, stepped forward and saved him." "Mary! How did she do that, father?" "Dyer had a mortgage of three hundred dollars on his farm, and was going to sell him out in mid-winter, when nobody who cared to befriend him had money to spare. On the very day I heard about his trouble, Mary called on me and asked the loan of a sum sufficient to lift the mortgage. "But how could she pay you back that sum?" asked the young man in surprise. "I loaned her the amount she asked," replied Mr. Green, "and she has just paid me the first promised instalment of thirty-seven dollars." "How did she get the money?" "She earned it with her own hands." "Where?" "In Lowell." "You surprise me," said Henry. "And so, to save her father from ruin, she has devoted her young life to toil in a factory?"