At a table in the middle of Uncle Enos's north front room were seated the two lawyers, whose legal opinion was that evening to be fully made up. The younger of these, 'Squire Moseley, was a rosy, portly, laughing little bachelor, who boasted that he had offered himself, in rotation, to every pretty girl within twenty miles round, and, among others, to Susan Jones, notwithstanding which he still remained a bachelor, with a fair prospect of being an old one; but none of these things disturbed the boundless flow of good nature and complacency with which he seemed at all times full to overflowing. On the present occasion he appeared to be particularly in his element, as if he had some law business in hand remarkably suited to his turn of mind; for, on finishing the inspection of the papers, he started up, slapped his graver brother on the back, made two or three flourishes round the room, and then seizing the old deacon's hand, shook it violently, exclaiming,-- "All's right, deacon, all's right! Go it! go it! hurrah!" When Uncle Jaw entered, the deacon, without preface, handed him a chair and the papers, saying,-- "These papers are what you wanted to see. I just wish you would read them over." Uncle Jaw read them deliberately over. "Didn't I tell ye so, deacon? The case is as clear as a bell: now ye will go to law, won't you?" "Look here, Mr. Adams; now you have seen these papers, and heard what's to be said, I'll make you an offer. Let your son marry Susan Jones, and I'll burn these papers and say no more about it, and there won't be a girl in the parish with a finer portion." Uncle Jaw opened his eyes with amazement, and looked at the old man, his mouth gradually expanding wider and wider, as if he hoped, in time, to swallow the idea. "Well, now, I swan!" at length he ejaculated. "I mean just as I say," said the deacon. "Why, that's the same as giving the gal five hundred dollars out of your own pocket, and she ain't no relation neither." "I know it," said the deacon; "but I have said I will do it." "What upon 'arth for?" said Uncle Jaw. "To make peace," said the deacon, "and to let you know that when I say it is better to give up one's rights than to quarrel, I mean so. I am an old man; my children are dead"--his voice faltered--"my treasures are laid up in heaven; if I can make the children happy, why, I will. When I thought I had lost the land, I made up my mind to lose it, and so I can now." Uncle Jaw looked fixedly on the old deacon, and said,-- "Well, deacon, I believe you. I vow, if you hain't got something ahead in t'other world, I'd like to know who has--that's all; so, if Joe has no objections, and I rather guess he won't have----"