The following morning a team was driven into the side lane and Elizabeth saw John meet the driver and help him tie his horses. There was the air of a prearranged thing between them, and as they came toward the house it flashed through her mind what had been done. Her whole form straightened instinctively and she grasped her broom rigidly as she left the dining room and went to her own bedroom to get control of herself before she should have to meet the stranger. She realized that the man was the Johnson John had spoken of as having the quarter section of land for sale. She was to be called upon to act. The thing she must do she knew was right; could she make the manner of the doing of it right also? She would not humiliate him if she could help it; she stayed in her room, hoping that he would come to call her himself and then she could warn him when he was alone, but John would not meet her except in the presence of the stranger, and sent Hepsie to call her. There was no help for it, and Elizabeth went as she was bidden--went quietly, and was introduced to the neighbour whom she had never seen. "Mr. Johnson has accepted my proposition, Elizabeth, to give him twenty-five dollars an acre for the quarter next to ours," John said after all were seated. The girl waited quietly. She noticed that John did not mention the terms of payment, and waited for him to commit himself on that point. "Do you know where those blank deeds are? We can make one out while we conclude the details, and then go in to Colebyville to-morrow and have a notary take our signatures," John concluded easily. Elizabeth hesitated visibly, and John had a startled moment, but she went for the blanks at last, as he directed. The two men sat with their heads together, and wrote carefully in the numbers and legal description of the land. "And the party of the first part further agrees that the sum of----" John was reading as he wrote it in. His voice ran on to the close. When the writing was finished the man Johnson rose, and, picking up his straw hat, said: "I guess I'll be hurrying on toward home now. I'll stop in on the way to-morrow morning. You'd just as well ride with me." "Oh, I'll have to take Mrs. Hunter in with me," John replied, "and I can just as well hitch up to my own rig." "What are you taking me in with you for, John?" Elizabeth asked, perfectly quiet on the outside, but aquiver with humiliation and dread because of the thing she was being compelled to do. "To fix up the papers on the west eighty; you know It'll be necessary for you to sign them too." Addressing Mr. Johnson, he added easily: "My wife objects to going into debt, Mr. Johnson, but I felt this too good an opportunity to let pass, and since we can arrange it so that I won't have to raise but a thousand dollars just now, I'm sure She'll see the advisability of the move." Elizabeth considered a second before she began to speak, and then said slowly: