It was a great chance, but the price was a vast one, being six hundred dollars, and he had no money. Mr. Cadaver loved Joseph, and he could not bear to see this opportunity lost; he looked from Grace’s beseeching eyes to Joseph’s and his heart was touched. He said—

“You shall have the graveyard, my children; take yourselves off, now, and be happy.”

You should have seen Gracie throw her arms around his neck, and pat his cheek and cry for joy.

So Mr. Cadaver mortgaged his house for the six hundred dollars, borrowed the money of old Marlow the skinflint, and the beautiful graveyard was Joseph’s. That was a happy night. We all sat around the fire, Joseph with Gracie’s little hand in his, and all the talk was of how good and sweet was life. Joseph said—

“If we have a good season, I can pay off the debt in six months.”

“That will be a pleasant thing,” said the old man; “and I think the signs are in favor of a good season. It is a very changeable winter, with much wet and much cold.”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Cadaver, “it is just such a winter as the one before Jimmy was born. There was ever so much croup and pneumonia in the spring.”

“I remember it,” said Gracie. “There was ever so much sickness, and very few got well. I remember father’s saying he had never seen business so brisk.”

Mr. Cadaver drew a long sigh. He said: “Those were great days—great days. They don’t often come. However, it is not for us to complain; that would be ungrateful indeed.”

Grace smiled sweetly and said—“Dear old father, to hear him talk, one would think he was afraid somebody might think him capable of being ungrateful. Why father, adversity only brings out your gentleness and patience. Do you remember the time that not one person died in this village during twenty-eight days? Were you downcast? Did you show any bitterness? No—not one angry word escaped your lips. You hardly even betrayed annoyance.”

Mr. Cadaver kissed her cheek lovingly and patted her on the head. He said—

“There—there’s your punishment, little flatterer!”

He beamed on her with fatherly pride, and there was moisture in his eyes. Gracie turned her pretty mouth toward Joseph, and said—

“How can you see me so cruelly punished and not protect me?”

“Because you deserved it, poor child—you deserved double what you got—and there ’tis!”

He kissed the rosy lips, and got a pretty little love-box on his ear for his pains. Everybody laughed, and we all fell to joking and chaffing and had such a good time. By and by Mr. Cadaver took down the old family Bible, put on his spectacles and reverently read a chapter, and then prayed. We always had family worship, morning and evening.

But as I said before, trouble was to come. Business began to grow dull while the winter was still upon us. It steadily slackened. Presently it had so dwindled that there was no trade but in chronic consumptions, and it is hardly worth while to mention that there is never much doing in cases of that sort in little country villages.