“Yes, sir; very well, sir,” said Susan, who was suddenly moved to ask so many questions that she was utterly silent.  But her master looked very happy; there was evidently no disapproval of his wife; and she went on up the stairs, and began to sweep them down, knocking the dust-brush about excitedly, as if she were trying to kill a descending colony of insects.

Tom went out to the stable and mounted his horse, which had been waiting for him to take his customary after-breakfast ride to the post-office, and he galloped down the road in quest of the phaeton.  He saw Mary talking with Jack Towne, who had been an overseer and a valued workman of his father’s.  He was looking much surprised and pleased.

“I wasn’t caring so much about getting work, myself,” he explained; “I’ve got what will carry me and my wife through; but it’ll be better for the young folks about here to work near home.  My nephews are wanting something to do; they were going to Lynn next week.  I don’t say but I should like to be to work in the old place again.  I’ve sort of missed it, since we shut down.”

“I’m sorry I was so long in overtaking you,” said Tom, politely, to his wife.  “Well, Jack, did Mrs. Wilson tell you she’s going to start the mill?  You must give her all the help you can.”

“’Deed I will,” said Mr. Towne, gallantly, without a bit of astonishment.

“I don’t know much about the business yet,” said Mrs. Wilson, who had been a little overcome at Jack Towne’s lingo of the different rooms and machinery, and who felt an overpowering sense of having a great deal before her in the next few weeks.  “By the time the mill is ready, I will be ready, too,” she said, taking heart a little; and Tom, who was quick to understand her moods, could not help laughing, as he rode alongside.  “We want a new barrel of flour, Tom, dear,” she said, by way of punishment for his untimely mirth.

If she lost courage in the long delay, or was disheartened at the steady call for funds, she made no sign; and after a while the mill started up, and her cares were lightened, so that she told Tom that before next pay day she would like to go to Boston for a few days, and go to the theatre, and have a frolic and a rest.  She really looked pale and thin, and she said she never worked so hard in all her life; but nobody knew how happy she was, and she was so glad she had married Tom, for some men would have laughed at it.

“I laughed at it,” said Tom, meekly.  “All is, if I don’t cry by and by, because I am a beggar, I shall be lucky.”  But Mary looked fearlessly serene, and said that there was no danger at present.