Mr. Beamish never opens his mouth at all now, and mother is fearfully
worried. That's what was the matter when she was here--only she was too
kind to say so."
"Hard lines!"
"Indeed it is. But about us; I'm not surprised to hear trade is dull.
Since I was over in the western township last, no less than six new
General Stores have gone up--I scarcely knew the place. They've all got
big plate-glass windows; and were crowded with people."
"Yes, there's a regular exodus up west. But that doesn't alter the fact,
wife, that I've made a very poor job of storekeeping. I shall leave here
with hardly a penny to my name."
"Yes, but then, Richard," said Polly, and bent over her strip of
needlework, "you were never cut out to be a storekeeper, were you?"
"I was not. And I verily believe, if it hadn't been for that old
sober-sides of a Hempel, I should have come a cropper long ago."
"Yes, and Hempel," said Polly softly; "Hempel's been wanting to leave
for ever so long."
"The dickens he has!" cried Mahony in astonishment. "And me humming and
hawing about giving him notice! What's the matter with him? What's he
had to complain of?"
"Oh, nothing like that. He wants to enter the ministry. A helper's
needed at the Baptist Chapel, and he means to apply for the post. You
see, he's saved a good deal, and thinks he can study to be a minister at
the same time."
"Study for his grave, the fool! So that's it, is it? Well, well! it
saves trouble in the end.
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