the village post office was located in a drug store, and the druggist had plenty of time to attend to the duties of the office, as well as the calls of his regular customers.{52}

hamilton was so healthy a village that it hardly furnished a sufficient demand for drugs and medicines to support a man of the most moderate tastes. but, with the addition of his salary as postmaster, mr. bolus was able to maintain a small family in comfort.

“i suppose you want some pills, andy?” said mr. bolus, as our hero entered the office.

“no, sir,” answered andy. “i hope i shan’t want any of them for a long time to come. louis schick told me there was something in the office for mother.”

“so there is—and a large parcel, too.”

he went into the post-office corner and produced a large, thick parcel, wrapped in a long, yellow envelope.

“here it is, andy,” said mr. bolus. “i hope it’s something valuable.”

andy took the package and looked eagerly at the address.

his mother’s name and address were on the envelope, and it seemed to be postmarked at some town in pennsylvania.

“do you know anybody in the place where the package comes from?” asked the postmaster.

“no,” answered andy. “that is, i don’t—perhaps mother may. it feels like a wallet,” added andy, thoughtfully.{53}

“so it does. i hope, for your mother’s sake, the wallet is full of money.”

“i am afraid there isn’t much chance of that,” replied andy. “well, i’ll go home and carry it to mother.”

andy put the parcel in his inside coat pocket and took the nearest way home.

as he entered the house he did not immediately speak of the parcel, his thoughts being diverted by his mother’s question:

“well, andy, did you see mr. starr?”

“yes, mother, i saw him,” answered andy, soberly.

“well, what does he say?” mrs. gordon inquired, anxiously.

“nothing that’s encouraging. mother, i believe he is one of the meanest men i ever knew.”

“he must know that your father paid that note.”

“of course he knows it. a man doesn’t often forget such a thing as that. at any rate, mr. starr isn’t that kind of man.”

“what did he say when you told him the note had been paid?”

“that, of course, we could show the receipt.”

“it was a cunningly laid plot,” said mrs. gordon, indignantly. “he kept back the note,{54} in the hope that your father would mislay the receipt. perhaps he was even wicked enough to hope that he would be killed, and so clear the way for carrying out his fraudulent scheme.”

“i shouldn’t wonder if it were so, mother. i believe the old man would sell himself for money.”

then, chancing to think of mr. starr’s involuntary ride on one of his own cows, andy began to laugh heartily, considerably to the surprise of his mother.

“i can’t see anything to laugh at, andy,” she said, wonderingly.

“you would have laughed if you had seen what happened while i was talking to mr. starr.”

and andy proceeded to give an account of the scene.

mrs. gordon smiled, but she was too much impressed by the serious position in which they were placed to feel as much amusement as andy.

“i am afraid, andy,” she said, “that mr. starr will deprive us of our furniture, unless something unexpected turns up in our favor.”

this recalled to andy’s mind the packet which he had just brought from the post office.{55}

“that reminds me, mother,” he said, quickly. “i got a letter, or package, from the post office just now, for you. perhaps there is something in it that may help us.”

he drew from his pocket the package and handed it to his mother.

mrs. gordon received it with undisguised amazement.

“erie, pennsylvania,” she read, looking at the postmark. “i don’t know anybody there.”

“open it, mother. here are the scissors.”

mrs. gordon cut the string which helped confine the parcel, and then cut open the envelope.

“it is your father’s wallet, andy,” she said, in a voice of strong emotion, removing the contents.

“father’s wallet? how can it be sent you from erie at this late day?” asked andy, in surprise equal to his mother’s.

“here is a note. perhaps that will tell,” said his mother, drawing from the envelope a folded sheet of note paper. “i will read it.”

the note was as follows:

“dear madam: i have to apologize to you for retaining so long in my possession an article which properly belongs to you, and ought long ago to have been sent to you. before{56} explaining the delay, let me tell you how this wallet came into my possession.

“like your lamented husband, i was a soldier in the late war. we belonged to different regiments and different states, but accident made us acquainted. toward the close of a great battle i found him lying upon the ground, bleeding freely from a terrible wound in the breast. though nearly gone, he recognized me, and he said, as his face brightened:

“ ‘ramsay, i believe i am dying. will you do me a favor?’

“ ‘you have only to ask,’ i said, saddened by the thought that my friend was about to leave me.

“ ‘you’ll find a wallet in my pocket. its contents are important to my family. will you take it and send it to my wife?’

“of course i agreed to do it, and your husband, i have reason to know, died with a burden lifted from his mind in that conviction. but before the action was over i, too, was stricken by one of the enemy’s bullets. my wound was not a dangerous one, but it rendered me incapable of thought or action. i was sent to the hospital, and my personal effects were forwarded to my family.

“well, in course of time i recovered, and, remembering your husband’s commission, i{57} searched for the wallet—but searched in vain. i feared it had been taken by some dishonest person. the war closed and i returned home. i ought to have written to you about the matter, but i feared to excite vain regrets. perhaps i decided wrongly, but i resolved to say nothing about the wallet, since it seemed to be irretrievably lost.

“yesterday, however, in examining an old trunk, i, to my great joy, discovered the long-missing wallet. i have taken the liberty to look into it, but cannot judge whether the contents, apart from the money, are of importance. my duty, however, is plain—to forward you the article at once. i do so, therefore, and beg you to relieve my anxiety by apprising me as soon as you receive it.

“once more let me express my regret that there has been so great a delay, and permit me to subscribe myself your husband’s friend,

“benjamin ramsay.”

it is needless to say that both andy and his mother were deeply interested in a letter which threw light upon the closing scene in the life of one so dear to them.

“andy,” said his mother, “open the wallet. i cannot.”

the sight of it naturally aroused painful recollections in the heart of the bereaved wife.{58} andy was not slow in obeying his mother’s directions.

the first, and most prominent in the list of contents, was a roll of greenbacks. the bills were of various denominations, and they aggregated the sum of forty-five dollars.

“money saved by your poor father from his salary,” said mrs. gordon.

“he will be glad that it has come into our hands, mother.”

“yes; he was always thinking of those he left behind.”

“here are some papers, too, mother,” said andy. “they seem to be receipted bills.”

“i wish,” sighed the widow, “that the receipt from mr. starr might be found among them.”

one by one andy opened the papers, hoping, but not much expecting, that the missing receipt might be found.

“here it is, mother!” he exclaimed at last, triumphantly, flourishing a slip of paper.

“let me see it, andy,” said his mother, hurriedly.

“don’t you see, mother? here is his signature—joshua starr. i wonder what the old rascal will say to that?”

“the lord has listened to my prayer, andy. he has brought us out of our trouble.”{59}

“don’t say anything about it, mother,” said andy. “i want to see how far the old swindler will go. i wonder what he will say when we show him the receipt?”