He wanted
my husband to take them all, and said that the land did not yield much;
but if he would keep it all in good order, and the house also, that he
would return to claim it in a few years.
"So the friends made their arrangements together, and said nothing about
interest. My husband said, 'You will want to find every thing as it
should be when you return;' for he meant to put it all in good
condition, and understood the cultivating of land perfectly, which was
thoroughly well known to his friend, who willingly left it all in his
hands. But about one year later the railroad was built, and the little
house had to come down, and the garden was taken too, with the fields,
for the railway went right through them. So my husband got a great deal
more money than they were really worth, and bought a far better piece of
land and a garden, and built a house, all with the money; and the land
produced fully twice what the other had, and we had most abundant
harvests. I often said, 'It does not really belong to us, and we are
living in luxury from the property of another. How I wish that we knew
where he is!' But my husband quieted me, and said, 'I am keeping it all
in order for him, and when he comes it is all his; and as to the profit
that I have laid aside, he must have his share also.'
"Then Silvio was born; and when I discovered that the little fellow was
ill, I kept saying over and over to my husband, 'We are living on
property to which we have no right, and we are punished for it.
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