Quarles' by a half pound, the clergyman's being really a pound and a
half the heavier. The plot would have been a success but for the
keen-eyed Quincy who examined the scales and discovered the
imposition.
Mr. Strout declared it was all a joke and that he was going to own up
when he got ready to do so. This explanation was accepted by some and
scoffed at by others. Naturally, Mr. Strout looked upon Quincy as a
meddler.
"By Godfrey!" he exclaimed to Hiram, "either that Sawyer boy or me
has got to leave town." "When are yer goin'?" asked Hiram, quietly,
but he got no reply.
Miss Dixie Schaffer retired from the stage and settled down. Her
mother-in-law, being an invalid confined to her room, prevented any
interference in her household affairs, and she was free from
suggestions as to what she should give, and what she shouldn't give
her son, who had been named Hugh after her own father.
Many new people had moved into the town. Among the newcomers was a
former detective on the Boston police force named Horace Dana.
Through an injury received in making an important arrest, he had
become a cripple, able to get around only slowly and with crutches.
He was a widower with one daughter, about fifteen years of age, named
Mary.
The young lady was as old in appearance as many girls of eighteen,
and her looks so belied her age, that the village beaux paid court to
her at once.
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