It's all right, though."
"Is it? You are sure? Aunt Thankful, tell me truly: how long a term is
that mortgage?"
"Well, it's--it's only for a year, but--"
"A year? Why, then it will fall due next spring. You can't pay that
mortgage next spring, can you?"
"I don't know's I can, but--but it'll be all right, anyhow. He'll renew
it, if I ask him to, I presume likely."
"Of course he will. He will have to. Auntie, you must go and see him at
once. If you don't I shall."
If there was one point on which Thankful was determined, it was that
Emily should not meet Solomon Cobb. The money-lender had visited the
High Cliff premises but once during the summer and then Miss Howes was
providentially absent.
"No, no!" declared Mrs. Barnes, hastily. "You shan't do any such thing.
The idea! I guess I can 'tend to borrowin' money from my own relation
without draggin' other folks into it. I'll drive over and see him pretty
soon."
"You must go at once. I shan't permit you to wait another week. It is
almost time for me to go back to my schoolwork, and I shan't go until
I am certain that mortgage is to be renewed and that your financial
affairs are all right. Do go, Auntie, please. Arrange to have the
mortgage renewed and try to get another loan. Promise me you will go
tomorrow."
So Thankful was obliged to promise, and the following morning she drove
George Washington over the long road, now wet and soggy from the rain,
to Trumet.
Mr. Solomon Cobb's "henhouse" looked quite as dingy and dirty as when
she visited it before.
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