and take out the Pilot back numbers to read over my contributions, I almost burst with pleasure; and it 's not that they are good either, for they look worse to me every time I read them."
"If you would only live with me in some little house when we get older," mused Emma Jane, as with her darning needle poised in air she regarded the opposite wall dreamily, "I would do the house-work and cooking, and copy all your poems and stories, and take them to the post-office, and you need n't do anything but write. It would be perfectly elergant!"
"I 'd like nothing better, if I had n't promised to keep house for John," replied Rebecca.
"He won't have a house for a good many years, will he?"
"No," sighed Rebecca ruefully, flinging herself down by the table and resting her head on her hand. "Not unless we can contrive to pay off that detestable mortgage. The day grows farther off instead of nearer, now that we have n't paid the interest this year."
She pulled a piece of paper towards her, and scribbling idly on it read aloud in a moment or two:—
"Will you pay a little faster?" said the mortgage to the farm;
"I confess I 'm very tired of this place."
"The weariness is mutual," Rebecca Randall cried;
"I would I 'd never gazed upon your face!"
