It was a matter of great concern to John Bright. Four hundred dollars
was a "mint of money," and he could not see how he should ever be able
to save so much from his daily earnings. So he talked with Squire Lee
about it, who told him that three hundred was all it was worth. John
offered this for it, and after a month's hesitation, Mr. Hardhand
accepted the offer, agreeing to take fifty dollars down and the rest in
semi-annual payments of twenty-five dollars each, until the whole was
paid.

I am thus particular in telling my readers about the bargain, because
this debt which his father contracted was the means of making a man of
Bobby, as will be seen in his subsequent history.

John Bright paid the first fifty dollars; but before the next
instalment became due, the poor man was laid in his cold and silent
grave. A malignant disease carried him off, and the hopes of the
Bright family seemed to be blasted.

Four children were left to the widow. The youngest was only three
years old, and Bobby, the oldest, was nine, when his father died.
Squire Lee, who had always been a good friend of John Bright, told the
widow that she had better go to the poorhouse, and not attempt to
struggle along with such a fearful odds against her. But the widow
nobly refused to become a pauper, and to make paupers of her children,
whom she loved quite as much as though she and they had been born in a
ducal palace. She told the squire that she had two hands, and as long
as she had her health, the town need not trouble itself about her
support.

Squire Lee was filled with surprise and admiration at the noble