been borne down by the chorus of feminine rebuke and misunderstanding
of his position. They thought, one and all, that he was wroth because
the shoes were not given to him, and the very pride which forbade him
to wear them constrained him to do so.

However, this morning he had looked at them long, lifted them and
weighed them, turning them this way and that, put them on his feet
and stood contemplating them. He was ashamed to wear his old broken
shoes to call on grand folks, but he was too proud and too honest,
after all, to wear these borrowed ones.

So he stepped along now with an occasional uneasy glance at his feet,
but with independence in his heart. Jerome walked straight down the
road to Squire Eben Merritt's. The cut across the fields would have
been much shorter, for the road made a great curve for nearly half a
mile, but the boy felt that the dignified highway was the only route
for him, bent on such errands, in his best clothes.




Chapter VI


Squire Eben Merritt's house stood behind a file of dark pointed
evergreen trees, which had grown and thickened until the sunlight
never reached the house-front, which showed, in consequence, green
patches of moss and mildew. One entering had, moreover, to turn out,
as it were, for the trees, and take a circuitous route around them to
the right to the front-door path, which was quite slippery with a