up now? Or, worse, might it not be seized under execution?

"Oh, that I had never bought it!" he at length exclaimed, mentally,
in the bitterness of his feelings. And then he half chid himself for
the extorted declaration.

Nearly the whole of the morning was spent in the vain attempt to
borrow the needed sum. But there was no one to lend him four hundred
dollars. At length, in his desperation, he forced himself to apply
for a quarter's advance of salary.

"No doubt," said he, within himself, "that the holder of the note
will take two hundred and fifty dollars on account, and give me time
on the balance."

About the ways and means of living for the next three months, after
absorbing his salary in advance, he did not pause to think. He was
just in that state of mind in which he could say, with feeling,
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Unhappily, his effort
to raise money by this expedient failed. His application was
received coldly, and in a way to mortify him exceedingly.

Half desperate, and half despairing, Brainard started for his home
about one o'clock, his usual hour for dining. What was he to do? He
turned his thoughts to the right and to the left, groping about like
a man in the dark. But no light broke in upon his mental vision.

"It will not do to meet Anna in this way," said he, as he approached
his own door. "I left her with a troubled countenance in the
morning. Now I must force an assumed cheerfulness."