And now
forgive me, all of you,--Lucy first, for she has most cause; Jacob
next; and Susan,--that will be easier; and you, Friend Meadows, if
what I have said has been hard for you to hear."
The farmer stood up like a man, took Samuel's hand and his wife's,
and said, in a broken voice: "Lucy, I ask you, too, to forgive
him, and I ask you both to be good friends to each other."
Susan, dissolved in tears, kissed all of them in turn; but the
happiest heart there was Jacob's.
It was now easy for him to confide to his wife the complete story
of his troubles, and to find his growing self-reliance strengthened
by her quick, intelligent sympathy. The Pardons were better
friends than ever, and the fact, which at first created great
astonishment in the neighborhood, that Jacob Flint had really gone
upon a journey and brought home a handsome wife, began to change
the attitude of the people towards him. The old place was no
longer so lonely; the nearest neighbors began to drop in and insist
on return visits. Now that Jacob kept his head up, and they got a
fair view of his face, they discovered that he was not
lacking, after all, in sense or social qualities.
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