CHAPTER IV.
SALVAGE Another and greater enterprise was diverting Mr.Gwynne's attention from the delinquencies of his debtors, namely: the entrance of the National Machine Company into the remote and placid life of Mapleton and its district.

The manager of this company, having spent an afternoon with Mr.Gwynne in his store and having been impressed by his charm and power of persuasive talk, made him a proposition that he should act as agent of the National Machine Company.

The arrangement suggested was one that appealed to Mr.Gwynne's highly optimistic temperament.

He was not to work for a mere salary, but was to purchase outright the various productions of the National Machine Company and receive a commission upon all his sales.

The figures placed before Mr.Gwynne by the manager of the company were sufficiently impressive, indeed so impressive that Mr.Gwynne at once accepted the proposition, and the Mapleton branch of the National Machine Company became an established fact.
There was no longer any question as to the education of his family.