Within a minute she was back again with a business-looking stranger, whom she seated, and then she took her leave again.

Hawkins said to himself, "How can a man ever lose faith?
When the blackest hour comes, Providence always comes with it--ah, this is the very timeliest help that ever poor harried devil had; if this blessed man offers but a thousand I'll embrace him like a brother!" The stranger said: "I am aware that you own 75,000 acres, of land in East Tennessee, and without sacrificing your time, I will come to the point at once.

I am agent of an iron manufacturing company, and they empower me to offer you ten thousand dollars for that land." Hawkins's heart bounded within him.

His whole frame was racked and wrenched with fettered hurrahs.

His first impulse was to shout "Done! and God bless the iron company, too!" But a something flitted through his mind, and his opened lips uttered nothing.