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Updated: May 20, 2025
At length there came a time when most men would have despaired. Love is warm, but what warmth is proof against the chilling blasts and pelting rains of the equinoctial storm? But then it was that the fervor of little Guzzy's soul showed itself; for, wrapped in the folds of a waterproof overcoat, he paced his accustomed beat with the calmness of a faithful policeman. And he had his reward.
Next to small scandal, finance was the favorite burden of conversation at Bowerton, so the source of Guzzy's sudden prosperity was so industriously sought and surmised that the gossips were soon at needles' points about it. Then it was suddenly noised abroad that Mrs. Baggs, Sr., who knew everybody, had given Guzzy a letter of introduction to the Governor of the State.
The squire was startled into complete wakefulness, and as the moral aspect of the scene presented itself to him, he groaned: "Onequally yoked with an onbeliever." The officers looked as if they were depraved yet remorseful convicts themselves, while little Guzzy's diminutive dimensions seemed to contract perceptibly.
The Bowertonians were law-abiding people; but, somehow, Guzzy's customers increased from that very day, and his prosperity did not decline even after "Guzzy & Beigh" was the sign over the door of the store which had been built and stocked with Mrs. Wyett's money. Happy Rest is a village whose name has never appeared in gazetteer or census report.
Many a night, when Guzzy's soul and body should have been taking their rest, they roamed in company up and down the quiet street on which the Wyetts' cottage was located, and Guzzy's eyes, instead of being fixed on sweet pictures in dreamland, gazed vigilantly in the direction of Mrs. Wyett's gate.
Though Guzzy's frame was small, his soul was immense, and Helen's failure to comprehend Guzzy's greatness when he laid it all at her feet had made Guzzy extremely bilious and gloomy.
Perhaps she would burst into tears in the court-room, and thank him effusively and publicly! Guzzy's soul swelled at the thought, and he rapidly composed a reply appropriate to such an occasion. Suddenly Guzzy heard footsteps approaching, and voices in earnest altercation. Guzzy hastened into the squire's office, and struck an attitude befitting the importance of a principal witness.
Nevertheless, they crowded to Guzzy's store, to look at him, until shrewd people began to wonder whether Guzzy hadn't really taken Beigh as a sort of advertisement to draw trade.
But little Guzzy straightened himself and folded his arms. The convict rasped away rapidly, and finally dropped the file and the fragments of the last fetter. Then he seized little Guzzy's hand. "My friend," said he, "criminal though I am, I am man enough to appreciate your manliness and honor. I think I am smart enough to keep myself free, now I am out of jail.
The next day Bowerton saw a tall, handsome stranger, with downcast eyes, walk rapidly through the principal street and disappear behind Mrs. Wyett's gate. A day later, and Bowerton was electrified by the intelligence that the ex-burglar had been installed as a clerk in Guzzy's store. People said that it was a shame that nobody knew how soon Beigh might take to his old tricks again.
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