This money Mary Erskine concluded to borrow.

Mr.Keep said that he would very gladly lend it to her.

Her plan was to pay the borrowed money back out of the dividends which she would receive from her bridge shares.

The dividend was usually five per centum, or, as they commonly called it, _five per cent._, that is, five dollars on every share of a hundred dollars every six months.[A] The dividend on the four shares would, of course, be twenty dollars, so that it would take two dividends to pay off the forty dollar debt to Mr.Keep, besides a little interest.

When this was done, Mary Erskine would have property in the bridge worth four hundred and forty dollars, without having used any more than four hundred dollars of her farm money, and she would continue to have forty dollars a year from it, as long as she kept it in her possession.
[Footnote A: _Per_ is a Latin word meaning _for_, and _centum_ another meaning _a hundred_.] When the rest of the money for the farm was paid, Mary Erskine resolved on purchasing a certain small, but very pleasant house with it.