Note 2 — Chapter III · A BOY’S INFLUENCE.

A mortgage is a pledge of property by a debtor to a creditor to secure a debt. For instance, a man who owns a farm wishes to borrow a thousand dollars, and to secure the lender from loss, he pledges his farm to him. The farm is then said to be mortgaged. The borrower cannot dispose of it, and the lender is, in effect, its real owner, to the amount of his claim, until that claim is paid. If it should not be paid when due, the lender, or mortgagee, as he is called, may sell the farm, after a certain time, and thus get his money back. When an intemperate man mortgages his property, there is little hope that he will ever redeem it.