Year: 1870

Tic


at is not the least use to argue the ques
tion, father Tell me plainly, yes or no, anc
will bother you no more about it.


81 cannot indulge you in this, Harry
. Indeed, you should believe me when L say
cannot afford it.


Mr.. Houghton leaned his head heavily OF
his hands as he spoke, and seemed to depre
cate the displeasure of his handsome, lmpa
tient son.


Very well, SIR said the youth of nine
teen, his hand quivering as he rose with tn
anger he seemed striving to keep out OF hi
words and tones :" | shall make the trip t
Lake George next week, nevertheless, II
have to sell my grandfather's watch an
chain to get the money


A half groan came from the hidden face o
Foster Houghton, and a reproachiul :"
Harry - from his mother, whose eyes haC
been filling with tears she sat silent thro
the stormy interview. But the boy was an
gry and in earnest. and he twisted the chair
in his waistcoat, to give emphasis to the
threat. Then as he took his cloak and cal
from the closet he continued


You need not sit up Tor me, or leave tn
With the fellows 90 the ssss : berry pnrry. a6c
IS there viii be dance, and the nights are
snort, shall wait for daylight to come home.
ley House before starting.





the father, more from desire to show an
interest and win the boy from his moodinos IS
than any real curiosity.


s. Nearly everybody Of my set,'' said IIar-
ry, with something of studied coldness
a. Arthur Brooks, and Tom BUxham, and
Frank Pettengill-and Harrison Fry, if you
want the whole list


His father turned sharply away, but the
mother spoke appealingly:


If v,r ,Uonfd ent off vour int tb
Harrison Fry, now and forever, think there
are very few things your father would refuse
you. | have seen his evil influence over you
ever since he came back from the city. He
was a bad by, and will be a bad man


Like myself and other wicked people, s.
said the boy, looking at his watch, - Harry
Fry is not half so black as he is painted
But am not as intimate with him as you
fancy and as to father, don't think his
treatment of me tonight gives him claim
to interfere with my friendships"


Harry HUughton shot his shaft deliberate
ly, for he knew his fathers sensitive nature
in which it would rankle cruelty and in a
moment he was off, bounding thro' the low
open window, and running with fleet steps
down the gravel sidewalk toward the COM
mon.


The family circle thus divided was that OF
the cashier of the Blue River National Bank



past middle age, and older than his years in
appearance, and IN heart. He had petted
his only son in his childhood enough to spoil
most boys, and now made the balance even
by repressIng the exuberance of bis youth
with a sharpness sometimes no more than
just, sometimes querulous and unreasonable.
The boys grandfather, old Peleg Houghton,
who died year before at ninety and over,
had almost worshipped Harry, and, on his
death bed. had presented his own superb
Frodsham watch TO the lad /; and both father
and mother knew that he must be deeply
moved to speak so lightly at parting with it.


- fear Harry is getting in a very bad
way said Mr.. Houghton, gloomily, after a
pause in which the sharper click of his wife's
needles told that her thoughts were busy
He goes to the other church too often to =
ediy told him how the habit hurt me il nv
boyhood, and what fight had to break it
of. He is altogether too much in Harrison
Fry's company. He has been twice before
to TinborOugh, driving home across the coun-
try in the gray Of the morning. And this
project of going alone to Lake George on
weeks trip Is positively ridiculous -


:" Very likely you are the best judge, my
DEAR said Mrs. Houghton. She always
began in this way when she meant to prove
him otherwise. 81 fully agree with you
about that reckless young Fry. But as to
Harry's going to the brown church, and bis
visits to TinborOugh. | think the same cause
is at tbe b ,ttom of both. Grace Chamber
lain has been singing in the choir over there
for this spring, and now she is visiting her
aunt at Tinborough. And as to that, she is
going with her aunt's family to Lake George
to spend July, and | suppose they have
pressed a wish to meet him there Grace
Chamberlain is very pretty girl, and Harry
is like what you were at his age"


g Bless my soul, Mary" said the cashier,
- then why didn't the boy tell me what he
was driving at? Chasing across the country
after pretty face is foolish enough at his
age, but it is not SO bad as going to water
ing-place merely for the fashion of it, like
some old rich nabOb or professional dandy.
If Harry had told me that he wanted to dan
gle after Grace Chamberlain, instead of talk
ing in that desperate way about the watch,
l might have received it differently. There
is charm on thes chain with my mother S
hair, which | wouldn't have g out of the
family for a fortune"


Just here the door bell rang, as if a power
full, nervous hand were at the knob. Mr..
Houghton answered the ring for their one
domestic had been called away by message
from sick sister, and the mistress of the
house was - getting along alone " for day.
So when her quick ear told her the visitor
was one to see her husband on business, she
quilted the room to set away the milk and
lock up the rear doors of the house for the
night.


The caller was Mr.. Silas Bixby. He would
have been sharp man in Elmfield estimation
who could predict the object of one of Silas
Bixby's calls, though there were few doors
in the village at which his face was not fre-
quently seem lie was the constable, but he
was also the superintendent of the Sunday
school and the-assessOr of internal revenue
the 'ae to say nothing OF his 6sin
the correspondent of the Tinborough rin1pet
He owned farm and managed it at odd
hours. He gave some of his winter evenings
to keeping writing school, with which he
sometimes profitably combined a singing
school, with lucrative concerts at the end OF
the term. He was the clerk of the fire COM
pany, and never had been absent from a fire,
though some of his manifold duties kept
him riding through the neighboring towns
in his light gig a great deal of the time. He
had raised a company and commanded it, in
the nine months army of '62. He kept a
little book store IN one corner of the village
quadrangle, and managed very SIN III circu-
latiDg library, with the aid OF the Oldest of
the ten children and he was equal partner
IN the new factory enterprise at the Falls
So Mr.. Houghton did not venture to guess
on what errand Mr.. Bixby came to see him,
and showed him to chair in the twIlighted
sitting room, with q face composed to decline
request to discount note, or to Join with
interest in a conversation on the Sunday
school, or to listen to report on the new
fre-engine fund, with ease and alacrIty.
Mr.. Bixby looked about him to see that
nobody was in hearing. You'll excuse me, |
know, Squire, if / shut the windows, bot |
as 1t is;' and before his host could rise to
anticipate him he had suited the action to /
the word. 40 It's a mighty big thing Do
you know told you, Mr.. Houg6ton, the first
OF the week, that there was dangerous char
acters about town, and asked you to keep
.YQur eues oner, or tha AEy.II =.... L.---