e this
way again."

"When did you learn about it?"

"Two or three weeks ago."

"And you have known it all this time and said nothing about it?"

"Yes, Fred. Almost every day I have decided to send for you and explain
all as I am doing now, but I dreaded meeting you and kept putting it off
from day to day. I felt so guilty over my treatment of you, and so
humiliated when I found the error was my own, that I had not the courage
to tell you about it. Yet I knew all the time that I was adding more and
more to the wrong I had done you."

"I can imagine how you feel about it," said Fred, "and your apology
makes it all right. If the old farmer had returned the money earlier,
much of this trouble might have been saved. He ought to have written you
about it at any rate. It was fortunate he was an honest man; otherwise
we should never have solved the mystery, and the stain would have clung
to me always."

"Yes, Fred, I am afraid it would. But all suspicion is removed from you
now. This shows of what vital importance honesty, even in small
matters, may prove to an individual."

"I can realize that now, as it applies so forcibly to my own case."

"I hope to make amends for some of the great wrong I have done you,"
said Mr. Rexford, whose heart seemed to show a tender side which it had
not appeared hitherto to possess. "My store will be rebuilt within a few
weeks, and you shall have your old position as clerk again, if you
wish."

"You are very kind, Mr. Rexford. I am glad to know that I may work for
you again. If I come I will let you know in time."

"The position is due you, and I never had a clerk who did his work so
well. I hope you will decide to come with me," said the merchant, as
Fred rose to go.

XXXIV.

Early the following morning Mr. Rexford called upon his lawyer, Mr. Ham.
In due time the papers were made out and placed in the hands of Sheriff
Coombs, who promptly made his way to the factory with all his official
bearing and arrested Jacob Simmons on the charge of robbing and burning
John Rexford's store.

Mr. Farrington was prepared for this move, as Fred had informed him that
it would take place during the forenoon, and had also told him
everything he had done, and what he proposed doing.

He was especially glad to learn that the missing money had been
returned. His own theory was that some error had been made, but other
events had followed so fast one upon the other that he had recently made