all would end well.

One thing troubled her. She had not been able to save any thing for
Mr. Hardhand. She could only pay her interest; but she hoped by the
first of July to give him twenty-five dollars of the principal. But
the first of July came, and she had only five dollars of the sum she
had partly promised her creditor. She could not so easily recover from
the disasters of the hard winter, and she had but just paid off the
little debts she had contracted. She was nervous and uneasy as the day
approached. Mr. Hardhand always abused her when she told him she could
not pay him, and she dreaded his coming.

It was the first of July on which Bobby caught those pouts, caught the
horse, and on which Tom Spicer had "caught a Tartar."

Bobby hastened home, as we said at the conclusion of the last chapter.
He was as happy as a lord. He had fish enough in his basket for
dinner, and for breakfast the next morning, and money enough in his
pocket to make his mother as happy as a queen, if queens are always
happy.

The widow Bright, though she had worried and fretted night and day
about the money which was to be paid to Mr. Hardhand on the first of
July, had not told her son any thing about it. It would only make him
unhappy, she reasoned, and it was needless to make the dear boy
miserable for nothing; so Bobby ran home all unconscious of the
pleasure which was in store for him.

When he reached the front door, as he stopped to scrape his feet on the
sharp stone there, as all considerate boys who love their mothers do,
before they go into the house, he heard the angry tones of Mr.
Hardhand. He was scolding and abusing his mother because she could not
pay him the twenty-five dollars.

Bobby's blood boiled with indignation, and his first impulse was to
serve him as he had served Tom Spicer, only a few moments before; but
Bobby, as we have before intimated, was a peaceful boy, and not
disposed to quarrel with any person; so he contented himself with
muttering a few hard words.

"The wretch! What business has he to talk to my mother in that style?"
said he to himself. "I have a great mind to kick him out of the house."

But Bobby's better judgment came to his aid; and perhaps he realized
that he and his mother would only get kicked out in return. He could
battle with Mr. Hardhand, but not with the power which his wealth gave
him; so, like a great many older persons in similar circumstances, he
took counsel of p