eaded his mother.

"I am going; and if the money is not paid by twelve o'clock to-morrow,
the law shall lake its course;" and Mr. Hardhand rushed out of the
house, slamming the door violently after him.

"O Bobby, what have you done?" exclaimed Mrs. Bright, when the
hard-hearted creditor had departed.

"I could not help it, mother; don't cry. I cannot bear to hear you
insulted and abused; and I thought when I heard him do it a year ago,
that I couldn't stand it again. It is too bad."

"But he will turn us out of the house; and what shall we do then?"

"Don't cry, mother; it will come round all right. I have friends who
are rich and powerful, and who will help us."

"You don't know what you say, Bobby. Sixty dollars is a great deal of
money, and if we should sell all we have, it would scarcely bring that."

"Leave it all to me, mother; I feel as though I could do something now.
I am old enough to make money."

"What can you do?"

"Now or never!" replied Bobby, whose mind had wandered from the scene
to the busy world, where fortunes are made and lost every day. "Now or
never!" muttered he again.

"But Bobby, you have not told me where you got all that gold."

"Dinner is ready, I see, and I will tell you while we eat."

Bobby had been a fishing, and to be hungry is a part of the fisherman's
luck; so he seated himself at the table, and gave his mother a full
account of all that had occurred at the bridge.

The fond mother trembled when she realized the peril her son had
incurred for the sake of the young lady; but her maternal heart swelled
with admiration in view of the generous deed, and she thanked God that
she was the mother of such a son. She felt more confidence in him then
than she had ever felt before, and she realized that he would be the
stay and the staff of her declining years.

Bobby finished his dinner, and seated himself on the front door step.
His mind was absorbed, by a new and brilliant idea; and for half an
hour he kept up a most tremendous thinking.

"Now or never!" said he, as he rose and walked down the road towards
Riverdale Centre.

CHAPTER V.

IN WHICH BOBBY GIVES HIS NOTE FOR SIXTY DOLLARS.

A great idea was born in Bobby's brain. His mother's weakness and the
insecurity of her position were more apparent to him than they had ever
been before. She was in the power of her creditor, who might turn her
out of the little black house, sell the place at auction, and th