in a big city like this. You've got to
keep your eyes open."

"I know it," groaned Abner Balberry. "Yesterday, a cabman cheated me out
o' fifty cents, an' a boy got a quarter from me by a bogus telegram. I
thought something had happened to hum, and when I opened the telegram it
had nuthin but a sheet o' blank paper inside!"

"That was too bad."

There was an awkward pause. Now that the farmer had found Nat he hardly
knew what to say. He had expected to upbraid his nephew for running
away, but the pocketbook episode rather flustered him.

"So you come to New York, didn't you?" he said, slowly.

"Yes."

"Are you working?"

"Yes, and I've got a pretty good job, too."

"What at?"

"I'm in an office downtown."

"How much do you git?"

"What do you think, Uncle Abner?"

"About two or three dollars a week."

"I get seven dollars a week."

"Seven dollars a week--fer a boy!"

"You have been very lucky," put in Mrs. Balberry. "I wish Fred could
strike a job like that."

"I'm to have a raise later on," added Nat.

"It wasn't right fer you to run away, Nat," continued his uncle.

"There are two ways of looking at it."

"An' you had no right to set fire to the barn."

"I never did that, Uncle Abner. I wouldn't be so mean."

"And you sold thet cow."

"She was my cow."

"No, she wasn't!"

"I say she was, and I can prove it!"

"Well, we won't quarrel about the cow. What I want to know is, are you
behavin' yourself here in the city?"

"I am. I work every day, and I board with some very nice people."

"Ain't squanderin' your earnin's on theaters an' sech?"

"No, I have never seen the inside of a theater."

"Maybe you ain't seen the inside of a church either," came from Mrs.
Balberry.

"Yes, I go to church every Sunday."

"Then you don't want to go back to the farm?" came from Abner Balberry.

"No, I am never going back there."

"Don't you know that I am your guardeen?"

"That may be so, Uncle Abner, but I am not going back to the farm."

"You'll go if I say so!"

"No, I won't!" and Nat's eyes flashed fire. "I'm going to support
myself, and all I ask is to be let alone."

"Oh, leave him stay, Abner," broke in Mrs. Balberry. "You don't want
him, now you have Fred."

The farmer was on the point of saying that Nat as a worker was worth two
Freds, but he thought it best to keep silent on that point.

"I'd like to make certain you are stopping with decent folks," said he,
after another pau