the sixty dollars still due him. He was a wicked man at heart, and
would not scruple to turn the widow and her family out of house and
home.

Mrs. Bright knew this, and Bobby knew it too; and they felt very
uneasy about it. The wretch still had the power to injure them, and he
would use it without compunction.

"Yes, young man, I wanted to help you, and you see what I get for
it--contempt and insults! You will hear from me again in a day or
two. Perhaps you will change your tune, you young reprobate!"

"Perhaps I shall," replied Bobby, without much discretion.

"And you too, marm; you uphold him in his treatment of me. You have
not done your duty to him. You have been remiss, marm!" continued
Mr. Hardhand, growing bolder again, as he felt the power he wielded.

"That will do, sir; you can go!" said Bobby, springing from his chair,
and approaching Mr. Hardhand. "Go, and do your worst!"

"Humph! you stump me,--do you?"

"I would rather see my mother kicked out of the house than insulted by
such a dried-up old curmudgeon as you are. Go along!"

"Now, don't, Bobby," pleaded his mother.

"I am going; and if the money is not paid by twelve o'clock to-morrow,
the law shall take 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