.

"Good, Bobby! Now promise that you will come and see me every time you
come home, and tell me how you are getting along."

"I will, sir, with the greatest pleasure;" and with a light heart
Bobby tripped away home.

CHAPTER VI

IN WHICH BOBBY SETS OUT ON HIS TRAVELS

Squire Lee, though only a plain farmer, was the richest man in
Riverdale. He had taken a great fancy to Bobby, and often employed him
to do errands, ride the horse to plough in the cornfields, and such
chores about the place as a boy could do. He liked to talk with Bobby
because there was a great deal of good sense in him, for one with a
small head.

If there was any one thing upon which the squire particularly prided
himself, it was his knowledge of human nature. He declared that he
only wanted to look a man in the face to know what he was; and as for
Bobby Bright, he had summered him and wintered him, and he was
satisfied that he would make something in good time.

He was not much astonished when Bobby opened his ambitious scheme of
going into business for himself. But he had full faith in his ability
to work out a useful and profitable, if not a brilliant, life. He
often said that Bobby was worth his weight in gold, and that he would
trust him with anything he had. Perhaps he did not suspect that the
time was at hand when he would be called upon to verify his words
practically; for it was only that morning, when one of the neighbors
told him about Bobby's stopping the horse, that he had repeated the
expression for the twentieth time.

It was not an idle remark. Sixty dollars was hardly worth mentioning
with a man of his wealth and liberal views, though so careful a man as
he was would not have been likely to throw away that amount. But as a
matter of investment,--Bobby had made the note read "with
interest,"--he would as readily have let him have it, as the next
richest man in the place, so much confidence had he in our hero's
integrity, and so sure was he that he would soon have the means of
paying him.

Bobby was overjoyed at the fortunate issue of his mission, and he
walked into the room where his mother was closing shoes, with a
dignity worthy a banker or a great merchant. Mrs. Bright was very
sad. Perhaps she felt a little grieved that her son, whom she loved so
much, had so thoughtlessly plunged her into a new difficulty.

"Come, cheer up, mother; it is all right," said Bobby, in his usual
elastic and gay tones; and at the s