hance to correct your impression," said Melville,
with a slight smile.

"Then you don't care to accept my offer?" said Eben, regretfully.

"Thank you, no. If you will excuse me for suggesting it, Mr. Graham,
it would have been more considerate for you to have apprised Herbert of
your object in asking him to take your place this evening. Probably he
had no idea that you meant to supersede him with me."

Eben tossed his head.

"You mustn't think, Mr. Melville," he said, "that I was after the extra
pay. Six dollars doesn't seem much to me. I was earning ten dollars a
week in Boston, and if I had stayed, should probably have been raised to
twelve."

"So that you were really consenting to a sacrifice in offering to enter
my employment at six dollars a week?"

"Just so!"

"Then I am all the more convinced that I have decided for the best in
retaining Herbert. I do not wish to interfere with your prospects in the
city."

"Oh, as for that," said Eben, judging that he had gone too far, "I
don't care to go back to the city just yet. I've been confined pretty
steadily, and a few weeks in the country, hunting and fishing, will do
me good."

George Melville bowed, but said nothing.

Eben felt that he had no excuse for staying longer, and reluctantly
rose.

"If you should think better of what I've proposed," he said, "you can
let me know."

"I will do so," said Melville.

"He's rather a queer young man," muttered Eben, as he descended the
stairs. "It's funny that he should prefer a country boy like Herbert to
a young man like me who's seen life, and got some city polish--at the
same price, too! He don't seem to see his own interest. I'm sorry, for
it would have been a good deal more interesting to me, going round with
him a few hours a day, than tending store for father. There's one thing
sure, I won't do it long. I'm fitted for a higher position than that, I
hope."

"For downright impudence and cool assurance, I think that young man will
bear off the palm," thought George Melville, as his unwelcome visitor
left the room. "Herbert is in no danger from him. It would probably
surprise him if he knew that I should consider his company as an
intolerable bore. I will tell Herbert to-morrow the good turn his friend
has tried to do him."

CHAPTER IX. THE SOLITARY FARMHOUSE.

If Eben had been sensitive, the cool reception which he met with at the
hands of Mr. Melville would have disturbed him. As it was, he f