d,
dryly, "if you found it kind of dull at first--compared to that school
and poetry makin' and such--but it'll be respectable and it'll pay for
board and clothes and somethin' to eat once in a while, which may
not seem so important to you now as 'twill later on. And some day I
cal'late--anyhow we'll hope--you'll be mighty glad you did it."

Poor Albert looked and felt anything but glad just then. Captain
Zelotes, his hands in his pockets, stood regarding him. He, too, did not
look particularly happy.

"You'll remember," he observed, "or perhaps you don't know, that when
your father asked us to look out for you--"

Albert interrupted. "Did--did father ask you to take care of me?" he
cried, in surprise.

"Um-hm. He asked somebody who was with him to ask us to do just that."

The boy drew a long breath. "Well, then," he said, hopelessly,
"I'll--I'll try."

"Thanks. Now you run around town and see the sights. Dinner's at half
past twelve prompt, so be on hand for that."

After his grandson had gone, the captain, hands still in his pockets,
stood for some time looking out of the window. At length he spoke aloud.

"A play actor or a poetry writer!" he exclaimed. "Tut, tut, tut! No use
talkin', blood will tell!"

Issachar, who was putting coal on the office fire, turned his head.

"Eh?" he queried.

"Nothin'," said Captain Lote.

He would have been surprised if he could have seen his grandson just at
that moment. Albert, on the beach whither he had strayed in his desire
to be alone, safely hidden from observation behind a sand dune, was
lying with his head upon his arms and sobbing bitterly.

A disinterested person might have decided that the interview which had
just taken place and which Captain Zelotes hopefully told his wife that
morning would probably result in "a clear, comf'table understandin'
between the boy and me"--such a disinterested person might have decided
that it had resulted in exactly the opposite. In calculating the results
to be obtained from that interview the captain had not taken into
consideration two elements, one his own and the other his grandson's.
These elements were prejudice and temperament.

CHAPTER IV

The next morning, with much the same feeling that a convict must
experience when he enters upon a life imprisonment, Albert entered the
employ of "Z. Snow and Co., Lumber and Builders' Hardware." The day,
he would have sworn it, was at least a year long. The interval betw