hat do you think about the situation?"

"I think that Professor Riccabocca has swindled us all," answered Philip
promptly.

"Our bills ought to be paid," said the agent, who was rather a hard man
in his dealings.

"I agree with you," said Philip. "I wish I were able to pay them, but I
have only six dollars in my possession."

"That will pay me, and leave a dollar over," suggested the agent.

"If it comes to that," said the printer, "I claim that I ought to be
paid first."

"I am a poor man," said the bill-sticker. "I need my money."

Poor Philip was very much disconcerted. It was a new thing for him to
owe money which he could not repay.

"Gentlemen," he said, "I have myself been cheated out of fifty dollars,
at least--my share of the profits. I wish I could pay you all. I cannot
do so now. Whenever I can I will certainly do it."

"You can pay us a part with the money you have," said the agent.

"I owe Mr. Gates for nearly two days' board," he said. "That is my own
affair, and I must pay him first."

"I don't see why he should be preferred to me," grumbled the agent;
then, with a sudden, happy thought, as he termed it, he said: "I will
tell you how you can pay us all."

"How?" asked Philip.

"You have a violin. You can sell that for enough to pay our bills."

Poor Philip! His violin was his dependence. Besides the natural
attachment he felt for it, he relied upon it to secure him a living, and
the thought of parting with it was bitter.

"Gentlemen," he said, "if you take my violin, I have no way of making
a living. If you will consider that I, too, am a victim of this man, I
think you will not wish to inflict such an injury upon me."

"I do not, for one," said the publisher. "I am not a rich man, and I
need all the money that is due me, but I wouldn't deprive the boy of his
violin."

"Nor I," said the bill-sticker.

"That's all very fine," said the agent; "but I am not so soft as you
two. Who knows but the boy is in league with the professor?"

"I know it!" said the landlord stoutly. "The boy is all right, or I am
no judge of human nature."

"Thank you, Mr. Gates," said Philip, extending his hand to his generous
defender.

"Do you expect we will let you off without paying anything?" demanded
the agent harshly.

"If I live, sir, you shall lose nothing by me," said Philip.

"That won't do!" said the man coarsely. "I insist upon the fiddle being
sold. I'll give five dollars for it, and call it