Jonas.

"I can't. I've given them to Tommy Kavanagh."

"That's mean. You might have thought of me first," grumbled Jonas.

"I don't know why. Tommy Kavanagh is my friend and you are not."

"Anyway, you can let me have your boat and gun."

"I have sold them."

"That's too bad."

"I don't know why you should expect them. I needed the money they
brought me to pay my expenses till I get work."

"I will pay your expenses to New York if you wish," said Mrs. Brent.

"Thank you; but I shall have money enough," answered Phil, who shrank
from receiving any favor at the hands of Mrs. Brent.

"As you please, but you will do me the justice to remember that I
offered it."

"Thank you. I shall not forget it."

That evening, just before going to bed, Mrs. Brent opened a trunk and
drew from it a folded paper.

She read as follows--for it was her husband's will:

"To the boy generally known as Philip Brent, and supposed, though
incorrectly, to be my son, I bequeath the sum of five thousand dollars,
and direct the same to be paid over to any one whom he may select
as guardian, to hold in trust for him till he attains the age of
twenty-one."

"He need never know of this," said Mrs. Brent to herself in a low tone.
"I will save it for Jonas."

She held the paper a moment, as if undecided whether to destroy it, but
finally put it carefully back in the secret hiding-place from which she
had taken it.

"He is leaving home of his own accord," she whispered. "Henceforth he
will probably keep away. That suits me well, but no one can say I drove
him to it."

CHAPTER IV.

MR. LIONEL LAKE.

Six months before it might have cost Philip a pang to leave home. Then
his father was living, and from him the boy had never received aught but
kindness. Even his step-mother, though she secretly disliked him, did
not venture to show it, and secure in the affections of his supposed
father, he did not trouble himself as to whether Mrs. Brent liked him
or not. As for Jonas, he was cautioned by his mother not to get himself
into trouble by treating Phil badly, and the boy, who knew on which side
his interests lay, faithfully obeyed. It was only after the death of Mr.
Brent that both Jonas and his mother changed their course, and thought
it safe to snub Philip.

Planktown was seventy-five miles distant from New York, and the fare was
two dollars and a quarter.

This was rather a large sum to pay, considering Phil's scanty fund, b