"It's a good deal of money, Herbert," he said, "for a boy. There
ain't many men would pay you such a good salary."

"I earn every cent of it, Mr. Graham," said Herbert, whose views on
the salary question differed essentially from those of his employer.

The next morning Mr. Graham received a letter which evidently
disturbed him. Before referring to its contents, it is necessary to
explain that he had one son, nineteen years of age, who had gone to
Boston two years previous, to take a place in a dry-goods store on
Washington Street. Ebenezer Graham, Jr., or Eben, as he was
generally called, was, in some respects, like his father. He had the
same features, and was quite as mean, so far as others were
concerned, but willing to spend money for his own selfish pleasures.
He was fond of playing pool, and cards, and had contracted a
dangerous fondness for whisky, which consumed all the money he could
spare from necessary expenses, and even more, so that, as will
presently appear, he failed to meet his board bills regularly. Eben
had served an apprenticeship in his father's store, having been, in
fact, Tom Tripp's predecessor; he tired of his father's strict
discipline, and the small pay out of which he was required to
purchase his clothes, and went to Boston to seek a wider sphere.

To do Eben justice, it must be admitted that he had good business
capacity, and if he had been able, like his father, to exercise
self-denial, and make money-getting his chief enjoyment, he would no
doubt have become a rich man in time. As it was, whenever he could
make his companions pay for his pleasures, he did so.

I now come to the letter which had brought disquietude to the