storekeeper.

It ran thus:

"DEAR SIR: I understand that you are the father of Mr. Eben Graham,
who has been a boarder at my house for the last six months. I regret
to trouble you, but he is now owing me six weeks board, and I cannot
get a cent out of him, though he knows I am a poor widow, dependent
on my board money for my rent and house expenses. As he is a minor,
the law makes you responsible for his bills, and, though I dislike
to trouble you, I am obliged, in justice to myself, to ask you to
settle his board bill, which I inclose.

"You will do me a great favor if you will send me the amount--thirty
dollars--within a week, as my rent is coming due.

"Yours respectfully, SUSAN JONES."

The feelings of a man like Ebenezer Graham can be imagined when he
read this unpleasant missive.

"Thirty dollars!" he groaned. "What can the graceless boy be
thinking of, to fool away his money, and leave his bills to be
settled by me. If this keeps on, I shall be ruined! It's too bad,
when I am slaving here, for Eben to waste my substance on riotous
living. I've a great mind to disown him. Let him go his own way, and
fetch up in the poorhouse, if he chooses."

But it is not easy for a man to cast off an only son, even though he
is as poorly supplied with natural affections as Ebenezer Graham.