from me?"
"Your father thought it best."
Gerald eyed his stepmother thoughtfully. Was this true—this statement of hers? Not about the boy's existence—he had no doubt of that—but as to his father's being in the plot to keep it secret.
"Where, then, is Abel, since he has never been here?" he asked.
"He has been at a boarding-school, fifty miles away, in the town of Fulton. I am expecting him here to-night."
"So the secret is out!" thought Gerald. "But is there not the same objection as before?" he asked. "Perhaps we may not agree."
"The circumstances are changed. He will no longer be in an inferior position."
"I don't understand."
"As my son, he will take precedence of you," said Mrs. Lane, with a triumphant smile.
"But the money belonged to my father."
"It belongs to me, now," said his stepmother, sharply.
Gerald was thunderstruck. It was not enough that his stepmother should appropriate the property which he felt ought properly to be his, but this unknown boy whom he had not yet seen, and of whose existence he thought it not improbable that his father had been ignorant, was to be invested with a right superior to his own. He remained silent for a moment. Then he said:
"I hope Abel and I will be friends."
"It will be wise for you to treat him well," said his stepmother.
"When do you expect him here?"
"Some time this afternoon."
"Have you any more to say to me?"
"Not at present."
Gerald rose slowly and left the house. He felt crushed and humiliated. He felt that his stepmother had the upper hand. He remembered well the day, only two years before, when Mrs. Ruth Tyler entered their home as his father's wife. She had come to Portville and opened a milliner's shop on a very small scale. She attended the same church as his father, and in a short time managed to make his acquaintance. She consulted him on business matters, and exerted herself to please him. Finally, marriage followed. During his father's life Gerald had no fault to find with her treatment of him, but since the funeral she had thrown off the mask. Gerald could only think of her as one who had defrauded him of his rightful inheritance.
CHAPTER II
MR. TUBBS, THE GROCER
Gerald was so disturbed by the communication which his stepmother had made that he walked at random, hardly knowing in what direction he was going. Before he was well aware of it, he found himself passing the grocery store in which, according to Mrs. Lane's plans, he was to find employment. Raising his eyes he saw Mr. Tubbs standing in the doorway.
The grocer was a short, stout man, not over five feet four inches in height and weighing well on to two hundred pounds. His features relaxed into a smile as he recognized Gerald.
"Come here, Gerald," he said.
Gerald paused, and as he looked into the grocery store with its sanded floor, barrels of flour, and boxes of potatoes, with the dried codfish hanging against the wall, his heart sank within him. He was not afraid of work, but to work in such a place and with such surroundings seemed to him dismal indeed.
"Then you are coming to work for me?" said Mr. Tubbs smiling broadly. "Hasn't your mother told you?"
"My stepmother mentioned it this morning," said Gerald, gravely.
"We made the bargain last week. You'll get good pay, too. Three dollars a week. I never paid so much before, but I expect you will earn it. You look like a good, strong boy."
"Yes, I am strong," said Gerald, briefly.
"And you are willing to work, I suppose?"
"I don't know, Mr. Tubbs. Mrs. Lane had no right to make a bargain for me. My father always intended that I should go to college."
"That would cost a sight of money, Gerald. Here you would learn business. In a few years you may be earning ten dollars a week."
He spoke as if this were a very large sum.
"I am not afraid to work, Mr. Tubbs, but I don't think I shall like the grocery business."
"Pooh, pooh! a boy like you doesn't know what he would like. How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Sixteen? Why, at sixteen I could lift a barrel of flour. I worked well, if I do say it myself. I only got two dollars a week in this very store, and now it's my own."
He looked around him with an air of pride. His highest ambition was realized in the possession of a grocery store.
"What do you say to that?"
"You have done well, Mr. Tubbs."
"Haven't I? And you can do as well. Why, in five years if your mother will advance a little money, I may give you an interest in the business."
Gerald did not reply. His heart was sore, and he felt that life had few attractions for him if it was to be passed here.
"Are you going to school now?"
"I have been."
"Your mother told me you might come here a week from Monday, but I'd like to have you come a week earlier, if you can as well as not."
"No, I will wait," said Gerald, hastily.
"Well, just as you like, but if you'll come in evenings so as to get a little used to the work, I'll give you—say, seventy-five cents for a week."
"I think you will have to excuse me, Mr. Tubbs."
"Oh, well, I won't insist upon it," said the grocer, half dissatisfied.
It was Saturday, the weekly school holiday. To-day, at least, Gerald was free. He decided to walk to Crescent Pond and go out in his boat. He had a small dory there, which his father had given him on his last birthday. On the way he passed a small cottage belonging to his father's estate. It was tenanted by a widow named Holman. Her son, John, had been one of his schoolmates but was now employed in a shoe shop.
John was sitting on a wheelbarrow in the yard.
"Come and have a row, John," said Gerald, "that is, if you are not working to-day."
"No, the shop is shut down for a fortnight," said John, soberly. "It is likely to be a bad job for us."
"How is that?"
"Our rent was due yesterday, and we can't pay it."
"But this is one of father's houses."
"Yes; if your father was alive there would be no trouble."
"Have you had any notice to pay?" asked Gerald, quickly.
"Your stepmother says that if the rent is not paid on Monday we must turn out."
"Surely she
