ear
later. He was a good man--in every way a good man."

"Tut, tut! I am not saying he wasn't a good man. I am only saying that,
good or bad, it was no business of mine; and then nothing will do but
I must send for the boy and put him in my business. And a nice mess
he made of it--an idler, more careless apprentice, no cloth merchant,
especially one who stood well with his fellow citizens, and who was
on the highway to becoming mayor of his native city, was ever crossed
with."

"I think he was hardly as bad as that, Richard. I don't think you were
ever quite fair to the boy."

"Not fair, Mary! I am surprised at you. In what way was I not quite
fair?"

"I don't think you meant to be unfair, Richard; but you see you were a
little--just a little--prejudiced against him from the first; because,
instead of jumping at your offer to apprentice him to your trade, he
said he should like to be a sailor."

"Quite enough to prejudice me, too, madam. Why, there are scores of sons
of respectable burgesses of this town who would jump at such an offer;
and here this penniless boy turns up his nose at it."

"It was foolish, no doubt, Richard; but you see the boy had been
reading the lives of admirals and navigators--he was full of life and
spirit--and I believe his father had consented to his going to sea."

"Full of life and spirit, madam!" the mayor repeated more angrily than
before; "let me tell you it is these fellows who are full of life and
adventure who come to the gallows. Naturally I was offended; but as I
had given you my word I kept to it. Every man in Southampton knows
that the word of Richard Anthony is as good as his bond. I bound him
apprentice, and what comes of it? My foreman, Andrew Carson, is knocked
flat on his back in the middle of the shop."

Mrs. Anthony bit her lips to prevent herself from smiling.

"We will not speak any more about that, Richard," she said; "because, if
we did, we should begin to argue. You know it is my opinion, and always
has been, that Carson deliberately set you against the boy; that he was
always telling you tales to his disadvantage; and although I admit that
the lad was very wrong to knock him down when he struck him, I think, my
dear, I should have done the same had I been in his place."

"Then, madam," Mr. Anthony said solemnly, "you would have deserved
what happened to him--that you should be turned neck and crop into the
street."

Mrs. Anthony gave a determined nod of he