house till after the funeral,
mechanically executing such duties as he was required to perform; but
everything was so unnatural to him that he could hardly persuade himself
of the reality of his being. The death of his father was an epoch in his
existence, a turning point in his career, and the wheels of time, the
current of events, stopped, soon to resume their course in a different
direction.

When the last rites of love and respect had been paid to the remains of
his father, Paul roused himself from his stupor, and began to examine
the future. At the death bed of his parent he had received a solemn
charge, and he carefully reviewed the words, and recalled the expression
with which it had been committed to him. His mother and his brothers and
sisters had been given into his care, and he felt the responsibility of
the position he had accepted. He determined, to the best of his ability,
to discharge his duty to them; but he was sorely troubled to think of
some way by which he could earn money enough to support them, for he had
put a literal construction upon the dying words of his father.

CHAPTER IV.

PAUL BECOMES THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY.

For a week after the funeral Paul racked his brain in devising
expedients to supply the place of his father in a pecuniary point of
view, but without success. If he went into a store, or obtained such a
place as a boy can fill, it would pay him only two or three dollars a
week, and this would be scarcely anything towards the support of the
family, for his father had generally earned twelve dollars a week during
the greater portion of the year. He wanted to do something better. He
did not expect to make so much as his father had made, but was
determined, if possible, to earn at least half as much.

Thus far his reflection had been to little purpose, for it was no small
matter for a boy to charge himself with double the work of one of his
age. He had not yet consulted his mother, nor obtained her views in
regard to the support of the family. He did not know whether she
expected him to do the whole of it, but it did not appear reasonable to
him that she could do anything more than to keep house and take care of
the children. He wished that he could go to her and relieve her of all
responsibility in regard to the money affairs, and let her live just as
she had been accustomed to live before the death of his father; and he
almost cried with vexation, after he had vainly ransac