le
prices."

"He will board with us while he is canvassing the neighborhood, and I
expect you and he will become great friends."

"I think we shall," said Frank.

Dick was a little shy, but a few minutes set him quite at ease with his
new acquaintance.

After supper, Frank said:

"Dick, if you are at leisure, I wish you would take a walk about the
village with me. I want to see how it looks."

"All right," said Dick.

When the two left the house, the country boy began to ask questions.

"How do you like your business?" he asked.

"Not very well," answered Frank. "I do not think I shall stay in it very
long."

"Do you sell enough to make your expenses?" asked Dick.

"No; but I am not wholly dependent on my sales. I have a little
income--a hundred dollars a year--paid me by my stepfather."

"I wish I had as much. It seems a good deal to me."

"It doesn't go very far. What are you intending to be, Dick?"

"I suppose I shall have to be a farmer, though I don't like it."

"What would you like to be?"

"I should like to get an education," said Dick, his eyes lighting up. "I
should like to study Latin and Greek, and go to college. Then I could be
a teacher or a lawyer. But there is no chance of that," he added, his
voice falling.

"Don't be too sure of that, Dick," said Frank Frank, hopefully.
"Something may turn up in your favor."

"Nothing ever does turn up in Jackson," said the boy, in a tone of
discouragement. "Father is a poor man, and has hard work to get along.
He can give me no help."

"Isn't the farm productive?"

"There is no trouble about that, but he has to pay too high a rent. It's
all the fault of Fairfield."

"The agent?"

"Yes."

"Your father was telling me about him. Now, if your father were in his
place, I suppose he could give you the advantages you wish."

"Oh, yes! There would be no trouble then. I am sure he would make a
better and more popular agent than Mr. Fairfield; but there is no use
thinking about that."

"I expected myself to go to college," said Frank. "In fact, I have
studied Latin and Greek, and in less than a year I could be ready to
enter."

"Why don't you?" asked Dick.

"You forget that I am a poor peddler."

"Then how were you able to get so good an education?" asked Dick, in
surprise.

"Because I was once better off than I am now. The fact is, Dick," he
added, "I have seen better days. But when I was reduced to poverty, I
gave up hopes of college e