at them unusually hard.

"Yes," replied Mopsey, in an injured tone; "he's got all he can out of
us, an' we sha'n't see him agin."

"Now don't you go to tryin' to be a fool, Mopsey Dowd," said Ben,
indignantly. "Polly ain't the kind of a feller to forget his chums,
an' I'm going to stay here till he comes out, if it ain't till
mornin'. S'posen you had a father that had got lost, an' you'd jest
found him, wouldn't it be quite a while afore you'd think of such a
lot of duffers as we be?"

Mopsey was silent, but not convinced; he shook his head in a knowing
way, as if to say that his companions would soon see that he had
spoken the truth, and then he tried to push himself farther into the
wall in order to occupy less space in the hall. For fully ten minutes
the boys stood there, first on one foot and then on the other, like
motherless chickens in a rain-storm, and then the turning of the
handle of the door caused them to straighten up into what they
intended should be careless attitudes, which should say that they had
intended to go right away, but had been delayed by the discussion of
some important question. It was Paul who came out of the room; and if
the boys had had any doubts as to whether they had done right in
staying, they were convinced now, for their companion looked around as
if he were absolutely certain they would be there.

"Father wants to see you; come in," he said, holding the door open for
them to enter.

But they were not disposed to accept the invitation; they had waited
to see Paul, not his father, and they had an idea that they should not
feel exactly at their ease in there.

"Come in," insisted Paul; "there's no one here but father, and he
wants to see all of you."

Mopsey was the first to enter; he had settled it in his mind that they
ought to be invited to see Mr. Weston, and he considered it his right
to go in because of the money he had contributed towards Paul's ticket
to Chicago. The others followed him, but did not appear as confident
as he did. Whatever extravagant idea Mopsey may have had as to the way
in which they ought to be received by Mr. Weston, he was not
disappointed. Paul's father welcomed them in the most cordial manner
possible, and had they been his most intimate and esteemed friends
they could not have been received more kindly.

Paul had given his father a brief account of his life since the time
he learned that the steamer had sailed without him, and he had spoken
i