stomed, to help remove and wash
the dishes.

"You needn't help now, Bobby."

"Yes, I will, mother."

Somehow our hero's visit to the city did not seem to produce the usual
effect upon him; for a great many boys, after they had been abroad,
would have scorned to wash dishes and wipe them. A week in town has
made many a boy so smart that you couldn't touch him with a ten foot
pole. It starches them up so stiff that sometimes they don't know
their own mothers, and deem it a piece of condescension to speak a
word to the patriarch in a blue frock who had the honor of supporting
them in childhood.

Bobby was none of this sort. We lament that he had a habit of talking
big, that is, of talking about business affairs in a style a little
beyond his years. But he was modest to a fault, paradoxical as it may
seem. He was always blushing when anybody spoke a pretty thing about
him. Probably the circumstances of his position elevated him above the
sphere of the mere boy; he had spent but little time in play, and his
attention had been directed at all times to the wants of his
mother. He had thought a great deal about business, especially since
the visit of the boy who sold books to the little black house.

Some boys are born merchants, and from their earliest youth have a
genius for trade. They think of little else. They "play shop" before
they wear jackets, and drive a barter trade in jackknives, whistles,
tops, and fishing lines long before they get into their teens. They
are shrewd even then, and obtain a taste for commerce before they are
old enough to know the meaning of the word.

We saw a boy in school, not long since, give the value of eighteen
cents for a little stunted quince; boys have a taste for raw quinces,
strange as it may seem. Undoubtedly he had no talent for trade, and
would make a very indifferent tin pedler. Our hero was shrewd. He
always got the best end of the bargain; though, I am happy to say, his
integrity was too unyielding to let him cheat his fellows.

We have made this digression so that my young readers may know why
Bobby was so much given to big talk. The desire to do something worthy
of a good son turned his attention to matters above his sphere; and
thinking of great things, he had come to talk great things. It was not
a bad fault, after all. Boys need not necessarily be frivolous. Play
is a good thing, an excellent thing, in its place, and is as much a
part of the boy's education as his gra