r about this, but there seemed
something familiar in the figure of the young man. Herbert quickened his
step, and soon came up with him.

One glance was enough. Though disguised by a pair of overalls, and
without a coat, Herbert recognized the once spruce dry-goods clerk, Eben
Graham.

Eben recognized Herbert at the same time. He started, and flushed with
shame, not because of the theft of which he had been guilty, but because
he was detected in an honest, but plebeian labor.

"Herbert Carr!" he exclaimed, stopping short.

"Yes, Eben; it is I!"

"You find me changed," said Eben, dolefully.

"No, I should recognize you anywhere."

"I don't mean that. I have sunk very low," and he glanced pathetically
at the wheelbarrow.

"If you refer to your employment, I don't agree with you. It is an
honest business."

"True, but I never dreamed when I stood behind the counter in Boston,
and waited on fashionable ladies, that I should ever come to this."

"He seems more ashamed of wheeling vegetables than of stealing," thought
Herbert, and he was correct.

"How do you happen to be in this business, Eben?" he asked, with some
curiosity.

"I must do it or starve. I was cheated out of my money soon after I came
here, and didn't know where to turn."

Eben did not explain that he lost his money in a gambling house.
He might have been cheated out of it, but it was his own fault, for
venturing into competition with older and more experienced knaves than
himself.

"I went for thirty-six hours without food," continued Eben, "when I fell
in with a man who kept a vegetable store, and he offered to employ me. I
have been with him ever since."

"You were fortunate to find employment," said Herbert.

"Fortunate!" repeated Eben, in a tragic tone. "How much wages do you
think I get?"

"I can't guess."

"Five dollars a week, and have to find myself," answered Eben,
mournfully. "What would my fashionable friends in Boston say if they
could see me?"

"I wouldn't mind what they said as long as you are getting an honest
living."

"How do you happen to be out here?" asked Eben.

His story was told in a few words.

"You are always in luck!" said Eben, enviously. "I wish I had your
chance. Is Mr. Melville very rich?"

"He is rich; but I don't know how rich."

"Do you think he'd lend me money enough to get home?"

"I don't know."

"Will you ask him?"

"I will tell him that you made the request, Eben," answered Herbert,