tter, at least until
something more in your favor turns up."

"But I am certain the bill is mine----"

"So am I, but it is one thing to know it and quite another to prove it."

"Hadn't you ought to be on the bridge now?" asked Uriah, sourly.

"Bob Sanderson is tending for me."

"Who give him that right?" asked Squire Paget.

"Certainly not the town committee."

"Mr. Foley said I might have him help me during slack hours," returned the
young bridge tender, mentioning the name of another of the committeemen.

"He ain't got no power," put in Uriah. "It wasn't never put to a vote."

"I must have some help."

"A young man that was really willing to work wouldn't need no help,"
grumbled the miserly storekeeper. "It is only on account of laziness you
need help."

"That's so," added the postmaster, willing to "pile it on" when there was
such a good chance. "Better get back to work at once!"

"I will," replied Ralph, and, not wishing to lose his job on the spot, he
left the store, followed by Horace Kelsey.

"It's a shame the way they treat you!" burst out the young man, as the two
walked toward the bridge. "I don't really see how they can do it."

"I suppose they will discharge me now," returned Ralph, bitterly. "And all
because I claim a bill that I am positive is my own!"

"If they discharge you, I would make that Percy Paget prove where he got
the bill. If he cannot prove it, that will be one point in your favor."

The two walked down to the bridge, and here the young man from the city
left Ralph, and went off with Bob Sanderson to see how the repairs to the
sloop were coming on.

Ralph was in no happy frame of mind when left alone. He had tried only to
assert his rights, but the future looked black in consequence.

Presently his mother came down from the cottage to talk matters over with
him. She knew her son had gone off with Horace Kelsey to Uriah Dicks'
store.

"The squire is certainly very unreasonable," she said, after Ralph had told
his story. "Every one around Westville knows that Percy is arrogant to the
last degree."

"That is so, mother, but, to the squire, Percy is perfection. I do not see
how he can be so blind."

"If you lose your position on the bridge, Ralph, what in the world will we
do? Times are so hard in Westville."

"I'll have to look for work in Eastport or Chambersburgh, I suppose,"
returned the son. "But I haven't lost the job yet," he added, as cheerfully
as he could.

"