n due time, and Dick had his den, while she enjoyed the luxury of
a fine bathroom.

She has never dreamed of marrying again.

Two or three times old Hezekiah Cheatham drove around that way to drop
in and chat with the buxom widow, whose charms he could now appreciate
since she had fallen heir to a neat little fortune; but Dick took him
gently aside and gave him plainly to understand that his mother disliked
his attentions very much; and that as for himself he was averse to
having a step-father; so the old bachelor ceased his pilgrimages in that
quarter.

Mr. Gibbs is still the head of the bank, and his right hand man is Ross
Goodwyn, the clever cashier, who will soon step into the position of his
employer, when the latter retires.

Mr. Payson is the paying teller, but Mr. Winslow finding his health
failing him, and being warned by his physician that he had better seek a
climate that was dry, intends leaving for Colorado in another month.

It is pretty generally understood that he will be succeeded by Richard
Morrison, who has been acting as his under-study for some time.

Dick is a tall, manly looking fellow now, the pride of his mother's
heart; and prosperity has not changed his genial, straight-forward
nature a particle.

One of his best friends is Mr. Cartwright, the old miller, and
frequently they sit and chat of the days long since gone by when Dick
found his first job in the employ of the other.

Occasionally Dick has found an opportunity, on holidays, to go out to
the dear old fishing hole, and interview a few of his friends, the bass;
his ability to capture the wily finny denizens of the river still holds
good, and usually he returns home with a full string.

He never visits the old place without thinking of that day when he heard
Bessie Gibbs raising her voice in laments over the impending fate of her
darling Angora kitten, and the memory always brings a smile to Dick's
face.

Bessie is now finishing her schooling at a college; but she and Dick
correspond faithfully, and during vacation times they seem inseparable.

He still thinks her the prettiest and sweetest of her sex, and as for
Bessie--well, it hardly seems fair to peep into the sacred recesses of a
young girl's heart, but she is never one half so happy as when with
Dick, and whenever she looks at the little scar on the back of his left
hand she shudders, remembering that fearful day when he burst in upon
them just in the nick of time, and i