because of this suggestion. "I know
what it is to get a whippin', an' I wouldn't whip a dog, much less Mr.
Stubbs, who didn't know any better."

"Then you must try to take it like a man," said Ben, who could think
of no other plan by which the boy might soothe his feelings. "It hain't
half so bad as it might be, an' you must try to keep a stiff upper lip,
even if it does seem hard at first."

This keeping a stiff upper lip in the face of all the trouble he was
having was all very well to talk about, but Toby could not reduce it to
practice, or, at least, not so soon after he knew of his loss, and he
continued to rock the monkey back and forth, to whisper in his ear now
and then, and to cry as if his heart was breaking, for nearly an hour.

Ben tried, in his rough, honest way, to comfort him, but without
success; and it was not until the boy's grief had spent itself that he
would listen to any reasoning.

All this time the monkey had remained perfectly quiet, submitting to
Toby's squeezing without making any effort to get away, and behaving as
if he knew he had done wrong, and was trying to atone for it. He
looked up into the boy's face every now and then with such a penitent
expression that Toby finally assured him of forgiveness and begged him
not to feel so badly.

XIII. TOBY ATTEMPTS TO RESIGN HIS SITUATION

At last it was possible for Toby to speak of his loss with some degree
of calmness, and then he immediately began to reckon up what he could
have done with the money if he had not lost it.

"Now see here, Toby," said Ben, earnestly, "don't go to doin' anything
of that kind. The money's lost, an' you can't get it back by talkin'; so
the very best thing for you is to stop thinkin' what you could do if you
had it, an' just to look at it as a goner."

"But--" persisted Toby.

"I tell you there's no buts about it," said Ben, rather sharply. "Stop
talkin' about what's gone, an' just go to thinkin' how you'll get more.
Do what you've a mind to the monkey, but don't keep broodin' over what
you can't help."

Toby knew that the advice was good and he struggled manfully to carry it
into execution, but it was very hard work. At all events, there was no
sleep for his eyes that night; and when, just about daylight, the train
halted to wait a more seasonable hour in which to enter the town, the
thought of what he might have done with his lost money was still in
Toby's mind.

Only once did he speak crossly