"You do not ask it; but that does not absolve me from doing something.
But, to change the subject, I do not quite like to have you accused of
robbing the mail."

"I didn't do it, sir."

"The gentleman who gave you the money ought to come forward and explain.
If you didn't open the letter, you should not suffer a day for it. I
will see your brother about that, too. It must be made right."

"I should be very glad to have it made right; but I can't tell who the
man was that gave me the money."

He insisted, in very complimentary terms, that one who had done what I
had could not be guilty of a crime, and that I must be cleared even from
the suspicion of evil.

Sim and I slept on beds of down that night. The next morning Mr.
Goodridge undertook to find Clarence. About the middle of the forenoon,
while our raft party were all gathered in the parlor with the
housekeeper, he was shown into the room. Not a word had been said to him
as to the nature of the business upon which he was called, and his eyes
opened almost as wide as Sim's when he saw Flora and me.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CLARENCE BRADFORD.

"My dear little Flora!" exclaimed Clarence, as he glanced from me to
her, after he entered the room.

He sprang to her chair, and embraced and kissed her. I perceived that he
was winking rapidly, as though an unmanly weakness was getting
possession of him.

"Buck!" he added, extending his hand to me, "what does all this mean? I
supposed you were both in Torrentville."

"We are not. We couldn't stand it any longer," I replied.

"Stand what?" he demanded, sternly.

"The way that Captain Fishley's folks treated us."

"You don't mean to say they abused you!"

"That's just what I mean to say. I thought I spoke plain enough in my
letters for you to understand me."

"I had no idea that you were actually abused. Boys are always grumbling
and complaining, and some of them think their lot is a great deal harder
than it is. Flora didn't say anything in her letters; she didn't
complain."

"She wouldn't have said anything if they had killed her," I replied. "I
am not one of the grumbling sort, and I didn't say anything till they
picked upon me so that I couldn't stand it. I was kept at home from
school half the time to work; and then I was the old man's servant, the
old woman's servant, and Ham's servant. I was kept on the jump by some
of them all the time."

"But you were only to take care of the horse, and go for the