bert. "I was
disgusted with his heartlessness in refusing to take you from Egg
Island, and I told him so pretty plainly. He accused me of insulting him
and threatened to lay a complaint before my mother. I requested him to
do so. Considerably to his surprise, she took my part and reproved him
for his selfish and disagreeable pride. This was too much for the young
gentleman, and he gave notice that he should return to the city. No one
attempted to keep him, and he has felt compelled to carry out his
threat, a good deal to his disappointment."

"I am sorry you are losing your visitor on my account, Herbert."

"You needn't. Though he is my cousin, I am glad to have him go."

"But you will feel lonely."

"Not if you come to see me every day, Bob."

"If we didn't live in a poor cabin, I would ask you to visit me."

"Never mind about how you live; I will come. It isn't the house I shall
come to see, but you. Some time when you are going out fishing I wish
you would take me along."

"With all my heart, if you will come."

To Herbert alone Robert confided his discovery of the purse of gold.

It was about a week before Robert had occasion to use any of his gold.
By that time he had spent the balance of the money given him by Mr.
Lawrence Tudor and was forced to fall back upon his gold, having as yet
received nothing from the hermit, who knew that he was not in immediate
want of money.

Abner Sands was standing behind the counter in his grocery when Robert
entered.

"What can I do for ye, Robert?" asked the trader.

"You may give me two pounds of tea and six pounds of flour."

"I s'pose ye've got the money," said Sands cautiously.

"Of course I have."

"You're doin' well now, Robert, I take it?" said the trader.

"Better than I used to," answered Robert.

He did not choose to make a confidant of Mr. Sands, who was a man of
great curiosity and an inveterate gossip.

When the goods were done up in separate parcels Robert took out the
two-dollar-and-a-half gold piece and passed it to the grocer.

"Why, I declare, it's gold!" exclaimed Mr. Sands wonderingly.

"Yes, it is gold."

"Of all things, I didn't expect to get gold from you, Robert Coverdale.
I reckon you've found a gold mine!"

"Perhaps I have," said Robert, smiling.

As he put his hand in his pocket another gold piece dropped to the floor
and he picked it up hastily, provoked at his carelessness, not, however,
before the astonished trader had see