rmit gently.
"It is a great pity he could not have lived to change them."

"I am afraid he never would," said the widow.

"They had grown upon him from year to year, and he seemed to get weaker
and weaker in purpose."

"I had a brother who was equally unfortunate," said the hermit. "There
are few families who are wholly free from the evils of intemperance. But
have you formed any plans?"

"I suppose we can get along as we have," answered Mrs. Trafton. "With
what you kindly pay Robert, and what he can pick up elsewhere, and the
sewing I do, I think we can get along."

"Do you own this cottage?" inquired the hermit.

"Yes, sir."

"Then you will have no rent to pay."

"No, I don't know how we could do that."

The hermit looked thoughtful.

"I will see you again," he said as he rose to go.

On the whole, Mrs. Trafton and Robert were likely to get along as well
as before John Trafton's death. Robert could use his uncle's boat for
fishing, selling what they did not require, while regularly every week
two dollars came in from the hermit.

It was a great source of relief that no rent must be paid. The
fisherman's cabin and lot originally cost about five hundred dollars and
the household furniture was of little value. The taxes were small and
could easily be met. So there seemed nothing to prevent their living on
in the same way as before.

Some time Robert hoped and expected to leave Cook's Harbor. He was a
smart, enterprising, ambitious boy, and he felt that he would like a
more stirring life in a larger place.

He was not ashamed of the fisherman's business, but he felt qualified
for something better. It did not escape his notice that most of his
neighbors were illiterate men, who had scarcely a thought beyond the
success of their fishing trips, and he had already entered so far into
the domain of study and books as to feel the charm of another world--the
great world of knowledge--which lay spread out before him and beckoned
him onward. But he was not impatient.

"My duty at present," he reflected, "Is to stay in Cook's Harbor and
take care of my aunt. I am young and strong, and I don't mean that she
shall want for any comforts which I can get for her."

He soon learned, however, that there was one great mistake in his
calculations.

Robert was sitting by the door reading, after his return from a fishing
trip, about a week after his uncle's funeral, when he heard the steps of
some one approaching.

Lo