expected, Mary," he said, "and I shan't grieve over
it much. You ought to have seen how they all looked when I asked
Albert's advice about opening a small cigar and candy store in the
village. You can imagine what a mortification it would be to my
high-toned nephew to have my sign out,

JACOB MARLOWE,

Candy and Cigars.

over a small seven by nine store, when our relationship was known."

"I hope that won't prevent your carrying out the plan, Uncle Jacob. If
your gains are small, you can make your home with us and pay what you
can afford."

"Thank you, Mary, you are a true friend, and I shan't forget your kind
offer. But I never had the slightest idea of opening such a store. I
only mentioned it to test Albert."

"But you will have to do something, Uncle Jacob," said Mary Barton,
perplexed; "and that would be as easy as anything. Bert could go in the
evening and help you if you found it too confining."

"I have something else in view in the city," returned Jacob. "I don't
need to earn much you know. I don't set up to be a dude," he added,
with a comical glance at his rustic attire, "and I don't mean to board
at the Fifth Avenue Hotel."

"I am sorry you can't stay in Lakeville," said Mrs. Barton regretfully.

"I will stay here a week, Mary, to get acquainted with you and your boy.
I have taken a fancy to him. He is a fine, manly youth, worth a dozen of
such fellows as Percy Marlowe."

"Indeed, he is a good boy," said his mother proudly. "I don't see what I
could do without him."

"So, Mary, if you'll show me where you are going to accommodate me, I'll
go up and take possession."

"Will you mind my putting you in with Bert? I have but two chambers."

"Not a bit. It will be all the better. If I were going to stay here
permanently I would build an extension to the house for you."

"But that would be expensive, Uncle Jacob."

"So it would. I'm always forgetting that I am not a rich man. You see I
was rich once. As I told Albert, I have seen the time when I had a
hundred thousand dollars to my credit in a bank of Sacramento."

"Oh, Uncle Jacob! Why didn't you invest it in government bonds, and you
would have been independent for life?"

"Because I was not so prudent as my niece, I suppose. However, it's no
use crying over spilt milk, and I've got a matter of five hundred
dollars left."

"But that won't last long, Uncle Jacob."

"Not unless I work. But I'm pretty rugged yet, and I guess I can manage