“Is this your home, my boy?”
“Yes, sir, while we can keep it, that is; but who knows what good luck will come next! If I were only a man now!”
“So you long to be a man?” said the stranger, looking down at the lad with sorrowful interest.
“Yes, I do. Then, sir, I would keep that roof over my mother’s head in spite of all the mortgages in the world. Oh! how I would work!”
“Brave lad, how I envy you.”
“Envy me! Well, yes, I am a good deal happier than one could expect. Working for women who love you isn’t bad fun; but here is the gate, and there is Ruthy, you can see her through the window. Won’t she wonder who it is, and what brings me home this time of day?”
“You seem to have forgotten your hurt?”
“No, it feels a little heavy, and smarts some; but I’ll pull my cap down not to frighten them. Of course, it’s nothing; but then one’s mother is so tender of a fellow. There!”
James pulled his cap far over his bruised forehead, and opening the gate, invited his strange guest to pass in.