Frank Hardy's choice, and what came of it

by Charlotte Grace O'Brien

"Thank you for your good wishes," said Frank, laughing, as he took up his cap and left the yard.

Walter heard him the next moment talking to Tom Haines, who had been waiting for him outside. There was something about Tom which made Walter shrink from any companionship with him. Once it had not been so; he remembered, when his mother had first cautioned him against being intimate with Tom Haines, that he had thought it a little hard, having been flattered, as a great many foolish boys are apt to be, by the attention of one who was several years older than himself. He had obeyed his mother, however, as he always tried to do; and now, in this case, as in every other, he had come to feel how right she was in the advice she had given him.

There was something in Tom Haines' manner to Frank which struck Walter particularly. It seemed to the boy as if Tom felt that he had Frank in his power in some way or other, and could make any use of him he liked. The following day, Frank paid Walter the two small sums he had borrowed from him, and rattled some money, which sounded like silver, in his waistcoat pocket, to show that he had more remaining.

"Are you sure you can spare it, Frank?" said Walter, as he held the money in his hand.

"Don't you hear I have plenty more?" replied his companion, rattling his pocket again as he spoke.

"Yes; but is it your own, your very own, Frank?" And then, feeling ashamed of the suspicions which arose in his mind, he added—"I beg your pardon, Frank, only I thought that perhaps you had been borrowing money in order to pay me, on account of what I said yesterday; and I am in no hurry, and would rather wait than—"

Here Walter stopped again, and seemed at a loss what to say.

"Don't be afraid, Walter; I earned it all, I tell you. Didn't I tell you yesterday that I had found an easy way of earning money and a pleasant way enough as well?"

Frank spoke in such a cheerful tone that, Walter thought he must have been mistaken in thinking that there was anything wrong in the matter. So he took the money, and thought how nice it really must be to be able to earn money so easily. His mother wanted a warm cloak against the cold weather set in; what if he could get enough to buy her one? He almost felt as though he should like to ask Frank something about the way in which he earned his money.

The lads were preparing to leave work, and, as Walter was hesitating whether to ask Frank about his "easy way," Tom Haines put his head in at the door of the yards and beckoned to Frank. There was a bad expression on Tom's face.