"Well, the two are alone in the world, and that may make a difference. Have we not been drawn closer together since your father died?"
"That is true, mother, but I try to do right, and—"
"You do what is right, Ralph. As much as I love you, I would not stand by you were you to do a deliberate wrong."
"I don't believe Percy will do much," said Ralph, after a long pause. "I was sticking up for the rules, and that is what I am put there to do."
After the supper dishes were cleared away, Mrs. Nelson put on her bonnet and took a basket to do a little trading at one of the stores, leaving Ralph to take care of the cottage while she was gone.
"I'll go along and carry the things for you, if you wish," said her son.
"I am going to get a few things, Ralph, which will not be heavy, and I wish to see Mr. Dicks about the calico he sold me which is not as good as he represented. You may stay home and read."
"I'll study my school books, mother. I want to master commercial arithmetic if I can. Maybe one of these days I can become a bookkeeper in one of the Eastport factories."
"I trust so, my son, that or something even better. I would not wish you to remain a bridge tender all your life."
A moment later Mrs. Nelson was on her way to the village center. Ralph lit the sitting-room lamp and got out his books and his slate. Soon he had forgotten all about the exciting scenes of the day in an earnest endeavor to do a complicated example in profit and loss.