“And what did she say?” faltered Tom Inwold.
“She told me that you had run away with an auctioneer.”
“And—and was that all?” went on the boy, his voice trembling with emotion.
“No; she was very anxious to have you come 271 home again. She missed you very much, and she could not understand how you could have the heart to leave her.”
At these words, which Matt delivered very seriously, the tears sprang into Tom Inwold’s eyes. Evidently he was not hard-hearted, and had been led astray purely by bad associates.
“I—I wish I was back home again,” he said in a low voice.
“You do not like being an auctioneer’s helper, then?”
“No, I don’t. I might like you, but Gissem and Fillow treat me awful.”
“In what way?”
“Well, in the first place they don’t half feed me, and then they don’t pay me the wages they promised.”