"You mean," returned Mabel, with a touch of sarcasm, "you wonder why I didn't teach him the happy medium. It seems there is one. Queer that Herbert should have been discharged for being too strict, and Perry Morse for being too loose."
"Herbert Bradford was discharged for disobeying orders; but Perry Morse was sent adrift because he is a drunkard and a gambler, and took my money to pay his gambling debts. If his father had not been an old friend, I'd have lodged the boy in jail, and I am not sure that I should not have been more in the way of duty if I had done so."
"Give him another chance," said Judge McNair quietly.
"Another chance at the money-drawer?" Mr. Wynn asked, laughing. "No, I can't do it. Morse must find some other berth for his scapegrace; but I am really sorry for them. I declare," turning to his daughter, "I don't see how you happened to make a failure of him. I thought all those boys were going to turn out paragons. It seems that Perry was too much for you, eh?"
"I do not give Perry Morse up for lost yet," returned Mabel. "The freshness and purity of his boyhood may be sadly marred, but he may make a good and useful man. I have worked hard for him, but Satan has been busy too."
"Do you know what Morse thinks of doing with him?" asked the judge.
"No; he spoke of his brother's establishment near Dunkirk, and thought perhaps he would take him."
"What is the business?" asked his wife.
"Manufacturing leather—in other words, a tannery."
"Do you mean that Mr. Morse would be so unwise as to set a boy of Perry's peculiar tastes and temperament to work at that disagreeable business?" exclaimed Mabel.