"Oh, that's the trouble, is it? Well, he'll wait a long time before he finds that day. Now, Hank, you want to put that money where he won't get it."
"I know it, and I want you to take charge of it. Give me ten dollars to buy a good supper for mother, and do what you please with the balance."
"Well, suppose you come around to Ben's house in the morning, and I will go to the bank with you and put it there. It is too late now, for the bank is closed. You can trust your mother that far, can't you?"
"Oh, yes. As long as she has not got the money in her possession it is all right. It is all mine, isn't it? I never thought I should have so much money of my own."
"It is all yours if you don't let your father get it away from you," said Bob, handing out the bill which Hank had asked for. "You must keep it away from him, at all events."
"And that is going to be a harder job than you imagine," said Hank, as he walked with Bob toward town. "He watches everything that comes on the table, and he knows in a minute when I have got any money."
"Tell him I gave you this to pay you for going fishing with me. I hope I shall be somewhere one of these days where I will not have to tell so many lies. Good-bye. Remember and come in the morning about nine o'clock. In the afternoon I have to see a lawyer."
Hank promised to be on hand, and the two separated, one to go in and throw old Ben Watson into an ecstacy of bewilderment and delight when he heard of Hank's lucky find, and the other to pass on to town to purchase a good supper for his mother.
CHAPTER XI.
LEON'S WAR RECORD.
Everybody in town knew Hank, and everybody felt sorry for him, too. He and his mother were obliged to work so hard, and his father, presuming on his war record, did nothing but loaf. He had been wounded three times while in the service, but that did not hurt him any, and Mr. Sprague had threatened to arrest him and put him where he would be obliged to do something; but his wife and Hank always stood in the way. It would have mortified them beyond measure to have Mr. Lufkin sent to the workhouse, and Mr. Sprague didn't know what else to do with him.