"Didn't he write where he had gone?"
"He wrote one letter to his mother, but he didn't say where he was. That is the last any of us heard from him."
"What sort of a chap was he?" inquired Ben. "He was a bad un, wasn't he?"
"No, Ben wasn't a bad boy. He had a quick temper though; but whenever he was angry he soon got over it."
"What made him run away from home?"
"His father punished him for something he didn't do. He found it out afterwards; but he is a stern man, and he never says anything about him. But I guess he feels bad sometimes. Father says he has grown old very fast since my cousin ran away."
"Is his mother living,—your aunt?" Ben inquired, drawn on by an impulse he could not resist.
"Yes, but she is always sad; she has never stopped mourning for Ben."
"Did you like your cousin?" Ben asked, looking wistfully in the face of his companion.
"Yes, he was my favorite cousin. Poor Ben and I were always together. I wish I knew whether he were alive or not."