“‘It is safe in the savings bank,’ I said.
“‘And so it will be with Mr. Stubbs. He is a good, honorable man.’
“‘I don’t know about that. All the boys in town dislike him.’
“‘He says they tease him, and steal apples and other things from the store,’ she replied.
“‘I don’t like the idea of having such a man as that for my father.’
“‘He is going to put you into his store, and teach you business, and make a man of you,’ she said.
“I made a wry face, for I knew of one or two boys who had worked for Stubbs, and complained that he had treated them like niggers. However, I soon found that it was no use talking to mother, for she had made up her mind and I couldn’t alter it. In a month she changed her name to Stubbs, and we went to live at the house of my stepfather.
“I soon found that he lived very meanly. We didn’t live half so well as mother and I had before she married, although our means were small. I went into the store, and I never worked so hard in my life. I went to bed tired, and I got up at five o’clock in the morning, feeling more tired than when I went to bed. Presently I needed some new clothes, so I went to mother, and asked for some. She applied to Stubbs, but he refused to get them for me.
“‘The boy is proud,’ he said. ‘He wants to look like a dude. I won’t encourage him in such foolishness.’
“‘He really needs some new clothes,’ pleaded mother.