“Eben, I'll make a bargain with you. If I will take you home, will you turn over a new leaf, and try to lead a regular and industrious life?”
“Yes, I'll do it,” answered Eben.
“Then I'll take you with me to-morrow.”
“I shouldn't like my old friends to see me in these rags,” said Eben, glancing with shame at his tattered clothes.
“They shall not. Come with me, and I will rig you out anew.”
“You're a good fellow, Herbert,” said Eben, gratefully. “I'm sorry for the way I treated you.”
“Then it's all right,” said Herbert. Herbert kept his promise. He took Eben to a barber shop, where there were also baths, having previously purchased him a complete outfit, and Eben emerged looking once more like the spruce dry-goods salesman of yore.
One day not long afterwards Mrs. Carr was sitting in her little sitting room, sewing. She had plenty of leisure for this work now, for Mr. Graham had undertaken to attend to the post-office duties himself. It was natural that she should think of her absent boy, from whom she had not heard for a long time.
“When shall I see him again?” she thought, wearily.