“Enough said. Here is the ten.”
Carl took the bill, and gave Mr. Hubbard his five-dollar note.
“You are placing considerable confidence in me,” he said.
“I am, it is true, but I have no fear of being deceived. You are a boy who naturally inspires confidence.”
Carl thought Mr. Chauncy Hubbard a very agreeable and sensible fellow, and he felt flattered to think that the young man had chosen him as a guardian, so to speak.
“By the way, Carl, you haven’t told me,” said Hubbard, as they pursued their journey, “how a boy like yourself is forced to work his own way.”
“I can tell you the reason very briefly—I have a stepmother.”
“I understand. Is your father living?”
“Yes.”
“But he thinks more of the stepmother than of you?”