"Maybe this will teach him a lesson."
"Possibly; but I am afraid not, Nat."
Several days passed, and Nat kept at work steadily. During that time he received a letter from his uncle, in which Abner Balberry stated that he had arrived home once more, and found everything on the farm all right.
"Uncle Abner isn't such a bad sort after all," thought Nat, "Only he ought to drop some of his miserly habits. Perhaps, now that he is married again, he will."
One day our hero had to go up to One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street on an errand.
"Take an elevated train," said his employer, and handed him the necessary carfare.
It did not take Nat long to reach the elevated station. Purchasing a ticket, he dropped it in the box, and walked out on the platform.
Only a few people were present, for it was the quiet hour of the morning. Among the number was a thick-set, trampish-looking fellow, who was smoking a short clay pipe. The man was more than half intoxicated, and lurched from side to side as he walked along the platform.
"That fellow had better look out for himself," thought our hero. "If he isn't careful, he may fall out on the tracks and get hurt."
As our hero had some time to wait for a train, he passed the man several times. The face of the fellow looked familiar, and Nat wondered where he had seen him before.