"The policies of insurance must be placed in my hands."
"Of course."
"I have to take all precautions, as the money is not mine, but belongs to a boy for whom I am trustee."
"I see."
Squire Collins had no curiosity as to the name of the boy referred to. He would have been very much amazed had he been told that it was the very boy whom he had discharged from his employment only a short time previous. For that matter, Mark would have been quite as much surprised.
In the course of half an hour the proper papers had been made out, a check for four thousand dollars handed to Squire Collins, and the shoe manufacturer left the office in as good spirits as Mark had done half an hour before.
"By-the-way," remarked the Squire at his supper table that evening, "I met two persons from Pocasset in the city to-day."
"Who were they?" asked James.
"Old Anthony and Mark Manning."
"What could have taken them to the city?"