"For mercy's sake, be careful of it, Mark, as, if you lost it, we couldn't make up the loss."
"I'll look after that. In fact, I think it will be safer with me than with the owner. If any dishonest person should enter his cabin, he could not help being robbed in his present condition."
"That would be very unfortunate, as the old man is probably very poor."
Mark was about to undeceive his mother, but, reflecting that Lyman Taylor might still be in the village, he thought it not prudent to betray the hermit's secret.
"I heard a report to-day, Mark," said his mother, as she was setting the supper table, "that the shoe-shop was to be closed for a month."
"I hope not," said Mark, startled. "That would be serious for us."
"And for others too, Mark."
"Yes. It isn't as if there were other employments open, but there is absolutely nothing, unless I could get a chance to do some farm work."
"Perhaps Deacon Miller may need a boy."
"He's about the last man I would work for. He wouldn't pay me a cent."