"How old are you?"
"I shall be sixteen in a few weeks."
"You are young to be an orphan. I judge from what your cousin says that you were left poor."
"Yes, father was unfortunate. He was so honest himself that he allowed people to cheat him."
"There are too many such cases. But I am glad that Cousin Ezra has opened his heart and given you a home."
"Yes," said Scott, briefly.
He was not disposed to be ungrateful, but it did not seem to him that he owed a very large debt of gratitude to Mr. Little, who had taken all his money and merely gave him his board in return for his services in the store.
"Do you find your cousin—what is his name?—a pleasant companion?"
"Loammi and I do not see much of each other, Mr. Lawton."
Seth Lawton looked at Scott shrewdly.