"Yes," answered Ben. "It's Sam Archer."
"In fun?"
"No, in spite. He is always glad to injure me."
"What can be his motive?"
Ben explained his relations with Sam.
"Do you need the position?" asked Mr. Porter.
"Yes, sir, I am poor, and can ill afford the money I have spent in coming to Boston. Sam knows this, and it is mean for him, a rich boy, to fool me so."
Mr. Porter was a kind-hearted man. More than once he had kept on a clerk whom he did not need.
"Go into the store a minute, my boy," he said, "while I speak with my nephew."
Of course Ben obeyed.