"It was a lucky thing for me that I took that walk on the Brooklyn Bridge," he reasoned. "Perhaps I shouldn't have gotten the job otherwise."

 

The clerk, Wilson, proved kind and considerate, and under him our hero learned rapidly.

 

"Didn't I tell you that you'd strike luck," said Dick. "Now, all you've got to do is to nurse that job carefully, and you'll be at the top of the firm some day."

 

"Well, I am going to nurse it as carefully as I can," laughed Nat.

 

When our hero had time he went to the police headquarters to see if anything had been learned of Nick Smithers.

 

"Nothing yet," said the officer in charge. "But I think he'll be run down sooner or later."

 

"I'd like to run him down myself."

 

"I've no doubt you would."

 

Nat had been working for Mr. Garwell about a week when he received another letter from Sam Price. Sam wrote, in part, as follows:

 

"Since I sent my last letter, there have been great changes at your uncle's farm. He has discharged the housekeeper², and some say he is courting the Widow Guff. For all I know they'll be married pretty soon. More than that, I heard somebody say that he was thinking of coming to New York to look for you."

 

Nat read this communication with close attention. He knew the Widow Guff as a person who took boarders in the town where he had sold his cow. She had three children, and had the reputation of being a rather tart³ and self-willed woman.

 

"I shouldn't think Uncle Abner would want to marry that widow," thought Nat. "Wonder what put it into his head? And what put it into his head to come to New York to look for me? I'd rather he would keep his distance."

 

Nat did not know that for the past few months the Widow Guff had had a hard time of it with a number of her boarders, and could scarcely make both ends meet, yet such was a fact.

 

One day the widow called on a friend, and from this friend learned that Abner Balberry had discharged his housekeeper, and was keeping house by himself.

 

"It's a shame for him to be all alone," thought the widow. "And with that nephew of his away, too! Some good woman ought to be keeping house for him."

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