"We'll get along somehow, mother. Something will be sure to turn up."

 

Ben spoke¹ more cheerfully than he felt. He knew very well that Pentonville presented scarcely any field for a boy, unless he was willing to work on a farm. Now, Ben had no objections to farm labor², provided he had a farm of his own, but at the rate such labor was paid in Pentonville, there was very little chance of ever rising above the position of a "hired man," if he once adopted the business. Our young hero felt that this would not satisfy him. He was enterprising and ambitious, and wanted to be a rich man some day.

 

Money is said, by certain moralists, to be the root of all evil. The love of money, if carried too far, may indeed lead to evil, but it is a natural ambition in any boy or man to wish to raise himself above poverty. The wealth of Amos Lawrence and Peter Cooper was a source of blessing³ to mankind, yet each started as a poor boy, and neither would have become rich if he had not striven hard to become so.

 

When Ben made this cheerful answer his mother shook her head sadly. She was not so hopeful as Ben, and visions of poverty presented themselves before her mind.

 

"I don't see what you can find to do in Pentonville, Ben," she said.

 

"I can live a while without work while I am looking around, mother," Ben answered. "We have got all that money I brought from New York yet."

 

"It won't last long," said his mother despondently⁴.

 

"It will last till I can earn some more," answered Ben hopefully.

 

Ben was about to leave the house when a man in a farmer's frock, driving a yoke⁵ of oxen, stopped his team in the road, and turned in at the widow's gate.

 

It was Silas Greyson, the owner of a farm just out of the village.

 

"Did you want to see mother?" asked Ben.

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