An intelligent-looking boy, of perhaps fifteen, coarsely but neatly² dressed, approached and greeted his father, not without a glance of surprise and curiosity at Frank.

 

"You may unharness the horses, Dick," said Mr. Hamlin. "When you come back, I will introduce you to a boy friend who will stay with us a while."

 

Dick obeyed, and Frank followed his host into the house.

 

Here he was introduced to Mrs. Hamlin, a motherly-looking woman, and Annie and Grace, younger sisters of Dick.

 

"I am glad to see you," said Mrs. Hamlin, to our hero, after a brief explanation from her husband. "We will try to make you comfortable."

 

"Thank you!" said Frank. "I am sure I shall feel at home."

 

The house was better furnished than might have been anticipated. When Mr. Hamlin left Chicago, he had some money saved up, and he furnished his house in a comfortable manner.

 

It was not, however, the furniture that attracted Frank's attention so much as the books, papers and pictures that gave the rooms a homelike appearance.

 

"I shall be much better off here than I would have been at the tavern," he thought. "This seems like home."

 

"I see," said Mr. Hamlin, "that you are surprised to see so many books and pictures. I admit that my house does not look like the house of a poor man, who has to struggle for the mere³ necessaries of life. But books and periodicals we have always classed among the necessities, and I am sure we would all rather limit ourselves to dry bread for two out of the three meals than to give up this food for the mind."

 

"I think you are a very sensible man, Mr. Hamlin," said Frank. "I couldn't get along without something to read."

 

"Not in this out-of-the-way place, at any rate," said Mr. Hamlin. "Nothing can be more dismal⁴ than the homes of some of my neighbors, who spend as much, or more, than I do every year. Yet, they consider me

分享到：