The boy listened and waited for what was to come next. He loved his mother, and trusted in her. "What are you going to do about it?" inquired the aunt. "Keep it, of course," answered Mrs. Omdorff; "Barker will never be the wiser. He makes enough out of us, dear knows." And she rolled the ribbon about her fingers. Karl was a little surprised. It did not seem like his mother, nor in accordance with what she had often said to him about truth and honesty, but he had faith in her, and was sure that she could do nothing wrong. His Aunt Ruth, of whom he was very fond, and who had great influence over him, was a weak woman in some respects, and much more inclined to take the current of other's opinions than to give herself the trouble of opposition. Her innate sense of honor was a little disturbed at her sister's views of the case; but she failed to say the right words which were in her thoughts, and which, if spoken, might have helped the boy to see what was just and right. A day or two afterward, Karl heard his mother say: "I saved a car ticket this morning." "How?" inquired her sister. "The conductor forgot to ask for it." "Why didn't you give it to him, mamma?" asked Karl. "It was his business to look after his passengers," replied Mrs. Omdorff, who felt rather uncomfortable at this question from her little boy. "It will teach him a lesson." Karl thought a moment, and then said: "But he won't know anything about it." "Oh, you're too sharp!" exclaimed his mother, with a laugh. "I wasn't talking to you, anyhow." "Little pitchers have big ears," said Aunt Ruth, echoing her sister's laugh. And so the matter was pushed aside, neither mother nor aunt imagining that the bright and beautiful boy they both loved so tenderly had received a lesson in dishonesty not soon to be forgotten. "I do believe," said Mrs. Omdorff, not long afterward, as she sat counting over some money, "that Poole has given me the wrong change." Karl was in the room and heard her remark. "Let me see," she added, going over the money again. "Two and a half, three, four and three-quarters. It's a fact; I gave him a ten-dollar bill, and here are four and three-quarters change." "What did the goods amount to?" asked her sister. "There were eleven yards of muslin at eighteen; that's a dollar and ninety-eight cents. Two yards of silk at a dollar and a half, and an eighth of a yard of velvet one dollar--making just five dollars and ninety-eight cents. If it had come to six dollars, my right change would have been four; but he has given me four and three-quarters." Then, in a tone of satisfaction, she added: "I'm that much richer, you see, Ruth." Her sister smiled, but did not utter the disapproval that was in her heart. Karl listened and took all in. A little while afterward Mrs. Omdorff got up and rang the bell, saying, as she did so, with a short gurgling laugh, that seemed ashamed of itself: "I guess we'll have a little ice-cream--at Poole's expense."