Just then Gus heard something fall on the counter, and looked up to see his brother Bob walking through the store, with a bundle of letters and papers in his hand. He had just returned from the post-office, and had thrown a letter for his brother on the counter, as he passed by. “Just look at young Dignity!” said Gus, as his brother disappeared through the door that led into the office. “One would think, by the airs he throws on, that he owned the store! Who has been writing to me, I wonder!” Gus allowed the letter to lie where it had fallen, until he had cleared the counter, folded all the goods and placed them on the shelves, where they belonged. Then he picked it up and glanced at the envelope, fully expecting to recognise the handwriting of some of his creditors, who not unfrequently wrote notes to him, to remind him that there was a little balance due them, which they would be happy to receive at the earliest possible moment that he could make it convenient to hand it to them. But this letter was not from a creditor. It was from Ned Ackerman, the very boy who had been in his thoughts a score of times that day. Gus ran his eyes hastily over the last few lines above the signature, and saw something in them that excited and delighted him. “Hurrah!” said he to himself. “Plague take it!” These two exclamations, so different in meaning, were called forth by very different emotions. He had read enough of the letter to learn that his old friend Ned was having a fine time down there in Texas; that he was lonely in spite of it, and wanted Gus and his brother to come on and pay him a long visit; and that the want of money need not prevent them from doing so, for Ned would send them enough to pay their fare and all other expenses. But before Gus could read any farther, he was interrupted by the entrance of two or three ladies, who came up to his counter. They proved to be very exacting, too, and Gus handed down a good many different kinds of cloth for their inspection. He fumed inwardly and used some hard words to himself, while he was doing it, and as soon as the ladies had departed, he caught up his letter and read it through. “Of course I’ll go,” said he, so delighted with the idea that he hardly knew what he was about; “but Bob shan’t! We don’t want him, and so I’ll say nothing to him about this letter. I shan’t say anything to father either, for he would be sure to tell me to stay at home.”