That meal, possibly on account of Matt's want of the good appetite he had had the night before, seemed to him greatly inferior to his supper. The coffee was bitter and sweetened with molasses, the johnny-cakes were burnt, and the meat and vegetables cold. He did his best to eat heartily of the unsavory food, however--partly that he might not seem to his employer over-fastidious in taste, and partly because the morning's work had taught him that he would need all the strength he could obtain ere his day's task was over. Stormy though it was, he felt sure Mr. Noman would find enough for him to do. In fact, long before the first of May came, Matt realized fully the force of the words Mr. Goodenough shouted after him the night he stopped there to inquire the way to Mr. Noman's. Had he really known his employer and family, he certainly would not have been over-anxious to hire out to him for the season, for the dilapidated condition of the buildings, and the untidiness and disorder that marked everything about the place, were not, after all, the worst features with which Matt had to deal. He soon found that his employer was a hard, grasping tyrant, while his wife was a termagant, scolding and fault-finding incessantly from morning until night. There was not an animal on the place that escaped the abuse of the master, and not even the master himself eluded the tirades of the mistress. Matt, by faithfully performing every task assigned him, and thus frequently doing twice over what a boy of his age should have been expected to do, tried to win the approval of both Mr. Noman and his wife. He soon found this impossible, and so contented himself with doing what he felt to be right, and cheerfully bore the scoldings that speedily became an hourly occurrence. It was indeed astonishing with what good-nature Matt accepted the work and the hard words put upon him. Mr. Noman attributed it to the paper he had asked him to sign, and chuckled to himself at the thought that Matt's fear of losing his wages kept him so industrious and docile. He confidentially admitted to his wife, one day, that the boy was worth twice what he had agreed to pay him--"only I ain't paid him nothin' as yit," he added, with a knowing look, which his wife seemed to understand, for she replied: "Now yer up to another of yer capers, Tom Noman. There never was a man on the earth meaner'n ye air!" But Mr. Goodenough, who knew his neighbors well, could in no way account for the boy's willingness to endure what he knew he must be suffering, and finally his curiosity got the better of him; for, meeting Matt one day as he was returning from the nearest village, he drew up his horses and said: "Matt, do you know you are the profoundest example of human patience I ever saw?" "No; is that so?" replied Matt, with a laugh. "What makes you think so?"