“You belong to me for the present; but if you do not like the arrangement, after you have tried it a while, I shall be glad to release you from the contract,” added Mr. Maynard. “Now I am going to tell you what I mean to do with you. We all feel an interest in you, and desire to make the best of you that we can. It is not altogether because you have saved a large amount of our property, but because we think you will become a useful young man to us.” “I shall try to do the best I can,” said the grateful boy. “Now let me tell you that Steeples was a poor boy like yourself. He did very well for several years; but at last he got above his business. He had ten dollars a week, but that was not enough to support him and his mother; but she was the sufferer, rather than himself. He began to live too fast; and now we find that he has not been honest for the last year, for we have been looking over his affairs since the robbery. We point him out as an example for you to shun.” “I don’t think I could ever let the robbers into the store, as he did,” said Wade. “Probably he did not think so when he first got his place. He was considered a very good boy, or we should not have trusted him as we did. We shall give you ten dollars a week, and pay your board.” “That’s very liberal, as I have no mother to support,” replied Wade, delighted with the prospect thus held out to him, for his dream of riches was fully realized in this plan. “But what am I to do?” “In the first place, you are to sleep in the store with Ranlet, when he gets well. We close the establishment at six, and open it at eight. Between ten and six, one of you must walk about the store all the time. This will be eight hours, or four for each of you; and you and Ranlet can divide the time as you please: only, when you have made the plan, let me know what it is. To make up for this night service, you will not be asked to do any thing after one o’clock, or before nine o’clock in the morning. One of you may be out of the store till ten every evening.” “What am I to do in the forenoon, sir?” asked Wade. “At first you will carry bundles, assist in packing goods, and make yourself generally useful,” replied Mr. Maynard. “During the holidays, and at other times when we are very busy, we shall expect you to do all you can without regard to hours, though you will have plenty of time to eat and sleep. Let me say, Wade, that you must put on better clothes than you wear now, and, if you desire it, one of us will go with you to the tailor’s, and we shall present to you your first suit,” added Mr. Maynard, with a smile, as he surveyed the primitive garments of the “one from the country.”