Wade accepted this kind offer; and in a few days he was as fashionably dressed as the rest of the employés in the store. In another week Ranlet was able to return to his duty, and he and Wade divided the time between them. As his room-mate had friends in the city, it was agreed that he should be out every evening till ten, while Wade was to sleep from six till two. This was eight hours for him, and all he needed. Ranlet was to sleep from two in the morning till eight, and take his nap in the afternoon if he wanted it. Mr. Maynard thought it was about an even thing, and approved the plan. Then Wade found he had all the afternoon on his hands: and for a few days he preferred to work during these hours, rather than “loaf,” but Mr. Maynard suggested that he could go to school at one of the mercantile academies, and fit himself for business. He took this advice, and was wholly devoted to his studies. In October he was allowed a week’s vacation; and he spent it in a visit to Midhampton. Even a month of absence had made a wonderful change in his appearance and manners; and his old friends hardly knew him. He found that Capt. Trustleton had sent his son to a boarding-school of the strictest sort, where he had to eat and sleep with his teachers, and had no time at all to “cut up.” Wade went to see Obed Swikes’s folks; but they were not very glad to see him. The old lady told him he looked like a dandy, and she supposed he was as “stuck up as any of the rest of them city fellers.” Obed thought, as he had plenty of money now, he had better pay for his board for the time he was in the family; but Wade “couldn’t see it.” Matt had a terrible sore head since he got back from his excursion to New York and out to sea. His father had talked a great deal with Capt. Trustleton about him and Lon. They had been partly spoiled, both of them, by being humored too much. The captain spoke favorably of the boarding-school to which he intended to send his own son; but Obed was too mean to pay the bills, and he thought he could “knock the nonsense out of Matt” by putting him down to hard work. And he did do it. Since Matt had stolen his money, the old man’s eyes were opened. It was hard times with Matt just now; and, if he could have got hold of any money, he would have lost no time in running away again. But Obed kept his money in the bank after it had been stolen twice. Wade Brooks is now one of the best salesmen in the store of Maynard & Co.; and he knows that part of the business as well as the partners. He has followed up his studies so closely that he is a well-educated man. He is only twenty-two; and there is no doubt that he will soon be one of the partners of the firm. He has been relieved of the duty of sleeping in the store; and though he was “one from the country,” and noted in the beginning for his verdancy, he is now an elegant and accomplished gentleman; and rumor has it that Mr. Maynard’s youngest daughter is not wholly indifferent to him.