“I should miss you, Robert, I can’t tell how much, but I don’t want to tie you down here when you can do better. There isn’t much for me to live for--I’m an old woman already--but better times may be in store for you.” “You are not an old woman, Aunt Jane. You are not more than fifty.” “I am just fifty, Robert, but I feel sometimes as if I were seventy.” “Do you know, Aunt Jane, I sometimes think that brighter days are coming to both of us? Sometimes, when I sit out there on the cliff and look out to sea, I almost fancy I can see a ship coming in laden with good things for us.” Mrs. Trafton smiled faintly. “I have waited a long time for my ship to come in, Robert,” she said. “I’ve waited year after year, but it hasn’t come yet.” “It may come for all that.” “You are young and hopeful. Yours may come in some day, but I don’t think mine ever will.” “Have you anything for me to do, aunt?” “Not at present, Robert.” “Then I’ll study a little.” There was an unpainted wooden shelf which Robert had made himself and on it were half a dozen books--his sole library. From this shelf he took down a tattered arithmetic and a slate and pencil, and, going out of doors, flung himself down on the cliff and opened the arithmetic well toward the end. “I’ll try this sum in cube root,” he said to himself. “I got it wrong the last time I tried.” He worked for fifteen minutes and a smile of triumph lit up his face. “It comes right,” he said. “I think I understand cube root pretty well now. It was a good idea working by myself. When I left school I had only got through fractions. That’s seventy-five pages back and I understand all that I have tried since. I won’t be satisfied till I have gone to the end of the very last page.” Here his aunt came to the door of the cabin and called “Robert.” “All right, aunt; I’m coming.” The boy rose to his feet and answered the summons. CHAPTER II ROBERT AND MRS. JONES “Are you willing to go to the village for me, Robert?” asked his aunt. “To be sure I am, aunt,” answered the boy promptly. “I hope you don’t doubt it?” “I thought you might be tired, as you were out all the forenoon in the boat.” “That’s sport, Aunt Jane. That doesn’t tire me.” “It would if you were not very strong for a boy.” “Yes, I am pretty strong,” said Robert complacently, extending his muscular arms. “I can row the boat when the tide is very strong. What errand have you got for me to the village, aunt?” “I have been doing a little sewing for Mrs. Jones.” “You mean the landlord’s wife?” questioned Robert. “Yes; I don’t feel very friendly toward her husband, for it’s he that sells strong drink to my husband and keeps his earnings from me, but I couldn’t refuse work from her when she offered it to me.” Mrs. Trafton spoke half apologetically, for it had cost her a pang to work for her enemy’s family, but Robert took a practical view of the matter.