Occasionally he gave entertainments at his own handsome residence for their benefit.  Now and then he would invite some of them to dinner.  His wife was in delicate health, but a most excellent woman, who did much to make such evenings highly enjoyable.  Their only son had died in his infancy, and their daughter Jennie was attending a boarding-school.  Little was seen of her, though when at home she often drove to the store with her mother, to take her father out with them.  She was remarkably attractive in looks, but, like her father, reserved in manner.  She recognized the clerks, when she chanced to meet them, with the air and manner of a lady; but all felt there was a gulf between her and them which was impassable.  They concluded (and did not criticise her therefor) that she held herself socially above each and all of them.

The second incident that took place came to Tom Gordon in the summer-time while away on his fortnight’s vacation.  He had grown to be tall, and more attractive than when younger.  He was fond of good clothes; and when he took the steamer at the landing, and went down the Hudson to New York, it would have been hard to find a better looking or more correctly costumed young man than Tom.  He did not show it in his manner, but how could he help knowing it?

Strange that almost the first persons he noticed on the boat were Sam Harper and his sister Nellie, returning from an excursion up the river.  They, too, had done considerable growing, and made a handsome couple.  Tom looked so well that Nellie was very pleased to meet him.  She would have been glad to receive attention from him, and showed by her manner that she expected it.  But Tom could not forget that snub a couple of years before, when he was selling papers on a Broadway car.  He liked Sam and his father and mother, but couldn’t forgive Nellie for hurting his feelings.  So, when the brother turned her over to him, Tom with exquisite courtesy raised his hat, bade her good-day, and strolled to another part of the boat.  She understood the meaning of the repulse, as he meant she should, and she felt it.

And who should he run against on the wharf in the city but his old friend Patsey McConough, who had done him such a good turn when he first arrived in the metropolis.  The genial Irishman had driven down with a carriage to meet his employer, who was on the steamer, so he had but little opportunity to talk with Tom, whom he did not recognize until the youth made himself known.  But they shook hands warmly, and each was pleased to find the other doing so well.  They parted with the best wishes, hoping soon to see each other again.

Tom, like a sensible youth, made the most of his vacation.  He spent several days among his friends at Briggsville, who heartily welcomed him among them, even though saddened by the fact that the orphan who went away with him could never return to them again.  Then he gave a few days to the seashore, where none enjoyed the bathing, the boating, and frolicking more than he.  All too soon the two weeks drew to an end, and he again boarded the steamer which stopped at the landing opposite Bellemore, on its way to more important towns and cities up the Hudson.