Major Norton wheeled round in his armchair and looked at Joe over his spectacles.  He looked at Joe’s clothes, too, and it did strike him forcibly that they were very shabby.  However, there was Oscar’s stained suit; which was entirely whole and of excellent cloth.  As to the stains, what right had a boy like Joe to be particular?

“Ahem!” said the major, clearing his throat.  “Oscar tells me that you are not satisfied with the clothes I have I given you.”

“He has told you the truth, Major Norton,” replied Joe bluntly.  “If you will look for yourself, I think you will see why I am dissatisfied.”

“Joseph,” said the major, in a tone of disapproval, “you are too free spoken.  I understand you have been complaining to Doctor Raymond’s daughter of the way I dress you.”

“Did Oscar tell you the way that happened?” inquired Joe.

“I apprehend he did not.”

“When I was walking home with Miss Annie Raymond, Oscar came up and insulted me, calling me a ragamuffin.  I told him that, if I was a ragamuffin, it was not my fault.”

Major Norton looked disturbed.

“Oscar was inconsiderate,” he said.  “It seems to me that your clothes are suitable to your station in life.  It is not well for a boy in your circumstances to be ‘clothed in purple and fine linen,’ as the Scriptures express it.  However, perhaps it is time for you to have another suit.”

Joe listened in astonishment.  Was it possible that Major Norton was going to open his heart and give him what he had long secretly desired?

Our hero’s delusion was soon dissipated.

Major Norton rose from his seat, and took from a chair near-by a stained suit, which had not yet attracted Joe’s attention.

“Here is a suit of Oscar’s,” he said, “which is quite whole and almost new.  Oscar only wore it a month.  It cost me thirty-four dollars!” said the major impressively.

He held it up, and Joe recognized it at once.

“Isn’t it the suit Oscar got stained?” he asked abruptly.

“Ahem!  Yes; it is a little stained, but that doesn’t injure the texture of the cloth.”

As he held it up the entire suit seemed to have been sprinkled with acid, which had changed the color in large, patches in different parts.  The wearer would be pretty sure to excite an unpleasant degree of attention.

Joe did not appear to be overwhelmed with the magnificence of the gift.

“If it is so good, why don’t Oscar wear it?” he asked.

Major Norton regarded Joe with displeasure.

“It cannot matter to you how Oscar chooses to dress,” he said.  “I apprehend that you and he are not on a level.”

“He is your son, and I am your hired boy,” said Joe.  “I admit that.  But I don’t see how you can ask me to wear a suit like that.”

“I apprehend that you are unsuitably proud, Joseph.”

“I hope not, sir; but I don’t want to attract everybody’s notice as I walk the streets.  If I had stained the suit myself, I should have felt bound to wear it, but it was Oscar’s carelessness that destroyed its appearance, and I don’t think I ought to suffer for that.  Besides, it is much too small for me.  Let me show you.”