“All right,” said Dick.

When the two left the house, the country boy began to ask questions.

“How do you like your business?” he asked.

“Not very well,” answered Frank.  “I do not think I shall stay in it very long.”

“Do you sell enough to make your expenses?” asked Dick.

“No; but I am not wholly dependent on my sales.  I have a little income—­a hundred dollars a year—­paid me by my stepfather.”

“I wish I had as much.  It seems a good deal to me.”

“It doesn’t go very far.  What are you intending to be, Dick?”

“I suppose I shall have to be a farmer, though I don’t like it.”

“What would you like to be?”

“I should like to get an education,” said Dick, his eyes lighting up.  “I should like to study Latin and Greek, and go to college.  Then I could be a teacher or a lawyer.  But there is no chance of that,” he added, his voice falling.

“Don’t be too sure of that, Dick,” said Frank Frank, hopefully.  “Something may turn up in your favor.”

“Nothing ever does turn up in Jackson,” said the boy, in a tone of discouragement.  “Father is a poor man, and has hard work to get along.  He can give me no help.”

“Isn’t the farm productive?”

“There is no trouble about that, but he has to pay too high a rent.  It’s all the fault of Fairfield.”

“The agent?”

“Yes.”

“Your father was telling me about him.  Now, if your father were in his place, I suppose he could give you the advantages you wish.”

“Oh, yes!  There would be no trouble then.  I am sure he would make a better and more popular agent than Mr. Fairfield; but there is no use thinking about that.”

“I expected myself to go to college,” said Frank.  “In fact, I have studied Latin and Greek, and in less than a year I could be ready to enter.”

“Why don’t you?” asked Dick.

“You forget that I am a poor peddler.”

“Then how were you able to get so good an education?” asked Dick, in surprise.

“Because I was once better off than I am now.  The fact is, Dick,” he added, “I have seen better days.  But when I was reduced to poverty, I gave up hopes of college education and became what I am.”

“Wasn’t it hard?”

“Not so much as you might suppose.  My home was not happy.  I have a stepfather and stepbrother, neither of whom I like.  In fact, there is no love lost between us.  I was not obliged to leave home, but under the circumstances I preferred to.”

“Where are your stepfather and your stepbrother now?”

“They are traveling in Europe.”

“While you are working hard for a living!  That does not seem to be just.”

“We must make the best of circumstances, Dick.  Whose is that large house on the left?”

“That belongs to Mr. Fairfield.

“He seems to live nicely.”