“That’s right, Bobby; always remember your friends.  Timmins, wrap up this book.”

Bobby protested with all his might; but the bookseller insisted that he should give Annie this beautiful edition, and he was obliged to yield the point.

That evening he was at the little black house again, and his mother examined his ledger with a great deal of pride and satisfaction.  That evening, too, another ten dollars was indorsed on the note, and Annie received that elegant copy of Moore’s Poems.

CHAPTER XIV.

IN WHICH BOBBY’S AIR CASTLE IS UPSET AND TOM SPICER TAKES TO THE WOODS.

During the next four weeks Bobby visited various places in the vicinity of Boston; and at the end of that time he had paid the whole of the debt he owed Squire Lee.  He had the note in his memorandum book, and the fact that he had achieved his first great purpose afforded him much satisfaction.  Now he owed no man any thing, and he felt as though he could hold up his head among the best people in the world.

The little black house was paid for, and Bobby was proud that his own exertions had released his mother from her obligation to her hard creditor.  Mr. Hardhand could no longer insult and abuse her.

The apparent results which Bobby had accomplished; however, were as nothing compared with the real results.  He had developed those energies of character which were to make him, not only a great business man, but a useful member of society.  Besides, there was a moral grandeur in his humble achievements which was more worthy of consideration than the mere worldly success he had obtained.  Motives determine the character of deeds.  That a boy of thirteen should display so much enterprise and energy was a great thing; but that it should be displayed from pure, unselfish devotion to his mother was a vastly greater thing.  Many great achievements are morally insignificant, while many of which the world never hears mark the true hero.

Our hero was not satisfied with what he had done, and far from relinquishing his interesting and profitable employment, his ambition suggested new and wider fields of success.  As one ideal, brilliant and glorious in its time, was reached, another more brilliant and more glorious presented itself, and demanded to be achieved.  The little black house began to appear rusty and inconvenient; a coat of white paint would marvellously improve its appearance; a set of nice Paris-green blinds would make a palace of it, and a neat fence around it would positively transform the place into a paradise.  Yet Bobby was audacious enough to think of these things, and even to promise himself that they should be obtained.

In conversation with Mr. Bayard a few days before, that gentleman had suggested a new field of labor; and it had been arranged that Bobby should visit the State of Maine the following week.  On the banks of the Kennebec were many wealthy and important towns, where the intelligence of the people created a demand for books.  This time the little merchant was to take two hundred books, and be absent until they were all sold.