“Perhaps he hasn’t one.”

“Yes he has —­ a good one.”

“It’s got into the wrong hands, I’m afraid,” said Winthrop.

“He has a little the character of being hard-fisted.  At least I think so.  He has a rich ward that he is bringing up with his daughter, —­ a niece of his wife’s —­ and people say he will take his commission out of her property; and there is nobody to look after it.”

“Well I shan’t take the office,” said Winthrop, getting up.  “If the thought of Mr. Haye’s fine dinner hasn’t taken away your appetite, suppose we get home and see how these mackerel will look fried.”

“It’s just getting pleasant now,” said Rufus as he rose to his feet.  “There might be a worse office to take, for she will have a pretty penny, they say.”

“Do you think of it yourself?”

“There’s two of them,” said Rufus smiling.

“Well, you take one and I’ll take the other,” said Winthrop. gravely.  “That’s settled.  And here is something you had better put in your pocket as we go —­ it may be useful in the meanwhile.”

He quietly gathered up the five dollars from the rock and slipped them into the pocket of Rufus’s jacket as he spoke; then slipped himself off the rock, took the fishing tackle and baskets into the boat, and then his brother, and pushed out into the tide.  There was a strong ebb, and they ran swiftly down past rock and mountain and valley, all in a cooler and fairer beauty than a few hours before when they had gone up.  Rufus took off his hat and declared there was no place like home; and Winthrop sometimes pulled a few strong strokes and then rested on his oars and let the boat drop down with the tide.

“Winthrop,” —­ said Rufus, as he sat paddling his hands in the water over the side of the boat, —­ “you’re a tremendous fine fellow!”

“Thank you. —­ I wish you’d sit a little more in the middle.”

“This is better than Asphodel just now,” Rufus remarked as he took his hands out and straightened himself.

“How do you like Mr. Glanbally?”

“Well enough —­ he’s a very good man —­ not too bright; but he’s a very good man.  He does very well.  I must get you there, Winthrop.”

Winthrop shook his head and turned the conversation; and Rufus in fact went away from home without finding a due opportunity to speak on the matter.  But perhaps other agency was at work.

The summer was passed, and the fall nearly; swallowed up in farm duty as the months before had been.  The cornstalks were harvested and part of the grain threshed out.  November was on its way.

“Governor,” said his father one night, when Winthrop was playing “even or odd” with Winifred and Asahel, a great handful of chestnuts being the game, —­ “Governor, have you a mind to take Rufus’s place at Asphodel for a while this fall?”

The blood rushed to Winthrop’s face; but he only forgot his chestnuts and said, “Yes, sir.”