“Well, you can see what he says.”

Ebenezer did not understand that Eben intended to have the boy arrested, and would not have consented to it had he known.  But Eben slipped out of the store, and arranged for the arrest without his father’s knowledge.  Indeed, he did not learn till the trial had already commenced, Eben having made some excuse for his absence.

When Eben returned his father greeted him in a tone very far from cordial.

“Well, Eben, I hear you’ve gone and made a fool of yourself?”

“I have only been defending your property, father,” said Eben, sullenly.  “I thought you’d appreciate it better than this.”

“You’ve charged an innocent boy with theft, and now all his friends will lay it up agin’ us.”

“Were you going to be robbed without saying a word?” asked Eben.

“No, I’m not, Eben Graham; I’m goin’ to say a word, and now’s the time to say it.  You can’t pull wool over my eyes.  The money’s gone, and the stamps are gone, and somebody’s got ’em.”

“Herbert Carr!”

“No, it isn’t Herbert Carr.  It’s somebody nearer to me, I’m ashamed to say, than Herbert Carr.”

“Do you mean to say I took them?” asked Eben.

“I won’t bring a charge unless I can prove it, but I shall watch you pretty closely after this.”

“In that case, I don’t wish to work for you any longer; I throw up the situation,” said Eben, loftily.

“Verv well.  When are you going to leave town?”

“I ain’t going to leave town at present.”

“Where are you going to board, then?”

Eben regarded his father in dismay.

“You’re not going to send me adrift, are you?” he asked, in consternation.

“I’m not going to support you in idleness; if you give up your situation in the store, you’ll have to go to work for somebody else.”

“I wish I could,” thought Eben, thinking of the rich young man at the hotel, from whom he had sought a position as companion.

“Then I shall have to leave Wayneboro,” he said; “there’s nothing to do here.”

“Yes, there is; Farmer Collins wants a hired man.”

“A hired man!” repeated Eben, scornfully.  “Do you think I am going—­to hire out on a farm?”

“You might do a great deal worse,” answered Ebenezer, sensibly.

“After being a dry-goods salesman in Boston, I haven’t got down to that, I beg to assure you,” said Eben, with an air of consequence.

“Then you will have to work in the store if you expect to stay at home,” said his father.  “And hark you, Eben Graham,” he added, “don’t report any more losses of money or stamps.  I make you responsible for both.”

Eben went back to his work in an uneasy frame of mind.  He saw that he had not succeeded in imposing upon his father, and that the clear-sighted old gentleman strongly suspected where the missing articles had gone.  Eben might have told, had he felt inclined, that the five-dollar bill had been mailed to a lottery agent in New York in payment for a ticket in a Southern lottery, and that the stamps were even now in his possession, and would be sold at the first opportunity.  His plan to throw suspicion upon Herbert had utterly failed, and the cold looks with which he had been greeted showed what the villagers thought of his attempt.