The Minister's Charge

and anger. It had turned out just as his mother had said: Mr. Sewell would be mighty different in Boston from what he was that day at Willoughby Pastures. There he made Barker

liged to find something to make a living by, and help the rest? What was he afraid of? Was he afraid that Barker wanted to come an

that if that Mr. Agassiz had had to get a living off the farm at Willoughby Pastures, he would have found time to make money. What di

had got the letter he wrote him. He wished he had said, "Well, that's all I want of you, sir," and walked right out; but he had not known how to do it. Did they think it was very p

e minister; the friend he had talked of and dreamed of ever since he had seen and heard him speak those cordial words; the friend he had trusted through all, and

nd the cars seemed to be tinkling by all the time, and people getting on and off. They were mostly ladies and children, and they were very well dressed. Sometimes they stared at Barker, as they cross

t not to be allowed there. A great many people of all kinds were passing through the garden, and after some hesitation he went in too, and walked over the bridge that crossed the pond in the middle of the garden, where there were rowboats and boats with images of swans on them. Barker made a sarcastic reflection that Boston seemed to be a great p

he wandered up and down the walks, and finally sat down on one of the iron benches beside the path. At first he obscurely doubted whether he had any right to do so, unless

which the fall rains had made as green as May; and a pensive golden light streamed through the long loose boughs, and struck across the slopes of the Common.

had got out in the neighbourhood that he was going to Boston before he left home; his mother must have told it; and people would think he was to be gone a long time. He had warned his mother that he did not know when he should be back, before he sta

lmost forget the poverty that had spurred him to the adventure of coming to Boston. He could see the cows coming home through the swampy meadow as plain as if they were coming across the Common; his mother was calling them; she and his sister were going to milk in his absence, and he could see her now, how she looked going out to call the cows, in her bare, grey head, gaunt of neck and cheek, in the ugly Bloomer dress in which she was not grotesque to his eyes, thoug

here been trying to c

ung man who spoke stood directly in front of him, and seemed to b

know what you me

hey're 'round everywheres, and don'

He wore a pair of black pantaloons, very tight in the legs, and widening at the foot so as almost to cover his boots. His coat was deeply

d he'd say he hadn't got anything with him but a cheque for forty dollars; and the other feller'd say he'd got to have his money, and he'd kind of insinuate it was all a put-up job about the cheque for forty dollars, anyway; and that 'ud make the first feller mad, and he'd take out the check, and ask him what he thought o' that; and the other feller'd say, well, it was a good cheque, but it wan't money, and he wanted money; and then the first feller'd say, 'Well, come along to the bank and get your money,' and the other'd say the bank was shut. 'Well, then,' the first feller'd say, 'well, sir, I ain't a-goin' to ask any favour of you. How much is your bill?' and the other feller'd say ten dollars, or fifteen, or may be twenty-five, if they thought I had that much, and the first feller'd say, 'Well, here's a gentleman from up my way, and I guess he'll advance me that much on my cheque if I make it worth his while. He knows me.' And the first thing you know-he's been treatin' you, and s

seen him down on Tremont Street, between

n't you' get it changed?" demanded the young man with

here ain't no small bills nowhere. The last place, I

'a' give fifty, and glad to do it. Wh

ne. Won't you move up a little bit, young feller?" He sat down on the other side of Barker. "I'm about tired out." H

and he could stay till the next day and prolong the chance

s the bill?

said the young

ve me fifty cent

y cents," replied the young

ok from his pocket the two five-dollar notes that

ou're a stranger to me, young feller, and how do I know you ain't tryin'

are! Here you make me run half over town to change that bill, and now when a gentleman offers to break it for y

s I said I'd do it, I'll do it. Here's your half a dollar." He put it, with the bank-note, into Le

y, I've let him go off with both them bills now, and he owes me one of 'em." With that he rose from Lem

et a bargain was a bargain. Nevertheless, if the fellow wanted to rue it, Lemuel would give him fifteen minutes to come back and get his money; and he sat for that space of time where the others had left him. He was not going to be mean; and he might have waited a little longer if it had not been for the behaviour of two girls who came up and sat down on the same bench with him. They could not have been above fifteen or sixteen years old, and Lemuel thought they were v

g them know that he heard them, and at the same time he was not going to let them suppose that they had driven him away. He went very slowly down to the street where a great many horse-cars were passing to and fro, and waited for one marked "Fitchburg, Lowell, and Eastern Depots." He was not going to take it; but he meant to fo

going to the depots after all. But it came in sight of them at last, and then Lemuel, blown with the chase but secure of his ground, stopped and rested himself against the side of a wall to get his breath. The pursuit had been very exhausting, and at times it had been mortifying; for here and there people who saw him running after the car had supposed he wished to board it, and in their good

ng, and mopping his forehead with his handkerchief; he saw his hotel

d a passer, who had apparently bee

ant to catch it

on't overdo it." He walked by, and then after a glance at Lemuel over his shoulder, he re

riendly, but he was all the more likely on that account to be a beat; the expression was probably

d he walked away with what Lemuel could on

When he reached it he walked boldly up to the clerk's desk, and said that he guessed he would tak

is by nature lank and hollow, and must be made almost insupportably heavy before it shows any signs of repletion. The shirt and pair of everyday pantaloons

of his honesty or his solvency implied in this speech, Lemuel said nothing, but took out his ten-dollar note and handed it to the clerk. The latter said apolo

ated Lemuel, tak

it," said