A Debt of Honor

“I shall take the next train for Chicago.”

“And leave me here?” faltered Victor, turning pale.

“I don’t see what else I can do,” returned Arthur, his face hardening.

“But I shall starve.”

“No; I will leave you two or three dollars, and I advise you to buy some papers if you can’t get any other position.”

“How meanly you are treating me!” said Victor indignantly.

“I am sorry, of course, but it is the best I can do – ”

“But for you I should not be here. Please remember that!”

“You were very ready to come when I proposed it,” retorted Arthur.

“You promised to see me through. I didn’t have money enough to come.”

“Well, I’ve kept my promise as well as I could. I was looking over my accounts yesterday, and I find that I have spent for you thirteen dollars and sixty-seven cents. Of course I shall never see a cent of it back.”

“I will pay it if I live,” said Victor, his companion’s meanness bringing a flush to his cheek. “I have just found you out. If I had known how mean you were I would never have left school in your company.”

“I wish you hadn’t. I didn’t suppose your father was such a miser. I knew you were an only son, and I expected that he would come to your help if you needed it. You mustn’t be so unreasonable. I am going out to get my bill changed. Will you come, too?”

“I suppose I may as well,” said Victor, in a spiritless tone.

Arthur made his way to a railroad ticket-office and purchased a ticket to Chicago.

Victor turned away to hide the indignant tears that rose to his eyes as he thought of his companion’s base desertion. It was on his lips to beg Arthur to buy another ticket, but his pride checked him. He felt that he had humiliated himself enough already.

On their way back they passed a periodical store.

On the window outside was a sign —

“Boy Wanted!”

“There’s your chance for a situation, Victor,” said Arthur, half in joke.

Victor looked at the sign, and made up his mind. It was absolutely necessary for him to get employment, and he might as well work here as anywhere.

“Wait a minute,” he said.

He went in, expecting to meet a man, but found that the shop was kept by a middle-aged woman. Victor had never been obliged to rough it, and he colored up with embarrassment as he prepared to apply for the place.

“I see you want a boy,” he said.

“Yes,” said the woman, very favorably impressed by Victor’s neat appearance. “Have you ever worked in a store of this kind?”

“No; I have always attended school.”

“I won’t ask if you’re honest, for your looks speak in your favor. Would you be willing to sleep in the back part of the store?”

“Yes,” answered Victor, relieved to think that this would save him the expense of a room.

“When can you come?”

“At one o’clock if you wish. After I have eaten dinner.”

“Then I will engage you. You will receive four dollars and a half a week. Is that satisfactory?”

“Yes,” answered Victor thankfully.

He went out and told Arthur of his success. His companion was relieved, for, selfish as he was, it troubled him to think that Victor would be left in destitution.

“Good!” he said. “Now I advise you to write home, and see what your father has to say. I will leave you three dollars to buy your meals till your first week’s pay comes in.”

Mrs. Ferguson, the good Scotch lady who kept the periodical store, would have been very much surprised if she had learned that the quiet looking boy whom she had just engaged was the son of a man worth over three hundred thousand dollars. Her mind was occupied with other matters or she would have questioned Victor more closely in regard to his history and antecedents. He was glad she did not, for he would have felt some embarrassment in confessing that he had run away from school and was a fugitive from home.

He felt obliged to accept the three dollars offered him by Arthur Grigson, since it was necessary to have money to pay for his meals in the interval that must elapse before he would receive his first week’s pay.

“I will pay you back, Arthur,” said he gratefully, as he took the money from the boy who had been the cause of his trouble.

“Oh, that’s just as you like.”

“I would prefer to do it. I don’t care to be under any further obligations to you.”

“Oh, don’t be foolish! You didn’t expect I’d strip myself of money to give you a chance to go home?”

“You would have more than money enough to get us both home. I wouldn’t have treated you as you have treated me.”

“Yes, you would, and I wouldn’t have blamed you. I may go over to Seneca and tell your father how I left you. Maybe he’ll open his heart and send you twenty dollars.”

Victor did not reply, but knowing his father as he did, he cherished no such hopes. He tried to put a good face on the matter, however, reflecting that he was at any rate safe from starving, and would be able to live.

In the afternoon he went to work, and though evidently unused to business soon learned to do what was required of him. He seemed so willing that Mrs. Ferguson felt pleased with him, and did not regret her hasty choice of a boy who had no recommendations to offer.

The store closed at eight o’clock, and the shutters were put up.

Now came the hardest trial for Victor.

He had always been accustomed to a luxurious, or at all events, cozy bedroom, even at school. Now he was to sleep in a dark store, for the gas was put out, except one small jet in the rear. His bed was a small, narrow one, only about eighteen inches wide, and close behind the dark counter.

“This is where you will sleep,” said Mrs. Ferguson. “The bed is small, but I guess you will find it wide enough.”

“I guess I can make it do,” answered Victor.

“You are to get up at seven o’clock and open the store. Then you will sweep the floor and dust the books. I shall come at eight, and will then let you off for half an hour for breakfast.”