smiled Matt, "I am hardly old enough for the business."
"He has made a friend of this auctioneer—who used to stand up in a wagon and sing songs, and then sell cheap jewelry—and he went off with him one Saturday, when I thought he had gone to New York with his uncle."
"And doesn't he want to come back?" asked Matt, deeply interested.
"I have never heard of him since he went away." Mrs. Inwold put her handkerchief to her eyes to dry the tears which had started. "One reason I wished these goods delivered was because I thought I might get a chance to talk to you about Tom. You intend to travel from place to place, do you not?"
"Yes, madam; we shall remain here but a few days."
"Then, perhaps, in your travels you may run across Tom. If you do I wish you would tell him to send word home. He ought to come home of himself, but I suppose he won't do that, he is so headstrong."
"I should think he would prefer a good home to traveling around with a cheap jewelry man," was Matt's comment, as he looked around at the com-
