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"I am sorry to part with you so soon, but perhaps it would be well to go soon, as the place may not long remain vacant. Shall you go in

your sailor dress?"

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"No, mother, I have another suit that I have carefully kept, the gift of kind friends. How many excellent people there are in the world! Yet I doubt if I should have experienced their kindness had it not been for the unmistakable good-breeding and gentleman-like deportment of my friend, Frank Wood."

"I should like much to see that amiable Frank Wood," said Fanny. "I wish to thank him for his kindness to you."

"All in good time, Fanny dear," said Joseph. "He has promised to make us an early visit."

The next morning Brandon started for Boston, and rode on the outside of the stagecoach without quarrelling with his fellow-passengers, -a peaceable, well-behaved young man, intent upon making every body as comfortable as possible.

His uncle, although he received him kindly, looked somewhat askance at his gay foreign dress, the one he had purchased at Fayal. Joseph, observing it, said, "I hope, Sir, if you receive me into your counting-room, that I shall soon

be able to purchase a more suitable dress than this, which has such a foreign air."

"Such a foppish air," replied his uncle. "You look like a paroquet.”

"It is too foppish entirely, and I shall be right glad to exchange it for one of American manufacture, and true Yankee plainness," said Joseph.

"That you shall do very soon, if you succeed, as I think you will. When can you begin?" "To-morrow, if you please, sir."

"Well, I like your promptness. The salary is Be honest and faithful, and another year I will add two hundred more to it."

five hundred dollars a year.

The morning found Joseph seated among a number of other clerks in a large counting-room. At first, he was, of course, ignorant and awkward, but so great was his desire for improvement that he soon overcame all obstacles.

Faithful and honest he was, giving entire satisfaction to his uncle, and gaining the good will of all with whom he was associated.

The first present that Joseph made, from his own salary, after he had remitted the hundred dollars to Dr. Wood, was a pretty purse to Fanny,

with three five-dollar pieces shining through the meshes. This was at the end of the first half year. The correspondence between Frank and himself had been sustained with undiminished interest on both sides. He learned that Frank occasionally heard from his foreign friends, and that the Don and Donna expected soon to pay a visit to the United States.

CHAPTER XXII.

AN UNEXPECTED RESOLVE.

So well had Joseph Brandon satisfied his employer that he promised to raise his salary, as he had intimated at their first interview. During the year which was now nearly at an end, he had been so economical as to live within his income, pay Dr. Wood, and make several presents to his mother and sisters; yet he had always dressed with neatness, and boarded in a respectable family.

The family who had taken his mother's house wished to give it up, to remove to the city; and Joseph gladly persuaded his mother to return to it again, promising to make up the difference between the rent and that of the small cottage.

Mrs. Brandon consented to do so. Susan and Fanny were delighted to return to their own

home,—and still more so, because it was through the generosity of their brother. They had just become nicely settled when they received a visit from Joseph, accompanied by Dr. Wood and Frank.

It was Frank's eighteenth birthday. His health, since his return, had remained perfectly good; and having decided upon following his father's profession, he had commenced his preparatory studies.

The yarns that they had to spin, when they found themselves tête-à-tête, were as long as those with which they whiled away the lazy hours on board ship.

“Have you heard from Louise La Tourette, lately?" inquired Joseph. "I perceive you still wear her parting gift. A very sentimental motto, .Pensez à moi !""

"Madame La Tourette wrote to me not long since that they confidently expected a visit from me. She was so kind as to say that Louise would never forget her American friends," said Frank.

"It is a pity that you were not a little older when you became acquainted with Mademoiselle," responded Joseph.

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