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"Where did you get that stickpin, Frank?"
"Bought it at Mace's jewelry store."
"You are getting extravagant."
"I hardly think so, aunt, and I don't believe you would think so, either,if you knew all the circumstances."
"Circumstances do not alter cases when a boy is a spendthrift."
"I won't argue with you, aunt. You have your ideas and I have mine. Ofcourse, I bought the stickpin, but it was with money I had earned."
The aunt sniffed in a vague way. The boy left the house, looking irritatedand unhappy.
Frank Jordan lived in the little town of Tipton with his aunt, Miss TabithaBrown. His father was an invalid, and at the present time was in the South,seeking to recuperate his failing health, and Mrs. Jordan was with him ashis nurse. They had left Frank in charge of the aunt, who was a miserly,fault-finding person, and for nearly a month the lad had not enjoyed lifevery greatly.
There were two thoughts that filled Frank's mind most of the time. Thefirst was that he would give about all he had to leave his aunt's house.The other was a wish that his father would write to him soon, telling him,as he had promised to do, that he had decided that his son could leaveTipton and go to boarding-school.
What with the constant nagging of his sour-visaged relative, the worry overhis sick father, and the suspense as to his own future movements, Frank didnot have a very happy time of it. He felt a good deal like a boy shut up ina prison. His aunt used her authority severely. She kept him away fromcompany, and allowed none of his friends to visit the house. From morninguntil night she pestered him and nagged at him, "all for his own good," shesaid, until life at the Jordan home, roomy and comfortable as it was,became a burden to the lad.
"It's too bad!" burst forth Frank as he crossed the garden, climbed afence, and made toward the river through a little woods that was a favoritehaunt of his. Reaching a fallen tree he drew from its side a splendidfishing-pole with all the attachments that a lover of the rod and linemight envy. His eye grew brighter as he glanced fondly along the supplestaff with its neat joints of metal, but he continued his complaint: "Whenshe isn't scolding, she is lecturing me. I suppose if she ever hears of myfishing outfit here, she'll be at me for a