Chapter III. Phil's Sudden Resolution - Page 2

"I'll sell it cheap."

"How cheap?"

"Ten dollars."

"That's too much."

"It cost me fifteen."

"But it's second-hand now, you know," said Reuben.

"It's just as good as new. I'm taking off five dollars, though, you see."

"I don't think I want it enough to pay ten dollars."

"What will you give?"

Reuben finally agreed to pay seven dollars and seventy-five cents, after more or less bargaining, and to pay the money that evening upon delivery of the goods.

"I don't think I've got anything more to sell," said Phil thoughtfully. "There's my skates, but they are not very good. I'll give them to Tommy Kavanagh. He can't afford to buy a pair."

Tommy was the son of a poor widow, and was very much pleased with the gift, which Phil conveyed to him just before supper.

Just after supper he took his gun and the key of his boat over to Reuben Gordon, who thereupon gave him the money agreed upon.

"Shall I tell Mrs. Brent I am going away?" Phil said to himself, "or shall I leave a note for her?"

He decided to announce his resolve in person. To do otherwise would seem too much like running away, and that he had too much self-respect to do.

So in the evening, after his return from Reuben Gordon's, he said to Mrs. Brent:

"I think I ought to tell you that I'm going away to-morrow."

Mrs. Brent looked up from her work, and her cold gray eyes surveyed Phil with curious scrutiny.

"You are going away!" she replied. "Where are you going?"

"I think I shall go to New York."

"What for?"

"Seek my fortune, as so many have done before me."

"They didn't always find it!" said Mrs. Brent with a cold sneer. "Is there any other reason?"

"Yes; it's chiefly on account of what you told me yesterday. You said that I was dependent upon you."

"So you are."

"And that I wasn't even entitled to the name of Brent."

"Yes, I said it, and it's true."

"Well," said Phil, "I don't want to be dependent upon you. I prefer to earn my own living."

"I am not prepared to say but that you are right. But do you know what the neighbors will say?"

"What will they say?"

"That I drove you from home."

"It won't be true. I don't pretend to enjoy my home, but I suppose I can stay on here if I like?"

"Yes, you can stay."

"You don't object to my going?"

"No, if it is understood that you go of your own accord."