"I don't; and I don't want to. Behaved abominably? He wouldn't shake
hands with me! Sam told me he was going, and I gave him some money--
well! why do you look at me like that? Gad-a-mercy, ain't he my
grandson? Besides, since our love-feast, ain't it my duty to help his
father along? I've had a change of heart," he said, grinning; "where's
your joy over the one sinner that repenteth? I'm helping young Sam, so
that old Sam may get some sense. Lavendar, the man who has not learned
what a damned fool he is, hasn't learned anything. And if I mistake
not, the boy will teach my very respectable son, who won't smoke and
won't drink, that interesting fact. As for the boy, he will come back
a man, sir. A man! Anyway, I've done my part. I offered him money and
advice--like the two women grinding at the mill, one was taken and the
other was left. Yes; I've done my part. I've evened things up. I gave
him his first tobie, and his first drink, and now I've given him a
chance to see the world--which your senior warden once said was a
necessary experience for a young man. I've evened things up!" He
thrust a trembling hand down into the blue ginger-jar for some orange-
skin. "He said he'd pay the money back; I said, 'Go to thunder!' As if
I cared about the money. I've got him out of Old Chester; that's all I
care about."

"Well," said Dr. Lavendar, "I hope you haven't got him merely out of
the frying-pan."

"So you think there is no fire in Old Chester? She's a pretty creetur,
Lavendar, ain't she? Poor thing!"

Dr. Lavendar did not follow the connection of ideas in the older man's
mind, but he did say to himself, as he and Goliath went away, that it