dishonor, but in little things are petty and mean. They are like the woman
who prides herself on her cleverness when she cheats the milkman out of a
quart of milk or the peddler out of a paper of pins. When a boy undertakes
to look out for himself, he must learn to deal with these petty meannesses
in others or be continually deceived.

Austin met the world with no expectation of fraud or ill will, and when he
found these, he was surprized and grieved, and was quite unprepared to cope
with the situation. His first summer's work was to teach him a rather
severe lesson in human nature. Farmer Coles knew the boy and that he was a
good worker, and deliberately planned to get a farm-hand at a very
reasonable rate. He was careful to see that Austin earned fully every
dollar he received all the summer through, but he had no intention of
keeping him during the winter. When school began the first of September,
there was yet much to be done in the fields, and Austin consented, at the
farmer's suggestion, to keep at his work for another month, but the first
of October he quit and started to school.

From the time he entered school, the atmosphere about the home, and Mr.
Cole's attitude toward his choreboy, changed completely. Where he had been
pleasant, he now was surly and cross. He found fault with all that Austin
did, and it seemed impossible to please him in anything.

One evening Mr. Coles told Austin to get out the car and have it lighted
and ready, for he intended to go to a neighbor's. This Austin did, carrying
out with him a few matches to light the car-lamps. He had intended to take
the surplus matches back to the kitchen, but as Mr. Coles came out ready to
start, Austin forgot them. It was a thing forbidden about the Coles'
premises that a hired man should carry matches in his pockets. Mr. Coles
had been particular about this rule, and thus far Austin had not offended.