It was a rare offer to a boy fifteen years old—fourteen dollars a month. James regarded it in that light. And then, it was constant work as long as he pleased to continue; that was a great consideration. One hundred and sixty-eight dollars a year! The thought of so much pay elated him very much.

“I have a chance to go right to work, mother, and work as many months as I please, at fourteen dollars a month,” said James, as soon as he reached home.

“Where?” inquired his mother, with an air of surprise.

“For Mr. Barton, the black-salter.”

“I don’t think it is the right sort of business for you, James,” replied his mother.

“It’s the right sort of pay, though,” James answered. “But why is it not a good business for me, mother?”

“Because a rough class of men carry on the business, and you will be exposed to many evils,” his mother said.

“Exposed to evils enough anywhere,” remarked James. “But I don’t propose to attend to the evils, but to my work.”

“I have no doubt of that, my son. Your intentions are good enough; but you may be enticed away, for all that.”

“I must be pretty weak, if that’s the case.”

“We are all weaker than we think we are. ‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.’ We all have reason to adopt that advice.”

“Then you won’t give your consent for me to go?” James said, inquiringly.

“I don’t say that.”

“What do you say, then?”

“I say that you had better consider the matter well before you take so important a step.”

“Can’t think of it a great while, for I have promised to begin work for him next Monday, if I begin at all.”

“As soon as that?”

“Yes; and it looks to me as if the time had come for me to give up the farm, that I may earn more for you,”

“What did Mr. Treat say about it?”

“He said nothing about it, because he knew nothing about it. I didn’t tell him about it.”

“I suppose you must go out into the world some time, and perhaps now is the time.”

“You told me, once, to wait for Providence to open the door,” continued James; “and if Providence didn’t open this door, then I shall never know when Providence does open the door.”

The truth was, Mrs. Garfield half thought that Providence would not open the door of a black-salter’s establishment to her son; but she did not say so. She smiled at James’s application of her teachings about Providence, and remarked: