It is always pleasant to carry good news, and Andy hastened with joyful feet to his mother’s humble dwelling.

“Why, Andy, you’re out of breath.  What’s happened?” asked Mrs. Burke.

“I was afraid of bein’ robbed,” said Andy.

“The robber wouldn’t get much that would steal from you, Andy.”

“I don’t know that, mother.  I ain’t so poor as you think.  Look there, now!”

Here he displayed the roll of bills.  There were twenty fives, which made quite a thick roll.

“Where did you get so much, Andy?” asked his sister Mary.

“How much is it?” asked his mother.

“A hundred dollars,” answered Andy, proudly.

“A hundred dollars!” repeated his mother, with apprehension.  “Oh, Andy, I hope you haven’t been stealing?”

“Did you ever know me to stale, mother?” said Andy.

“No, but I thought you might be tempted.  Whose money is it?”

“It’s yours, mother.”

“Mine!” exclaimed Mrs. Burke, in astonishment.  “You’re joking now, Andy.”

“No, I’m not.  It’s yours.”

“Where did it come from, then?”

“Colonel Preston sent it to you as a present.”

“I am afraid you are not tellin’ me the truth, Andy,” said his mother, doubtfully.  “Why should he send me so much money?”

“Listen, and I’ll tell you, mother, and you’ll see it’s the truth I’ve been tellin’.”

Thereupon he told the story of his adventure with the highwayman and how he had saved Colonel Preston from being robbed.

His mother listened with pride, for though Andy spoke modestly, she could see that he had acted in a brave and manly way, and it made her proud of him.

“So the colonel,” Andy concluded, “wanted to give me a hundred dollars, but I didn’t like to take it myself.  But when he said he would give it to you, I couldn’t say anything ag’inst that.  So here it is, mother, and I hope you’ll spend some of it on yourself.”

“I don’t feel as if it belonged to me, Andy.  It was you that he meant it for.”

“Keep it, mother, and it’ll do to use when we nade it.”

“I don’t like to keep so much money in the house, Andy.  We might be robbed.”

“You can put part of it in the savings bank, mother.”

This course was adopted, and Andy himself carried eighty dollars, and deposited it in a savings bank in Melville, a few days afterward.

Meanwhile Colonel Preston told the story of Andy’s prowess, at home.  But Mrs. Preston was prejudiced against Andy, and listened coldly.

“It seems to me, Colonel Preston,” she said, “you are making altogether too much of that Irish boy.  He puts on enough airs to make one sick already.”

“I never observed it, my dear,” said the colonel, mildly.

“Everyone else does.  He thought himself on a level with our Godfrey.”

“He is Godfrey’s superior in some respects.”