o take to reach the destination, though I don't want to know
what the destination is."

The agent looked puzzled for a minute, but as the bill was a good one,
and other passengers were waiting, he picked out a ticket, stamped it,
and thrust it out under the glass, with the remark:

"Take the train that leaves from the other side of the middle platform."

Mr. Bright folded the ticket without looking at it, and taking "Dodd's"
arm, started for the train, which was already waiting. As they went
along, "Dodd" said:

"Let me see where I am going to, please!"

"Not now," returned his guide, and they boarded the train.

The conductor came in presently, and to him Mr. Bright spoke in a
subdued tone.

"Here is a ticket for this young man," he said. "I want you to take
it, and see to it that he reaches the destination that this piece of
paper calls for. Don't ask me what that is. Don't let me know. But
take the ticket, and do as I ask."

The official looked wise for a minute, then took the ticket and passed
on.

"Dodd" and Mr. Bright sat in the same seat in the car till the train
was ready to go. Not much was said; for the time of words was not
then. But just as the bell rang for leaving, the elder man took the
hand of the younger, and clasped it almost passionately. The eyes of
the two met. "Dodd" remembered the day when they walked to school
together, hand in hand.

"My boy," whispered Mr. Bright, "if ever the time comes when you can
stand on your own feet, let me hear from you and know of your success;
but if you continue in the old way, let the world be as a grave to you,
so far as I am concerned; and never let me hear from you again. But,"
he added, as he turned away, "I faintly trust the larger hope." And
without another word he left the car. He went directly home. It was
many a year before he referred again to that day.

There was a hissing of pent-up air as the engineer tried the brakes
before moving out his train, then a slow motion of starting, then away
and away.

"Dodd" Weaver sank back in his seat, and pulled his cap over his eyes.
He did not cast one lingering look behind. Indeed, what had he to care
for, in all that great city?

"I faintly trust the larger hope," repeated "Dodd" to himself, as the
train rushed along. He remembered the day when they had read the lines
in the reading class of Mr. Bright's school.

CHAPTER XXIII.

On a Christmas morning, ten years after the sce