d noble one. But my mind does not turn to it."

"So I gather from what I have seen of you, and from what Mr. Willet
tells me. I've been hearing of your gift of oratory. You need not
blush, my lad. If we have a gift we should accept it thankfully, and
make the best use of it we can. You, I take it, will be a lawyer, then
a public man, and you will sway the public mind. There should be grand
occasions for such as you in a country like this, with its unlimited
future."

They came presently into a region of cultivation, fields which would
be green with grain in the spring, showing here and there, and the
smoke from the chimney of a stout log house rising now and then.
Where a creek broke into a swift white fall stood a grist mill, and
from a wood the sound of axes was heard.

Robert's vivid imagination, which responded to all changes, kindled at
once. He liked the wilderness, and it always made a great impression
upon him, and he also took the keenest interest and delight in
everything that civilization could offer. Now his spirit leaped up to
meet what lay before him.

He found at Mount Johnson comfort and luxury that he had not expected,
an abundance of all that the wilderness furnished, mingled with
importations from Europe. He slept in a fine bed, he looked into more
books, he saw on the walls reproductions of Titian and Watteau, and
also pictures of race horses that had made themselves famous at
Newmarket, he wrote letters to Albany on good paper, he could seal
them with either black or red wax, and there were musical instruments
upon one or two of which he could play.

Robert found all these things congenial. The luxury or what might have
seemed luxury on the border, had in it nothing of decadence. There was
an air of vigor, and Colonel Johnson, although he did not neglect his
guests, plunged at once and deeply into business. A little village,
dependent upon him and his affairs had grown up about him, and there
were white men more or less in his service, some of whom he sent at
once on missions for the war. Through it all his Indian wife glided
quietly, but Robert saw that she was a wonderful help, managing with
ease, and smoothing away many a difficulty.

Despite the restraint of manner, the people at Mount Johnson were full
of excitement. The news from Canada and also from the west became
steadily more ominous. The French power was growing fast and the
warriors of the wild tribes were crowding in thousands to