ght and his mother's
blessing when he told of his longing for the open West, where opportunity
hunts the man.

"No, Thaine," he answered gently at last. "All I ask is that you try to
foresee what is coming in hardship and responsibility. Young men go to war
for adventure mostly. The army life may make a hero of you, not by brevet
nor always by official record, but a hero nevertheless in bravery where
courage is needed, and in a sense of duty done. Or it can make a low-grade
scoundrel of you almost before you know it, if you do not put yourself on
guard duty over yourself twenty-four hours out of every twenty-four. War
means real hardship. It is in everything the opposite of peace. And this
war foreshadows big events. It may lead you to Cuba or to the Orient. Our
Asiatic squadron is ordered from Hong Kong. Dr. Carey tells me it is going
to meet the Spanish navy in the Philippines. I thought I fixed the West
when I came here as a scout and later a settler, and drove the frontier
back with my rifle and my hoe. Is it possible your frontier is further
westward still? Even across the Pacific Ocean, where another kind of
wilderness lies?"

Into Asher's clear gray eyes, that for all the years had held the vision
of the wide, pathless prairies redeemed to fruitfulness, there was a
vision now of the big things with which the twentieth century must cope.
The work of a generation younger than his own.

"Don't forget two things, Thaine, when you are fairly started in this
campaign. First, that wars do not last forever. They jar the frontier line
back by leaps, but after war is over the good old prairie soil is waiting
still for you--acres and acres yet unredeemed. And secondly, while you are
a soldier don't waste energy with memories. Fight when you wear a uniform,
and dream and remember when the guns are cold. You have my blessing,
Thaine, only remember the blessing of Moses to Asher of old, 'As your day
so will your strength be.' But you must have your mother's approval too."

Thaine looked lovingly at his mother, and the picture of her fine face
lighted by eyes full of mother love staid with him through all the months
that followed. And all the old family pride of the Thaines of Virginia,
all the old sense of control and daring was in her tone as she answered:

"You have come to a man's estate. You must choose for yourself. But big as
the world is, it is too little for mothers to be lost in. You cannot find
a frontier so far