sed, stranded on
the inhospitable shore of this world, and eager Nan, who was
sorrowfully longing for the world's war to begin. "Two idle heroes,"
thought Dr. Leslie, "and I neither wished to give one his discharge
nor the other her commission;" but he said aloud, "Nan, we will take a
six o'clock start in the morning, and go down through the sandy plains
before the heat begins. I am afraid it will be one of the worst of the
dog-days."

"Yes," answered Nan eagerly, and then she came close to the doctor,
and looked at him a moment before she spoke, while her face shone with
delight. "I am going to be a doctor, too! I have thought it would be
the best thing in the world ever since I can remember. The little
prescription-book was the match that lit the fire! but I have been
wishing to tell you all the evening."

"We must ask Marilla," the doctor began to say, and tried to add,
"What _will_ she think?" but Nan hardly heard him, and did not laugh
at his jokes. For she saw by his face that there was no need of
teasing. And she assured herself that if he thought it was only a
freak of which she would soon tire, she was quite willing to be put to
the proof.

Next morning, for a wonder, Nan waked early, even before the birds had
quite done singing, and it seemed a little strange that the weather
should be clear and bright, and almost like June, since she was a good
deal troubled.

She felt at first as if there were some unwelcome duty in her day's
work, and then remembered the early drive with great pleasure, but the
next minute the great meaning and responsibility of the decision she
had announced the evening before burst upon her mind, and a flood of
reasons assailed her why she should not keep to so uncommon a purpose.
It seemed to her as if the first volume of life was ended, and as if
it had been deceitfully easy, since she had been led straight-forward
to this point. It amazed her to find the certainty take possession of
her mind that her vocation had been made ready for her from the
beginning. She had the feeling of a reformer, a radical, and even of a
political agitator, as she tried to face her stormy future in that
summer morning loneliness. But by the time she had finished her early
breakfast, and was driving out of the gate with the doctor, the day
seemed so much like other days that her trouble of mind almost
disappeared. Though she had known instinctively that all the early
part of her life had favored this