is red handkerchief and sat wiping his face.

"I have turned it over in my mind a dozen times," said Uncle Dick, "and
sometimes I have thought that it would be an injustice to the boy,
sometimes I have concluded that with his taste for natural history, his
knowledge of treating skins and setting out butterflies and moths, it
would be a shame not to give him every encouragement."

"How?" said my aunt, drily.

"By taking him with me and letting him learn to be a naturalist."

"Humph!" said my aunt; "take him with you right away on your travels?"

"Yes," said my Uncle Dick.

"But I don't think it would be right," said Uncle Joseph softly.

"Don't be stupid, Joe," said my aunt sharply; "why shouldn't the boy go,
I should like to know?"

"Oh, aunt!" I cried excitedly.

"Yes, sir, and oh, aunt, indeed!" she cried, quite mistaking my meaning.
"Do you suppose that you are to stay here idling away your time all
your life--and--"

"That will do," cried Uncle Dick quickly. "Nat, my boy, I have held off
from taking you before; but if your Uncle Joseph will give his consent
as your guardian, you shall come with me as my pupil, companion, and
son, if you will, and as far as in me lies I will do my duty by you.
What say you, Joe?" he continued, as I ran to him and took his extended
hands.

My aunt looked at me as if she were going to retract her permission; but
she was stopped, I should say, for the first and last time in her life,
by Uncle Joseph, who waved his hand and said sadly:

"It will be a great grief to me, Dick, a great grief," he said, "and I
shall miss my boy Nat very, very much; but I won't stand in his light,
Dick. I know that I can trust you to do well by the boy."

"I will, Joe, as well as if he were my own."

"I know it, Dick, I know it," said Uncle Joe softly; "and I can see that
with you he will learn a very, very great deal. Nat, my boy, you are
very young yet, but you are a stout, strong boy, and your heart is in
that sort of thing, I know."

"And may I go--will you take me, Uncle Dick? Say you will."

"Indeed I will, my boy," he cried, shaking my hand warmly; "only you
will have to run the same risks as I do, and stick to me through thick
and thin."

"But I don't think it would be possible for him to be ready," said my
aunt, who evidently now began to repent of her ready consent.

"Nonsense, Sophy!" cried Uncle Dick; "I'll get him ready in time, with a
far better outfit than you could c