a good joke--Nat's speech and their arrangement 287-297

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE EARLY VICTIM.

News that James Cole is frozen--Frank's version of the affair--made
drunk at a grog-shop--lay senseless in the street all night--his
previous character--his good abilities--all sorts of rumors
abroad--he revives, but is still very sick--what the physician
says--nearly three months pass--a funeral described--the last
of James Cole--the sexton's view--the youthful drunkard's
grave 298-304

CHAPTER XXX.

THE END.

A quarter of a century passed--what and where is Nat and his
associates--the drunkard--Sam and Ben Drake in prison--power
of early vicious habits--Frank Martin at the head of a
public institution--Charlie Stone agent of one of the wealthiest
and best known manufacturing companies of New England--Marcus
Treat a highly distinguished lawyer in his adopted State--Nat
governor of the best State in the Union--the change--appeal
to youth 305-310

CHAPTER I.

A GOOD BEGINNING.

A little patch of ground enclosed by a fence, a few adjacent trees, Nat
with his hoe in hand, his father giving directions, on one of the
brightest May mornings that was ever greeted by the carol of birds, are
the scenes that open to our view.

"There, Nat, if you plant and hoe your squashes with care, you will
raise a nice parcel of them on this piece of ground. It is good soil for
squashes."

"How many seeds shall I put into a hill?" inquired Nat.

"Seven or eight. It is well to put in enough, as some of them may not
come up, and when they get to growing well, pull up all but four in a
hill. You must not have your hills too near together,--they should be
five feet apart, and then the vines will cover the ground all over. I
should think there would be room for fifty hills on this patch of
ground."

"How many squashes do you think I shall raise, father?"

"Well," said his father, smiling, "that is hard telling. We won't count
the chickens before they are hatched. But if you are industrious, and
take very good care indeed of your vines, stir the ground often and keep
out all the weeds, and kill the bugs, I have little doubt that you will
get well paid for your labor."

"If I have fifty hills," said Nat, "and four vines in each hill, I shall
have two hundred vines in all; and if there is one squash on each vine,
there will be two hundred squashes."

"Yes; but there are