give up altogether. Two dollars a week will count in
my small household.'

"Did you ever hear of such meanness, Mr. Melville?" demanded Herbert,
indignantly. "Here is Mr. Graham making, I am sure, two thousand dollars
a year clear profit, and yet anxious to reduce mother from three to two
dollars a week."

"It is certainly a very small business, Herbert. I think some men become
meaner by indulgence of their defect."

"I shall write mother to give up the place sooner than submit to such a
reduction. Three dollars a week is small enough in all conscience."

"I approve the advice, Herbert. If Mr. Graham were really cramped for
money, and doing a poor business, it would be different. As it is, it
seems to me he has no excuse for his extreme penuriousness."

"How pleasant it would be to pay a flying visit to Wayneboro," said
Herbert, thoughtfully. "One never appreciates home until he has left
it."

"That pleasure must be left for the future. It will keep."

"Very true, and when I do go home I want to go well fixed."

Herbert had already caught the popular Western phrase for a man well to
do.

"We must depend on the Blazing Star Mine for that," said Melville,
smiling. My young readers may like to know that, while Herbert was
prospering financially, he did not neglect the cultivation of his
mind. Among the books left by Mr. Falkland were a number of standard
histories, some elementary books in French, including a dictionary, a
treatise on natural philosophy, and a German grammar and reader.

"Do you know anything of French or German, Mr. Melville?" inquired our
hero, when they made their first examination of the library.

"Yes, Herbert, I am a tolerable scholar in each."

"I wish I were."

"Would you like to study them?"

"Yes, very much."

"Then I will make you a proposal. You are likely to have considerable
time at your disposal. If you will study either, or both, I will be your
teacher."

"I should like nothing better," said Herbert, eagerly.

"Moreover, if you wish to study philosophy, I will aid you, though we
are not in a position to illustrate the subject by experiments."

Herbert was a sensible boy. Moreover, he was fond of study, and he saw
at once how advantageous this proposal was. He secured a private
tutor for nothing, and, as he soon found, an excellent one. Though
Mr. Melville had never been a teacher, he had an unusual aptitude for
teaching, and it is hard to decide whether he or Herbert