, and played
with considerable skill on the violin--an accomplishment derived from
his father, who had acted as his teacher. Then he was of a cheerful
temperament, and this is a gift which usually renders the possessor
popular, unless marred by positive defects or bad qualities. There were
two or three young snobs in the village who looked down upon Philip on
account of his father's poverty, but most were very glad to associate
with our hero, and have him visit their homes. He was courteous to all,
but made--no secret of his preference for Frank Dunbar.

When Philip parted from Frank, and entered the humble dwelling which
had been his own and his father's home for years, there was a sense of
loneliness and desolation which came over him at first.

His father was the only relative whom he knew, and his death, therefore,
left the boy peculiarly, alone in the world. Everything reminded him
of his dead father. But he did not allow himself to dwell upon thoughts
that would depress his spirits and unfit him for the work that lay
before him.

He opened his father's desk and began to examine his papers. There was
no will, for there was nothing to leave, but in one compartment of the
desk was a thick wallet, which he opened.

In it, among some receipted bills, was an envelope, on which was
written, in his father's well-known hand:

"The contents of this envelope are probably of no value, but it will
be as well to preserve the certificate of stock. There is a bare
possibility that it may some day be worth a trifle."

Philip opened the envelope and found a certificate for a hundred shares
of the Excelsior Gold Mine, which appeared to be located in California.
He had once heard his father speak of it in much the same terms as
above.

"I may as well keep it," reflected Philip. "It will probably amount
to nothing, but there won't be much trouble in carrying around the
envelope." He also found a note of hand for a thousand dollars, signed
by Thomas Graham.

Attached to it was a slip of paper, on which he read, also in his
father's writing:

"This note represents a sum of money lent to Thomas Graham, when I was
moderately prosperous. It is now outlawed, and payment could not be
enforced, even if Graham were alive and possessed the ability to pay.
Five years since, he left this part of the country for some foreign
country, and is probably dead, and I have heard nothing from him in all
that time. It will do no harm, and proba