rs are less sanguine than their sons. Their experience
suggests difficulties and obstacles of which the inexperienced youth
knows and possesses nothing. But in the present case Mr. Walton
reflected that the little farming town in which he lived offered
small inducements for a boy to remain there, unless he was content to
be a farmer, and this required capital. His farm was too small for
himself, and of course he could not give Harry a part when be came of
age. On the whole, therefore, Harry's plan of becoming a mechanic
seemed not so bad a one after all. So permission was accorded, and
our hero, with his little bundle of clothes, left the paternal roof,
and went out in quest of employment.

After some adventures Harry obtained employment in a shoe-shop as
pegger. A few weeks sufficed to make him a good workman, and he was
then able to earn three dollars a week and board. Out of this sum be
hoped to save enough to pay the note held by Squire Green against his
father, but there were two unforeseen obstacles. He had the
misfortune to lose his pocket-book, which was picked up by an
unprincipled young man, by name Luke Harrison, also a shoemaker, who
was always in pecuniary difficulties, though he earned much higher
wages than Harry. Luke was unable to resist the temptation, and
appropriated the money to his own use. This Harry ascertained after
a while, but thus far had succeeded in obtaining the restitution of
but a small portion of his hard-earned savings. The second obstacle
was a sudden depression in the shoe trade which threw him out of
work. More than most occupations the shoe business is liable to
these sudden fluctuations and suspensions, and the most industrious
and ambitious workman is often compelled to spend in his enforced
weeks of idleness all that he had been able to save when employed,
and thus at the end of the year finds himself, through no fault of
his own, no better off than at the beginning. Finding himself out of
work, our hero visited other shoe establishments in the hope of
employment. But his search was in vain. Chance in this emergency
made him acquainted with Professor Henderson, a well-known magician
and conjurer, whose custom it was to travel, through the fall and
winter, from town to town, giving public exhibitions of his skill.
He was in want of an assistant, to sell tickets and help him
generally, and he offered the position to our hero, at a salary of
five dollars a week. It