eir little parlour had kept him at home even more than his
books, which he, however, cared a good deal for.

But now, it was all finished. This place would no more be home. It
was a house, a comfortable dwelling place; that was all. He would
now have to live amongst unattractive and semi-hostile surroundings.

Through his own fault, he would suffer. One thought however
strengthened him. Thousands of others had suffered for conscience's
sake. He remembered how his blood rushed to his face, when he read
about the tortures of the martyrs of religion; or the driving into
exile of the patriots of Poland.

Strengthened with these thoughts, he rose, more determined than ever
to do right; to champion the good; to work; to study; to strive to
acquire wisdom.

CHAPTER V.

THE REWARD OF INORDINATE AMBITION.

Frank Mathers had hours of dejection. Like every other person, he
had his faults. In one of these fits of depression he grew
impatient. Then, his ambition turned in the wrong direction. He was
seized with a mania for getting rich quickly.

How to proceed, he did not know.

At last he thought that if he could invent something useful, and
patent it, he would soon acquire what he so much desired to possess.
Now, there are thousands who are constantly trying to do as much,
but they are as likely to succeed as they were when they first
began.

Frank was one day walking along a country lane when he perceived a
cow which had broken loose.

She galloped about, her tail erect, her head lowered.

He pursued the animal, and after a prolonged chase and much dodging
and capering on the part of both, he managed to grasp the rope which
was tied round the brute's horns. He held it tightly and proceeded
to tether his captive. But when he had driven the peg in the ground,
he noticed that it was very easily pulled up.

He pondered over this as he proceeded towards his home. Suddenly, he
slapped his forehead. "I have it," he said to himself. "I will have
a peg, which, when being driven, will go all right, but when pulled
about, will release two small prongs at the sides. This will make it
impossible for anyone to pull it up; a small knob will be affixed
which, when turned, will replace the prongs, and the peg will come
out in a jiffy."

"Ah!" he went on thinking, "this would be a useful thing, an article
which would command a ready sale. Besides, it would be used wherever
a good gripping peg would be necessary."

He wa