ink they are going
to pocket all this money with a few words of flattering."

"Someone must pay for the one pound stamp and other expenses,"
answered Frank.

"After all this spending of money, perhaps it would not prove,"
rejoined Mrs. Mathers.

"We won't know if we don't try," retorted Frank; "people don't make
fortunes staring about them with their hands in their pockets."

"But you don't mean to say," almost angrily said Mrs. Mathers, "that
you would send them your money in that fashion?"

"I do," answered the young man in a decided tone. He was growing
impatient at what he thought to be a wanton check of progress on his
step-mother's part.

Here, Mr. Mathers left the room without having said a word.

Frank watched him disappear and then remarked: "Do you think these
people are going to work for nothing? They would be fools."

"Oh! 'tis not _they_ who are fools," sarcastically remarked his
step-mother.

The young man waxed hot. His whole being was rising in wrath within
him. He, however, mastered his passions. It was his duty to bend,
and he did so. "If I could convince her, if I could make her feel as
I myself feel," he thought.

For one minute he was silent, not knowing how to begin the speech
that was to bring conviction into her soul.

"Ah!" he thought as he looked at his step-mother who had resumed her
work as if the debate was settled, "she checks me when I try to push
myself; she tries to nip my plans in the bud. When, with a few words
of encouragement, I might soon be a rising man. But I must convince
her--I must. If I don't succeed in doing it, I will act alone. The
money is mine, why should I not be able to do what I like with it.
If, however, I could bring her to think as I do."

"I have always tried to push myself," he began in a somewhat tender
and pleading tone, "and you never give me one word of encouragement
or praise."

Mrs. Mathers looked up: "You try in the wrong direction," she said,
"earn money by all means, but don't throw it away like a simpleton."

Unheeding this, Frank resumed: "If I do not try and make life a
success I don't know anyone who will do it for me. I have studied.
Many an evening have I sat up with my books thinking of the use my
knowledge would be to me in future life; many an outing have I
denied myself for the sake of studying; many a pleasure have I
sacrificed for the sake of acquiring knowledge. I did not care, work
did not seem heavy, because it carried wi