ot say indeed that
it makes at this moment the chief motive for my desire to travel, but in
travel it will become my chief object. Perhaps I may find him not only
rich,--that for my part is but a minor wish,--but sobered and reformed
from the errors and wildness of his earlier manhood. Oh, what should be
his gratitude to you for all the care with which you have supplied to
the forsaken child the father's place; and not the least, that you have,
in softening the colours of his conduct, taught me still to prize and
seek for a father's love!"

"You have a kind heart, Walter," said the good old man, pressing his
nephew's hand, "and that has more than repaid me for the little I have
done for you; it is better to sow a good heart with kindness, than a
field with corn, for the heart's harvest is perpetual."

Many, keen, and earnest were that night the meditations of Walter
Lester. He was about to quit the home in which youth had been passed, in
which first love had been formed and blighted: the world was before
him; but there was something more grave than pleasure, more steady than
enterprise, that beckoned him to its paths. The deep mystery that for so
many years had hung over the fate of his parent, it might indeed be his
lot to pierce; and with a common waywardness in our nature, the
restless son felt his interest in that parent the livelier from the very
circumstance of remembering nothing of his person. Affection had been
nursed by curiosity and imagination, and the bad father was thus more
fortunate in winning the heart of the son, than had he perhaps, by the
tenderness of years, deserved that affection.

Oppressed and feverish, Walter opened the lattice of his room, and
looked forth on the night. The broad harvest-moon was in the heavens,
and filled the air as with a softer and holier day. At a distance its
light just gave the dark outline of Aram's house, and beneath the window
it lay bright and steady on the green, still church-yard that adjoined
the house. The air and the light allayed the fitfulness at the young
man's heart, but served to solemnize the project and desire with which
it beat. Still leaning from the casement, with his eyes fixed upon the
tranquil scene below, he poured forth a prayer, that to his hands might
the discovery of his lost sire be granted. The prayer seemed to lift the
oppression from his breast; he felt cheerful and relieved, and flinging
himself on his bed, soon fell into the sound and h