hought he knew more 'bout
runnin' a' expedition than his brother did. Ever heard what became
of him?"

"No," said Ferdy.

"Well, he run some of 'em in the ground. He didn't have sense to know
the difference between a calf and God."

Ferdy flushed.

"Well, my old man knows enough to run this railroad. He has run bigger
things than this."

"If he knows as much as his son, he knows a lot. He ought to be able to
run the world." And the squire turned back to Rhodes:

"What are you goin' to do, my son, when you've done all you say you're
goin' to do for us? You will be too good to live among them Yankees; you
will have to come back here, I reckon."

"No; I'm going to marry and settle down," said Rhodes, jestingly. "Maybe
I'll come back here sometime just to receive your thanks for showing you
how benighted you were before I came, and for the advice I gave you."

"He is trying to marry a rich woman," said Ferdy, at which Rhodes
flushed a little.

The old man took no notice of the interruption.

"Well, you must," he said to Rhodes, his eyes resting on him
benevolently. "You must come back sometime and see me. I love to hear a
young man talk who knows it all. But you take my advice, my son; don't
marry no rich man's daughter. They will always think they have done you
a favor, and they will try to make you think so too, even if your wife
don't do it. You take warnin' by me. When I married, I had just sixteen
dollars and my wife she had seventeen, and I give you my word I have
never heard the last of that one dollar from that day to this."

Rhodes laughed and said he would remember his advice.

"Sometimes I think," said the old man, "I have mistaken my callin'. I
was built to give advice to other folks, and instid of that they have
been givin' me advice all my life. It's in and about the only thing I
ever had given me, except physic."

The night before the party left, Ferdy packed his kit with the rest; but
the next morning he was sick in his bed. His pulse was not quick, but he
complained of pains in every limb. Dr. Balsam came over to see him, but
could find nothing serious the matter. He, however, advised Rhodes to
leave him behind. So, Ferdy stayed at Squire Rawson's all the time that
the party was in the mountains. But he wrote his father that he
was studying.

During the time that Rhodes's party was in the mountains Squire Rawson
rode about with them examining lands, inspecting coal-beds, and adding
much t