is a very honourable pursuit," said Rufus,
walking and studying the floor.

"Certainly. -- Twelve feet is a good growth for dogwood, isn't
it?" said Winthrop gravely, looking up and meeting his cool
grey eye with that of his brother.

Rufus first stared, and then answered, and then burst into a
fit of laughter. Then he grew quite grave again and went on
walking up and down.

"The fact is," he said a little while after, -- "I don't know
exactly what I am fittest for."

"You would be fit for anything if you did," answered his
brother.

"Why?"

"You would be an uncommonly wise man."

"_You_ might be that with very little trouble, for you are the
fittest for everything of anybody I know."

Winthrop studied his books, and Rufus walked perseveringly.

"You hold to taking up law?"

"I will, when I begin it," said Winthrop.

"Where?"

"Where what?"

"Where will you take it up?"

"In Mannahatta."

"And then you will rise to the top of the tree!" said his
brother half admiringly, half sadly.

"That I may catch a glimpse of you in the top of some other
tree," said Winthrop.

"But this want of money is such a confounded drag!" said Rufus
after a few minutes.

"Let it drag you up hill, then. A loaded arrow flies best
against the wind."

"Winthrop, I wonder what you are made of!" said Rufus stopping
short and looking at him and his books. "The toughest, the
sturdiest --"

But Winthrop lifted up his face and gave his brother one of
those smiles, which were somewhat as if the sturdy young ash
to which he likened him had of a sudden put forth its flowers
and made one forget its strength in its beauty. Rufus stopped,
and smiled a little himself.

"My choice would be engineering," he said doubtfully.

"Stick to your choice," said Winthrop.

"That's a very good business for making money," Rufus went on,
beginning to walk again; -- "and there is a variety about it I
should like."

"Are you in correspondence with Mr. Haye?"

"No. Why?"

"You seem to be adopting his end of life."

"I tell you, Winthrop," said Rufus stopping short again,
"whatever else you may have is of very little consequence if
you haven't money with it! You may raise your head like Mont
Blanc, above the rest of the world; and if you have nothing to
shew but your eminence, people will look at you, and go and
live somewhere else."

"You don't see the snow yet, do you?" said Winthrop, so dryly
that Rufus laughed again, and drawing