ught I would rather be an engineer than
anything else, but I don't like----"

"Never mind what you like and what you don't like," Mr. Penrose said
quietly. "You belong to me now, you know and must do as you are told.
What I propose is this, that you shall go to a good school for
another three years, and I will then apprentice you to a first-class
engineer, either mechanical or civil as you may then prefer, and when
you have learned your business I will take good care that you are
pushed on. What do you say to that?"

"I think it is too much altogether," George said.

"Never mind about that," Mr. Penrose said, "that is my business. If
that is the only objection we can imagine it settled. There is another
thing. I know how attached you are to your friend Bill, and I am
indebted to him, too, for the part he played at the fire, so I
propose, if he is willing, to put him to a good middle-class school
for a bit. In the course of a couple of years he will get a sufficient
education to get on fairly with, and then I propose, according as you
may choose to be a civil or mechanical engineer, to place him with a
mason or smith; then by the time that you are ready to start in
business he will be ready to take a place under you, so that you may
again work together."

"Oh, thank you, sir!" George exclaimed, even more pleased at the news
relating to Bill than at his own good fortune, great as was the
delight which the prospect opened by Mr. Penrose's offer caused him.

As soon as George could be moved, Mr. Penrose sent him with his mother
and Bill down to the seaside. Here George rapidly regained strength,
and when, after a stay there of two months, he returned to town, he
was able to walk so well with his artificial foot that his loss would
not have been noticed by a stranger.

The arrangements settled by Mr. Penrose were all in due time carried
out. George went for three years to a good school, and was then
apprenticed to one of the leading civil engineers. With him he
remained five years and then went out for him to survey a railroad
about to be constructed in Brazil, and remained there as one of the
staff who superintended its construction. Bill, who was now a clever
young mason, accompanied him, and through George's interest with the
contractor obtained the sub-contract for the masonry of some of the
bridges and culverts.

This was ten years ago, and George Andrews is now one of the most
rising engineers of the day, and