to that which the Elmers had undertaken in Florida,
but he knew that pine lumber was becoming scarce in that Northern
country, and thought perhaps some of these men could be persuaded to
emigrate to another land of pines if the idea was presented to them
properly. So he encouraged Mark to talk of Florida, and to give them
all the information he possessed regarding its forests of pine and its
other resources. As a result, before they again turned their faces
homeward, half a dozen of these clear-headed Maine men had promised
them to visit Florida in the fall, take a look at the Wakulla country,
and see for themselves what it offered in their line of business.

When Uncle Christopher and Mark returned to Bangor, the latter began to
attend school regularly; not a grammar-school, nor a high-school, nor a
school of any kind where books are studied, but a mill-school, where
machinery took the place of books, where the teachers were rough
workmen, and where each lecture was illustrated by practical examples.
Nor did Mark merely go and listen to these lectures: he took an active
part in illustrating them himself; for Uncle Christopher had explained
so clearly to him that in order to be a truly successful mill president
he must thoroughly understand the uses of every bit of mill machinery,
that the boy was now as eager to do this as he had been in Wakulla to
learn how to fish for alligators, or fire-hunt for deer.

All that summer he worked hard--two months in a saw-mill, and two more
in a grist-mill--and though he did not receive a cent of money for all
this labor, he felt amply repaid for what he had been through, by a
satisfied sense of having, at least, mastered the rudiments of what he
knew was to be an important part of his work in life for some years to
come.

About the end of September his Uncle Christopher called Mark into his
study one evening, and telling him to sit down, said, "Well, Mark, my
boy, I suppose you're beginning to think of going home again to
Floridy, eh?"

"Yes, uncle; father writes that both Ruth and I ought to come home very
soon now, and I, for one, am quite ready to go."

"So you ought, so you ought. When boys and girls can help their fathers
and mothers, and be helping themselves at the same time, they ought to
be doing it," assented Uncle Christopher, cheerfully. "Well, Mark, I've
got a scheme, a great scheme in my head, and I want you to tell me what
you think of it. In the first place, I w