alked
along, he could not help thinking how strange and solemn everything
seemed on that eventful night. It was an epoch in his history; one of
those turning points in human life, when all the works of nature and
art, borrowing the spirit which pervades the soul, assume odd and
unfamiliar forms. Harry was not old enough or wise enough to
comprehend the importance of the step he was taking; still he was
deeply impressed by the strangeness within and without.

Taking his bundle from the hollow stump, he directed his steps toward
Pine Pleasant. He walked very slowly, for his feelings swelled within
him and retarded his steps. His imagination was busy with the past, or
wandering vaguely to the unexplored future, which with bright promises
tempted him to press on to the goal of prosperity. He yearned to be a
man; to leap in an instant over the years of discipline, that yawned
like a great gulf between his youth and his manhood. He wanted to be a
man, that his strong arm might strike great blows; that he might win
his way up to wealth and honor.

Why couldn't he be a great man like Squire Walker. Squire West
wouldn't sound bad.

"One has only to be rich in order to be great," thought he. "Why can't
I be rich, as well as anybody else? Who was that old fellow that saved
up his fourpences till he was worth a hundred thousand dollars? I can
do it as well as he, though I won't be as mean as they say he was,
anyhow. There are chances enough to get rich, and if I fail in one
thing, why--I can try again."

Thus Harry mused as he walked along, and fixed a definite purpose
before him to be accomplished in life. It is true it was not a very
lofty or a very noble purpose, merely to be rich; but he had been
obliged to do his own philosophizing. He had not yet discovered the
true philosopher's stone. He had concluded, like the alchemists of
old, that it was the art of turning anything into gold. The paupers,
in their poverty, had talked most and prayed most for that which they
had not. Wealth was to them the loftiest ideal of happiness, and Harry
had adopted their conclusions. It is not strange, therefore, that
Harry's first resolve was to be a rich man.

"Seek ye _first_ the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be
added unto you," was a text which he had often heard repeated; but he
did not comprehend its meaning, and he had reversed the proposition,
determined to look out for "all these things" first.

The village clock