and telling him how much he should
like to join that expedition, and how he hoped his father would let him
do so.

Mr. Gibbs left his seat in the audience and stepped up to the platform,
where he talked for a moment with Mr. Meadows. Then he spoke to Binney,
and then, as he faced the school, they saw that he had something to say
to them.

It was that he was proud of his son--proud of the honor shown to the
school and to Brimfield through him--and that he should certainly allow
Binney to accept the offered position.

So it was settled; and all the boys cheered again. To Glen Eddy it
seemed that he would be willing to forego all the other good things that
life held for him if he could only have the prospect of one such year of
adventure as was promised to Binney Gibbs. For the first time in his
life he was genuinely envious of another boy.

It was that same day, after everybody else had gone, that he had the
talk with Mr. Meadows, in which the latter told him he must go back a
whole year on account of not having studied; though, if he had, he might
have been offered--And then came the interruption. Glen was too
heart-sick and miserable to wait and ask what the offer might have been.
Besides, he thought he knew, and the thought only added to his distress
of mind, until it really seemed as though no boy could be much more
unhappy than he.

Mr. Matherson knew how the boy stood in school, for the principal had
thought it his duty to inform him; and that evening he and Glen had a
long and serious talk.

"It's no use, father; I just hate to study!" exclaimed Glen, using the
same words that had caused Mr. Meadows to look grave earlier in the day.

"I fancy we all hate a great many things that we have to do in this
life," replied the master mechanic, "and you have certainly had a
striking example to-day of the value of study."

"Yes, that's so," admitted Glen, reluctantly, "and if I had known that
there was anything of that kind to be gained, perhaps I might have tried
for it too."

"If I had been given your chance to study when I was young," continued
the other, "and had made the most of it, I would have a better position
to-day than the one I now hold. As it is, I have had to study mighty
hard, along with my work, to get even it. I tell you, my boy, the
chances come when you least expect them. The only thing to do is to
prepare for them, and be ready to seize them as they appear. If one
isn't prepared they'll slip r