How Paul Prescott gained strength by battling with adverse
circumstances, and, under all discouragements, kept steadily before him
the charge which he received from his dying father, is fully told; and
the author will be glad if the record shall prove an incentive and an
encouragement to those boys who may have a similar campaign before them.




PAUL PRESCOTT'S CHARGE.




I.

SQUIRE NEWCOME.


"HANNAH!"

The speaker was a tall, pompous-looking man, whose age appeared to verge
close upon fifty. He was sitting bolt upright in a high-backed chair,
and looked as if it would be quite impossible to deviate from his
position of unbending rigidity.

Squire Benjamin Newcome, as he was called, in the right of his position
as Justice of the Peace, Chairman of the Selectmen, and wealthiest
resident of Wrenville, was a man of rule and measure. He was measured
in his walk, measured in his utterance, and measured in all his