"Let it come," he said, bitterly. "Why should I live?"

The thought of his early home recurred to him with increasing
frequency, and he had a growing desire to visit it before his strength
failed utterly. Therefore it was with a certain melancholy pleasure
that he found himself at liberty, through the kindness of his
partners, to make this visit, and at the season, too, when his boyish
memories of the place, like the foliage, would be most varied and
vivid.




CHAPTER II

OPENING A CHESTNUT BURR



If the reader could imagine a man visiting his own grave, he might
obtain some idea of Walter Gregory's feelings as he took the boat
which would land him not far from his early home. And yet, so
different was he from the boy who had left that home fifteen years
before, that it was almost the same as if he were visiting the grave
of a brother who had died in youth.

Though the day was mild, a fresh bracing wind blew from the west.
Shielding himself from this on the after-deck, he half reclined, on
account of his weakness, in a position from which he could see the