"I shall try to deserve success, even if I don't rise very high,
father."

"That's right." Mr. Dare paused for a moment. "I'm sorry that I cannot
leave you more of a capital upon which to start in life."

"Never mind; I have a common school education and my health. What more
can a boy wish?"

"It is as much as I had upon which to start. But I might have left you
more. I deserve a pension as a soldier."

"You never pushed your claim, did you?"

"Yes, once. But I never told any of you, for fear of raising false
hopes. I did apply, and it was all straight, but at the last moment
the Department decided that I must have another witness to prove my
identity, and this I could not get."

"You had one witness, then?"

"Yes. A man named Crawford, who was in our regiment. He was appointed
an officer on the same day I was shot; but, as he was appointed
_after_ the occurrence they held that his single witnessing was
not enough, and so I had to hunt for another."

"And you never found the other?"

"No, though I hunted high and low. Some who saw the affair must be