sciences it must be methodically studied. He possessed an excellent
library of books upon the subject, and although Frank might be
ignorant of the name of any bird or insect shown to him he could
at once name the family and species.

In the year which Frank had been at school at Dr. Parker's he had
made few intimate friends. His habits of solitary wandering and
studious indoor work had hindered his becoming the chum of any of
his schoolfellows, and this absence of intimacy had been increased
by the fact that the straitness of his mother's means prevented
his inviting any of his schoolfellows to his home. He had, indeed,
brought one or two of the boys, whose tastes lay in the direction
of his own, to the house, to show them his collections of birds
and insects. But he declined their invitations to visit them, as
he was unable to return their hospitality, and was too proud to
eat and drink at other fellows' houses when he could not ask them
to do the same at his own. It was understood at Dr. Parker's that
Frank Hargate's people were poor, but it was known that his father
had been killed in battle. There are writers who depict boys
as worshipers of wealth, and many pictures have been drawn of the
slights and indignities to which boys, whose means are inferior to
those of their schoolfellows, are subject. I am happy to believe
that this is a libel. There are, it is true, toadies and tuft hunters
among boys as among men. That odious creature, the parasite of the
Greek and Latin plays, exists still, but I do not believe that a
boy is one whit the less liked, or is ever taunted with his poverty,
provided he is a good fellow. Most of the miseries endured by boys
whose pocket money is less abundant than that of their fellows are
purely self inflicted. Boys and men who are always on the lookout
for slights will, of course, find what they seek. But the lad who