of the life of adventure in a wild country that lay before him. He had
in his blood a large share of the restless spirit of enterprise that has
been the main factor in making the Anglo-Saxons the dominant race of the
world. His father and his grandfather had both been officers in the
royal navy, and a great-uncle had commanded a merchantman that traded in
the Eastern seas, and had never come back from one of its voyages; there
had been little doubt that all on board had been massacred and the ship
burned by Malay pirates. His Uncle Harry had gone away when little more
than a boy to seek a fortune in America, and had, a few years after his
landing there, crossed the plains with one of the first parties that
started out at news of the discovery of gold in California.

Tom himself had longed above all things to be a sailor. His father had
not sufficient interest to get him into the royal navy, but had intended
to obtain for him a berth as apprentice in the merchant service; but his
sudden death had cut that project short, and his mother, who had always
been opposed to it, would not hear of his going to sea. But the life
that now seemed open to him was in the boy's eyes even preferable to
that he had longed for. The excitement of voyages to India or China and
back was as nothing to that of a gold-seeker and hunter in the West,
where there were bears and Indians and all sorts of adventures to be
encountered. He soon calmed down, however, on reaching home. The empty
chair, the black dresses and pale faces of the girls, brought back in
its full force the sense of loss.

In a short time he went up to his room, and sat there thinking it all
over again, and asking himself whether it was fair of him to leave his
sisters, and whether he was not acting selfishly in thus choosing his
own life. He had gone over this ground again and again in the last few
days, and he now came to the same conclusion, namely, that he could do