f and sorrow. Well, I saw my father and mother and Flora happy in
their new home, content with their new surroundings, and I began to take
heart. But to work I must go. What should I do? What should I be? The
questions were answered in a way I had little dreamt of.

One evening, about eight o'clock, while passing along a street in the new
town, I noticed well-dressed mechanics and others filing into a hall,
where, it was announced, a lecture was to be delivered--

'A NEW HOME IN THE WEST.'

Such was the heading of the printed bills. Curiosity led me to enter with
others.

I listened entranced. The lecture was a revelation to me. The 'New Home in
the West' was the Argentine Republic, and the speaker was brimful of his
subject, and brimful to overflowing with the rugged eloquence that goes
straight to the heart.

There was wealth untold in the silver republic for those who were healthy,
young, and willing to work--riches enough to be had for the digging to buy
all Scotland up--riches of grain, of fruit, of spices, of skins and wool
and meat--wealth all over the surface of the new home--wealth _in_ the
earth and bursting through it--wealth and riches everywhere.

And beauty everywhere too--beauty of scenery, beauty of woods and wild
flowers; of forest stream and sunlit skies. Why stay in Scotland when
wealth like this was to be had for the gathering? England was a glorious
country, but its very over-population rendered it a poor one, and poorer
it was growing every day.

'Hark! old Ocean's tongue of thunder,
Hoarsely calling, bids you speed
To the shores he held asunder
Only for these times of need.
Now, upon his friendly surges
Ever, ever roaring "Come,"
All the sons of hope he urges
To a new, a richer home.

There, instead of festering alleys,
Noisome dirt and gnawing dearth,
Sunny hills and smiling valleys
Wait to yield the wealth of earth.
All she seeks is human labour,
Healthy in the open air;
All she gives is--every neighbour
Wealthy, hale, and happy There!'

Language like this was to me simply intoxicating. I talked all next day
about what I had heard, and when evening came I once more visited the