hed him, his preparations
were far advanced, and he was as eager to be gone as though the sole
object of the trip had been pleasure, and not the hard work which had
been offered him. But, besides the work, there was the wages, which, to
Jem seemed magnificent, and there was the prospect of seeing new sights
far from home; so he went away in great spirits, and David was left
alone.

He was not in great spirits. Jem had left him no earlier than he must
have done had it been to join his mother and the children in Gourlay.
But, somehow, when he thought of his brother out in the wonderful,
strange world, about which they had so often spoken and dreamed, David
had to struggle against a feeling which, indulged, might very easily
have changed to discontent or envy of his brother's happier fortune.

Happier fortune, indeed! How foolish his thoughts were! David laughed
at himself when he called up the figure of Jem, with bared arms and
blackened face, busy amidst the smoke and dust of some great work-shop,
going here and there--doing this and that at the bidding of his master.
A very hard working world Jem would no doubt find it; and, as he thought
about him, David made believe content, and congratulated himself on the
quiet and leisure which the summer evenings were bringing, and made
plans for doing great things in the way of reading and study while they
lasted. But they were very dull days and evenings. The silence in the
house grew more oppressive to him than even Jem had found it. The long
summer evenings often found him listless and dull over the books that
had been so precious to him when he had only stolen moments to bestow on
them.

There had been something said at first about his going to the Oswald's
to stay, when the time came when he should be alone in the house. Mr
Philip had proposed it at the time when they were making arrangements
for the going away of his little sisters. But the invitation had not
been repeated. Mr Philip had gone away long before Jem. He had, at
the last moment, joined an exploring party who were going--not, indeed,
to Red River, but far away into the woods. Mr Oswald had forgotten the
invitation, or had never known of it, perhaps, and David went home to
the deserted house not very willingly sometimes, and, with a vague
impatience of the monotony of the days, wished for something to happen
to break it. Before Jem had been gone a week, something did happen.
Indeed, it had happene