say you to Uncle Walter's invitation? Can I not make a shift in
the wild woods of Cayuga, and could you not get along without me
awhile, in hopes something might be done for the good of us all?"

"It pleases me, Matthew, and it pleases your mother. We talked it all
over last night, and concluded, if you would like to venture, we would
make up our minds to part with you, and comfort ourselves with the hope
of your doing well. Yes, go if you want to, and the Lord go with you,
and help you all the time. I know by experience it is a good thing to
learn to live away from home, and shift for one's self, and be
independent. It makes a clear head, a ready hand, and a nervy heart.
My father used to say, an upright mind, with a knack of
self-assistance, was better for a president's son, than pockets full of
money. I have found it true, and I hope you will remember it.

"It will try our old hearts a little to part with you, Matthew. All
the rest are gone to the grave, and somehow we cling closer to you now.
We are trembling on the edge of the grave, and waiting for Death to
trip us in. We need to have hold of your hand, and lean on your
shoulder. But I know it is for your good to go and build your own home
and fortune; and if you prosper, as Mr. Mowry thinks you will, may be
we shall live long enough to sell our little place here, and go into
the woods again, and clear up a farm. It is a hard sort of work; but
then it stoutens the knees, and knits the knuckles, and gives a capable
soul, and a pleasant, pleasant life."

"That's the thing, Major Fabens. Tell the boy of the fun of clearing
land; but don't talk of trying hearts, and old age, and the grave.
You'll make a baby of him if you do; and he'll get a foolish dread of
leaving, and want to hang around you all your days. Stir him up a
little. Tell him you'll be glad to get rid of him; and to pack up his
duds and be off, lickety-cut; and it will not be a great while afore he
can pop over a deer without whimpering; and a log shanty in Cayuga will
seem smarter to him than a city spare-room. Come, Matthew, get ready
by then I start, and I'll take you to the handsomest country in all
America!"

"Life is a wilderness journey, that all must go, having many struggles
and trials; meeting many dangers, enduring many griefs. But if one
does right, and keeps acting the noblest and hoping the best, that is
the main thing; and it matters not so much where we go, nor where we