!" exclaimed Penhallow, not knowing what more to
say, annoyed at the discussion and at her display of unnecessary temper
and the entire loss of her usual common sense.

She said, with a laugh in which there was no mirth, "I presume one of you
will, of course, run my sewing-class?"

"Ann--Ann!" said the Squire.

Rivers understood her now in the comprehending sympathy of his own too
frequent moods of melancholy. "Ah!" he murmured, "if I could but teach
her how to knit the ravelled sleeve of care."

"I presume," she added, "that I am to accept it as settled," and so went
out.

"Come, John," said Penhallow an hour later, "call the dogs--I must have a
good hard tramp, and a talk with you!"

John kept pace with, the rapid stride of the Squire, taking note of the
reddening buds of the maples, for this year in the hills the spring came
late.

"You must have seen your aunt's condition," said Penhallow. "I have seen
it coming on ever since that miserable affair of Josiah. It troubled her
greatly."

John had the puzzled feeling of the inexperienced young in regard to the
matter of illness and its influential effect on temper, and was well
pleased to converse on anything else, when his uncle asked, "Have you
thought over what I said to you about your future?"

"Well?"

"I should like to go to West Point, Uncle Jim."

To his surprise Penhallow returned, pausing as he spoke, "I had
thought of that, but as I did not know you had ever considered it, I
did not mention it. It would in some ways please me. As a life-long
career it would not. We are in no danger of war, and an idle existence
at army-posts is not a very desirable thing for an able man."

"I had the idea, uncle, that I would not remain in the service."

"But you would have to serve two years after you were graduated--and
still that was what I did, oh! and longer--much longer. As an education
in discipline and much else, it is good--very good. But tell me are you
really in earnest about it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, it is better than college. I will think about it. If you go to the
Point, it should be this coming fall. I wonder what Ann will say."

Then John knew that the Squire favoured what had been for a long time on
his own mind. What had made him eager to go into the army was in part
that tendency towards adventure which had been a family trait and his
admiration for the soldier-uncle; nor did the mere student life and the
quiet years of managing the iro