love come but once in their
pure simplicity; and none ever afterward seem quite like them. We may
strive to feel the same tender thrill; we may think the same thoughts
and build the same fairy palaces, woven out of moonbeams and filled with
the same divine illusions, but all in vain, for none can live life over.

When Liddy entered her home her footsteps seemed touched with a new
life. Perhaps the effect of "Money Musk" had not entirely died away.

CHAPTER IX.

GOOD ADVICE.

The next day after the husking, when Manson resumed his studies at the
academy, a new and serious ambition kept crowding itself into his
thoughts. Some definite shape of what the object of a man's existence
should be would in spite of all efforts mix itself with his algebra, and
form an extra unknown quantity, still more elusive. He tried to put it
out of his mind, but the captivating air castle would not down. Of
course Liddy formed a central figure in this phantom dwelling, and to
such an extent that he hardly dared to look at her when they met in the
recitation room for fear she would read his thoughts. Occasionally,
while studying he would steal a look across the schoolroom at her
well-shaped head with its crown of sunny hair, but her face was usually
bent over her book. She had always treated him with quiet but pleasant
friendliness at school, and he, understanding her nature by degrees,
had come to feel it would annoy her if he were too attentive. His
newborn ambition he felt must be absolutely locked in his own heart for
many years to come, or until some vocation in life and the ability to
earn a livelihood for two could be won.

For the entire week his castle building troubled him in a way, as a
sweet delusion, but a detriment to study, and then he resolved to put it
away. "It may never come, and it may," he said to himself, "but if it
does it will only be by hard work." He had never felt satisfied to
become a farmer like his father, but what else to apply himself to he
had no idea. He knew this was to be his last term at the academy, and
that he must then turn his attention to some real occupation in life. He
had been in the habit of calling upon Liddy nearly every Sunday evening
for the past year, and to look forward to it as the one pleasant
anticipation of the week. He felt she was glad to see him, and what was
of nearly as much comfort, that her father was, as well. He resolved
when a good chance came to ask Mr. Camp's advi