ards making a
mark on society than Charlie. The latter usually mastered what he read,
and he made good use of it, as the end will show, only it was done in
another channel, and in a more private way. He could not have made so
deep and lasting an impression on those around him as Nat, with even
more knowledge, if he had tried.

"What work are you reading now, Nat?"

"Burke's Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful," replied Nat, taking up the
volume from the table. "It is a splendid work."

"I never read it," added Charlie; "the title is so magnificent that I
never thought I should like it. _My_ head is not long enough for such a
work."

"You don't know what it is. It is one of the most practical and useful
volumes there is. It is not so taking a book for rapid reading as many
others; but it is a work to be _studied_."

"What is the particular use of it?"

"Its use to me is, the information it gives concerning those objects and
illustrations that have the most power over the hearts of men in
speaking and writing. I should think it must aid a person very much in
the ability to illustrate and enforce a subject."

"I suppose you are right," said Charlie, "but it is all gammon to me.
That is what helped you to illustrate and enforce the claims of our
Dramatic Society in the lyceum, was it?" meaning no more than a joke by
this suggestion.

"No; I never read it much until recently," answered Nat.

"Well, I thought you had some of the _sublime_ in that speech, if you
had none of the _beautiful_," continued Charlie in a vein of humor. "I
concluded that Burke might have helped you some, as I thought it hardly
probable that Nat did it alone."

"What do you think you should do, Charlie, if you had not me to make fun
of?" asked Nat. "You would have the dyspepsia right away. It is
altogether probable that I was made to promote your digestion."

"Very likely," replied Charlie, assuming a grave appearance. "I believe
they administer rather powerful medicine for that disease. But they say
you go to college now," and here his seeming gravity was displaced by a
smile. "When are you going to graduate?"

"About the time you know enough to enter," answered Nat, paying back in
the same coin.

Charlie was much amused at this turn, for his allusion to college was in
a jesting way, occasioned by the fact that Nat had obtained permission
to use the library of Cambridge College, to which place he frequently
walked to consult volumes. I