ith
friends whom in so short a time he had come to value so highly. He
resolved that he would accept the mayor's offer at the close of the
season. He would need a friend and adviser, and he felt confident that
Mayor Grant's counsel would be wise and judicious.

Kit was already asleep in his bunk when the circus train started for the
next place on the route. When he woke up he was in the town of
Colebrook. Here a surprise was in store for him in the shape of a letter
from his uncle. When he saw the familiar handwriting and the postmark
"Smyrna," he broke the seal with a feeling of curiosity. He did not
expect to derive either pleasure or satisfaction from the perusal.

We will look over his shoulder while he is reading the letter.

NEPHEW CHRISTOPHER,--I cannot express to you my surprise and
disappointment when I rode over to Oakford to see you, and learned
from Mr. Bickford that you had run away from his house and joined
the circus. There must be something low and depraved in your
tastes, that you should thus abandon the prospect of earning a
respectable livelihood, and go tramping through the country with a
circus. What do you think your father would say if he could come to
life, and become aware of the course you have so rashly taken?

I should be justified in forcibly removing you from your present
associations, and returning you to your worthy employer, Mr. Aaron
Bickford, and perhaps it is my duty to do so. But I think it wiser
for you to realize for yourself the folly of your course. You have
deliberately deserted a good home and a kind guardian and become a
tramp, if I may so express myself. I cannot imagine my son Ralph
doing such a thing. He is, I hope, too dutiful and too sensible to
throw away the advantages which fortune has secured him, to become
a mountebank.

It is very embarrassing to me to answer questions about you. There
are some who will be unjust enough, I doubt not, to blame me for
your wild course, but I shall be sustained by the consciousness of
my entire innocence in the matter. At great expense I have
maintained you and paid the cost of your education, giving you
privileges and advantages equal to those I have given my own boy. I
have done so cheerfully, because you were my nephew, and I am sorry
you have made me so poor a return. But I shall look for my reward