m placed in a
situation where he shall have to stick to his desk all day. In fact, I
want to have him broken in to work; for you've no notion, sir, how that
boy talks about bears and buffaloes and badgers, and life in the woods
among the Indians. I do believe," continued the old gentleman, waxing
warm, "that he would willingly go into the woods to-morrow, if I would
let him, and never show his nose in the settlement again. He's quite
incorrigible. But I'll tame him yet--I will!"

Mr Kennedy followed this up with an indignant grunt, and a puff of
smoke, so thick, and propelled with such vigour, that it rolled and
curled in fantastic evolutions towards the ceiling, as if it were unable
to control itself with delight at the absolute certainty of Charley
being tamed at last.

Mr Grant, however, shook his head, and remained for five minutes in
profound silence, during which time the two friends puffed in concert,
until they began to grow quite indistinct and ghostlike in the thick
atmosphere. At last he broke silence.

"My opinion is that you're wrong, Mr Kennedy. No doubt you know the
disposition of your son better than I do; but even judging of it from
what you have said, I'm quite sure that a sedentary life will ruin him."

"Ruin him! Humbug!" said Kennedy, who never failed to express his
opinion at the shortest notice and in the plainest language--a fact so
well known by his friends that they had got into the habit of taking no
notice of it. "Humbug!" he repeated, "perfect humbug! You don't mean
to tell me that the way to break him in is to let him run loose and wild
whenever and wherever he pleases?"

"By no means. But you may rest assured that tying him down won't do
it."

"Nonsense!" said Mr Kennedy testily; "don't tell me. Have I not broken
in young colts by the score? and don't I know that the way to fix their
flints is to clap on a good strong curb?"

"If you had travelled farther south, friend," replied Mr Grant, "you
would have seen the Spaniards of Mexico break in their wild horses in a
very different way; for after catching one with a lasso, a fellow gets
on his back, and gives it the rein and the whip--ay, and the spur too;
and before that race is over, there is no need for a curb."

"What!" exclaimed Kennedy, "and do you mean to argue from that, that I
should let Charley run--and _help_ him too? Send him off to the woods
with gun and blanket, canoe and tent, all complete?" The old gentle