s and
outwards in a way that surprised his companions and amazed his mother,
who was a distinctly little woman--a neat graceful little woman--with,
like her stalwart son, a modest opinion of herself.

As a matter of course, Charlie's school-fellows almost worshipped him,
and he was always so willing to help and lead them in all cases of
danger or emergency, that "Charlie to the rescue!" became quite a
familiar cry on the playground. Indeed it would have been equally
appropriate in the school, for the lad never seemed to be so thoroughly
happy as when he was assisting some boy less capable than himself to
master his lessons.

About the time that Charlie left school, while yet a stripling, he had
the shoulders of Samson, the chest of Hercules, and the limbs of Apollo.
He was tall also--over six feet--but his unusual breadth deceived
people as to this till they stood close to him. Fair hair, close and
curly, with bright blue eyes and a permanent look of grave benignity,
completes our description of him.

Rowing, shooting, fishing, boxing, and swimming seemed to come naturally
to him, and all of them in a superlative degree. Swimming was, perhaps,
his most loved amusement and in this art he soon far outstripped his
friend Leather. Some men are endowed with exceptional capacities in
regard to water. We have seen men go into the sea warm and come out
warmer, even in cold weather. Experience teaches that the reverse is
usually true of mankind in northern regions, yet we once saw a man enter
the sea to all appearance a white human being, after remaining in it
upwards of an hour, and swimming away from shore; like a vessel outward
bound, he came back at last the colour of a boiled lobster!

Such exceptional qualities did Charlie Brooke possess. A South Sea
Islander might have envied but could not have excelled him.

It was these qualities that decided the course of his career just after
he left school.

"Charlie," said his mother, as they sat eating their mid-day meal alone
one day--the mother being, as we have said, a widow, and Charlie an only
child--"what do you think of doing, now that you have left school? for
you know my income renders it impossible that I should send you to
college."

"I don't know what to think, mother. Of course I intend to do
something. If you had only influence with some one in power who could
enable a fellow to get his foot on the first round of any sort of
ladder, something might b