for you whiles, sorely. I did that last year, and this year it
would be worse. But I would like to be here in the summer. If I have
to part from you I would rather be here than among strangers."

"But, mother, what has put that in your head? It is late in the day to
speak of a parting between you and me."

"Parting! Oh, no. Only it is the lot of woman, be she mother or wife,
to bide at home while a man goes his way. You may have to seek your
work when you are ready for it; and I am too old and frail now to go
here and there as you may need to do, and you could ay come home to me
here."

John's conscience smote him as he listened. He had been full of his own
plans and troubles; he had been neglecting his mother, who, since the
day he was born, had thought only of him.

"You are not satisfied with the decision I have come to--the change of
work which I have been planning."

His mother did not answer for a minute.

"I would have been well pleased if the thought of change had never come
into your mind. But since it has come, it is for you to do as you think
right. No, I would have had you content to do as your father did before
you; but I can understand how you may have hopes and ambitions beyond
that, and it is for you to decide for yourself. You have your life
before you, and mine is nearly over; it is right that you should choose
your way."

John rose and moved restlessly about the room. His mother was hard on
him, he said to himself. His hopes and ambitions! He could have
laughed at her words, for he had been telling himself that such dreams
were over forever. It mattered little whether he were to work with his
head or his hands, except as one kind of work might answer a better
purpose than the other in curing him of his folly and bringing him to
his senses again.

"Sit down, John," said his mother; "I like to see your face."

John laughed.

"Shall I light the candle, mother?"

"There is no haste about it. I have more to say. It is this. You may
be quite right in the decision to which you have come. You are young
yet, and the time which you may think you have lost, may be in your
favour. You have a stronger body than you might have had if you had
been at your books all these years; and you have got experience, and I
hope some wisdom, that your books could not have given you. I am quite
content that you should have your will."

"Thank you, mother. That is a glad hearing for me. I co