the manner of
the young to whom everything under the sun looks possible of
achievement, to whom life looks long enough for every plan that tickles
the fancy and to whom as yet the hard experiences of life have
administered few rebuffs.

Oh, for that splendid courage of youth again! that joyous confidence
that everything can be done! It is the heritage of young hearts. It is
given us but once; and it was then ours.

"I would like to command a strong, big fort on the frontier of the
country," exclaimed Tom. "The enemy wouldn't surprise me. I would be
ready for them. If they attacked me they would get it hot, I tell you!

"I mean to study and try to get an appointment to West Point," he
continued, enthusiastically. "Then I may command a fort somewheres. I
tell you, West Point is the place to go! Don't you say so, Ad?"

"It is a good place to get a military education," replied Addison. "And
a military education is a great thing to have, if there is a war. But
there may never be another war, Tom; most of folks hope there will not
be; but I shouldn't much wonder if there were another, before many
years."

"Oh, I hope not," exclaimed Theodora, fervently. In fact, the Civil War
with its sad afflictions was still too fresh in the minds of all in our
family to be spoken of without a sense of bereavement.

"But I don't think that I should like a military life altogether,"
continued Addison. "Promotion is dreadfully slow, unless there's war;
and even after you are a general, there is no money in it. I want to go
into something that will give me all the money I want; and I want a lot
of it."

"I had rather have fame than money," exclaimed Tom. "Nothing makes
anybody feel so good, as to know that folks are saying, 'He did a big
thing. Nobody else could have done it.'"

"Tom, you want to be a hero," said Theodora.

"Well, I do," replied Tom. "I don't want to be such a hero as there are
in novels. But I want to do something that will put me right up in the
world."

I remember that I felt much like that myself, but did not quite like to
say so outright.

"The trouble is that in common every-day life there do not seem to be
many chances to do great things," remarked Addison, thoughtfully. "There
are always a few distinguished men, like General Grant, General Sherman
and President Lincoln, but only a few. There couldn't be a thousand
famous men in a nation at once. We couldn't think of so many, even if
they all had done gre