Jim smiled.

"Not much danger of your having to do anything like that," he
replied. "Aunt Betty loves you too much, and even if you did, you
could go back to Mother Martha and Father John."

"Yes; I could, that's true. But life would never seem the same, after
finding Aunt Betty, and being taken to her heart as I have. But let's
not talk of such morbid things. Let us, rather, plan what we shall do
for a good time this summer."

"Humph!" grunted the boy. "Reckon I'll be having a good time studying
'lectricity. There's work ahead of me, and I don't dare allow myself
to forget it."

"But, Jim, you are going home with me for a vacation. All work and no
play makes Jack a dull boy, or, at least, that's what I've always
been taught to believe."

"I know, Dorothy; but I've got a living to make." The serious note in
Jim's voice made Dorothy turn in some surprise.

"Why, Jim Barlow, how you talk! You're not old enough to strike out
for yourself yet." A note of authority crept unconsciously into
Dorothy's tones.

"Yes; I am. Lots of boys younger than I have gone out to wrestle with
the world for a livelihood, and I reckon I can do the same."

"But Dr. Sterling won't let you, I'm sure."

"Humph! A lot Dr. Sterling has to say about _that_!"

"But you would surely regard his advice as worth something?"

"Yes; a great deal. His advice is for me to learn electricity--to
learn it thoroughly from the bottom up. To do that I shall have to
serve as an apprentice for a number of years. The pay is not great,
but enough to live on. I've made up my mind, Dorothy, so don't try to
turn me from my purpose."

Dorothy Calvert looked with pride on this manly young fellow at her
side, as she recalled her first meeting with him some years before.
At that time she had been living with Mother Martha and Father John
on the Hudson near Newburgh. Jim, the "bound boy," had been Mrs.
Calvert's protege, and had finally worked his way into the regard of
his elders, until Dr. Sterling had taken him under his protecting
wing. The doctor, a prominent geologist, had endeavored to teach the
boy the rudiments of his calling, and Jim had proved an apt pupil,
but had shown such a yearning toward electricity and kindred subjects
that the kindly doctor had purchased for him some of the best books
on the subject. Over these the boy had pored night and day, rigging
up apparatus after apparatus, that he might experiment with the great
force first discovered