cured by the estate
and good-will of the Institute. If I was driven from the school, a
majority of the boys would petition their parents to be taken from it
also, and the establishment would be seriously injured. There was
plainly an understanding between Mr. Parasyte and my uncle, or the
tyrant would not have made war upon me as he did. Should I sacrifice
myself in order to save my uncle's money, or to prevent the debt from
being imperilled?

No! I could not; but I hoped my uncle would not lose his money, though
it would not be my fault if he did. I had just been "disowned and cast
out." The sentence hardly produced an impression upon me. I was not
banished from a happy home, where I had been folded in a mother's
love, and had lived in the light of a father's smile; only from the
home of coldness and silence; only from shelter and food, which I
could easily find elsewhere.

I took the oars and pulled towards the bluff off which the Splash had
sunk. It seemed to me just then that I was breaking away from all my
early associations, from my home and my school, and pushing out on the
great ocean of life, as my boat was upon the lake. I must go out into
the world, and make for myself a name and a fortune. There was
something solemn and impressive in the thought, and I rested upon my
oars to follow out the idea. Breaking away! To me it was not going
away, it was _breaking_ away. There was no near and dear friend to bid
me God speed on my journey of life. As for my uncle, he would not
have cared if I had, at that moment, been forever buried beneath the
deep waters of the lake.

I was awed and solemnized by the thought that I was alone in the
world. And looking up to the clear blue sky, I prayed that God would
help me to keep in the path of truth and duty. I really hoped that, if
I had done wrong, or was then doing wrong, I might be convicted of my
error. I prayed for light. I was afraid that I had been wilful and
wayward; but as I knew that I was right so far as Poodles was
concerned, I could not accuse myself of obstinacy in refusing to
apologize. On the whole, I was satisfied with myself, though willing
to acknowledge that in some things I had rather overdone the matter.

Resuming the oars, I pulled towards the bluff. My course lay near the
shore until I had passed the northerly point of Parkville, where the
steamboat wharf extends a hundred feet out to the deep water of the
lake. Continuing beyond this long pier, I ca