iderably to his income by sending these up to the shop of a London
naturalist. He had instructed Frank in his methods, and had given him
one of the long blowguns used by some of the hill tribes in India. The
boy had attained such dexterity in its use that he was able with his
clay pellets to bring down sitting birds, however small, with almost
unerring accuracy.

These he stuffed and mounted, arranging them with a taste and skill
which delighted the few visitors at his mother's cottage.

Frank was ready to join in a game of football or cricket when wanted,
and could hold his own in either. But he vastly preferred to go out for
long walks with his blowgun, his net, and his collecting boxes. At home
every moment not required for the preparation of his lessons was spent
in mounting and arranging his captures. He was quite ready to follow
the course his father proposed for him, and to enter the army. Captain
Hargate had been a very gallant officer, and the despatches had spoken
most highly of the bravery with which he led his company into action in
the fight in which he lost his life. Therefore Mrs. Hargate hoped that
Frank would have little difficulty in obtaining a commission without
purchase when the time for his entering the army arrived.

Frank's desire for a military life was based chiefly upon the fact that
it would enable him to travel to many parts of the world, and to indulge
his taste for natural history to the fullest. He was but ten years
old when he left India with the regiment, but he had still a vivid
recollection of the lovely butterflies and bright birds of that country.

His father had been at pains to teach him that a student of natural
history must be more than a mere collector, and that like other sciences
it must be methodically studied. He possessed an excellent library of
books upon the subject, and although Frank might be ignorant of the name
of any bird or insect shown to him he could at once name the family and
species.

In the year which Frank had been at school at Dr. Parker's he had made
few intimate friends. His habits of solitary wandering and studious
indoor work had hindered his becoming the chum of any of his
schoolfellows, and this absence of intimacy had been increased by the
fact that the straitness of his mother's means prevented his inviting
any of his schoolfellows to his home. He had, indeed, brought one or two
of the boys, whose tastes lay in the direction of his own, to the h