begun.

Discontent becoming ripe for utterance, he unbosomed himself to Mr
Gunnery. It happened that the old man had just returned from a visit to
Kingsmill, where he had spent a week in the museum, then newly enriched
with geologic specimens. After listening in silence to the boy's
complaints, and pondering for a long time, he began to talk of Whitelaw
College.

'Does it cost much to study there?' Godwin asked, gloomily.

'No great sum, I think. There are scholarships to be had.'

Mr. Gunnery threw out the suggestion carelessly. Knowing the hazards of
life, he could not quite justify himself in encouraging Godwin's
restiveness.

'Scholarships? For free study?'

'Yes; but that wouldn't mean free living, you know. Students don't live
at the College.'

'How do you go in for a scholarship?'

The old man replied, meditatively, 'If you were to pass the Cambridge
Local Examination, and to get the first place in the Kingsmill
district, you would have three years of free study at Whitelaw.'

'Three years?' shouted Godwin, springing up from his chair.

'But how could you live, my boy?'

Godwin sat down again, and let his head fall forward.

How to keep oneself alive during a few years of intellectual growth?--a
question often asked by men of mature age, but seldom by a lad of
sixteen. No matter. He resolved that he would study for this Cambridge
Local Examination, and have a try for the scholarship. His attainments
were already up to the standard required for average success in such
competitions. On obtaining a set of 'papers', he found that they looked
easy enough. Could he not come out first in the Kingsmill district?

He worked vigorously at special subjects; aid was needless, but he
wished for more leisure. Not a word to any member of his household.
When his mother discovered that he was reading in the bedroom till long
past midnight, she made serious objection on the score of health and on
that of gas bills. Godwin quietly asserted that work he must, and that
if necessary he would buy candles out of his pocket-money. He had
unexpectedly become more grave, more restrained; he even ceased to
grumble about going to church, having found that service time could be
utilised for committing to memory lists of dates and the like, jotted
down on a slip of paper. When the time for the examination drew near,
he at length told his mother to what end he had been labouring, and
asked her to grant him the assistance necessa