good oar too--he's
just the very man you want."

It was quite true, as Walter said, that Amos had been a good rower at
the university. Rowing was one of the few amusements in which he had
indulged himself, but he had never joined a racing boat though often
solicited to do so.

"What do you say, Amos?" asked his young companion. "Will you join us,
and make up the Oxford four complete? We shall be really much obliged
if you will; and I'm sure you'll enjoy it."

"Thank you," replied Amos; "it's very kind of you to ask me, I'm sure.
I should have liked it had I been able to undertake it, but I am sorry
to say that it cannot be."

"Cannot be!" exclaimed Walter. "Why, what's to hinder you?"

"I cannot spare the time just now," said his brother quietly.

"Not spare the time!--not spare half-an-hour one fine afternoon in
September! Dear me! you must be oppressed with business. What is it?
It isn't farming, I know. Is it legal business? Have you got so many
appointments with the Lord Chancellor that he can't spare you even for
one day?"

"It will not be only for one day," replied Amos quietly. "If the race
is to be a real trial of skill and strength we must train for it, and
have many practices, and I cannot promise to find time for these."

"Oh, nonsense! Why not? You've nothing to do."

"I have something to do, Walter, and something too that I cannot give up
for these practisings."

"What! I suppose you think such vanities as these waste of precious
time."

"I never said nor thought so, Walter; but I have a work in hand which
will prevent my having the pleasure of taking a part in this race, for
it really would have been a pleasure to me."

"Ah! it must be a precious important work, no doubt," said his brother
satirically. "Just tell us what it is, and we shall be able to judge."

Amos made no reply to these last words, but turned first very red and
then very pale.

"Humph!" said Walter; "I guess what it is. It's a new scheme for paying
off the national debt, by turning radishes into sovereigns and cabbage-
leaves into bank-notes; and it'll take a deal of time and pains to do
it." He laughed furiously at his own wit, but, to his mortification, he
laughed alone. There was a rather painful silence, which was broken by
the gentle voice of Miss Huntingdon.

"I think, dear Walter," she said, "that you are a little hard on your
brother. Surely he may have an important work on hand without being
e