ton; and the thought of that forlorn, deserted
death-bed clung to him by day, and filled his dreams by night.

Quackinboss did his utmost, not very skilfully nor very adroitly,
perhaps, but with a hearty sincerity, to combat this depression. He
tried to picture a future of activity and exertion,--a life of sterling
labor. He placed before his companion's eyes the objects and ambitions
men usually deem the worthiest, and endeavored to give them an interest
to him. Met in all his attempts by a dreary, hopeless indifference, the
kind-hearted fellow reflected long and deeply over his next resource;
and so one day, when Layton's recovered strength suggested a hope for
the project, he gave an account of his own neglected youth, how, thrown
when a mere boy upon the world, he had never been able to acquire more
than a smattering of what others learn at school. "I had three books
in the world, sir,--a Bible, Robinson Crusoe, and an old volume of
Wheatson's Algebra. And from a-readin' and readin' of 'em over and over,
I grew to blend 'em all up in my head together. And there was Friday,
just as much a reality to me as Father Abraham; and I thought men kept
all their trade reckoning by simple equations. I felt, in fact, as if
there was no more than these three books in all creation, and out
of them a man had to pick all the wisdom he could. Now, what I 'm
a-thinkin' is that though I 'm too old to go to school, maybe as how you
'd not refuse to give me a helpin' hand, by readin' occasionally out of
those languages I only know by name? Teachin' an old fellow like me
is well-nigh out of the question; but when a man has got a long,
hard-earned experience of human natur', it's a main pleasant thing
to know that oftentimes the thoughts that he is struggling with have
occurred to great minds who know how to utter them; and so many an
impression comes to be corrected, or mayhap confirmed, by those clever
fellows, with their thoughtful heads."

There was one feature in the project which could not but gratify Layton;
it enabled him to show his gratitude for the brotherly affection he
had met with, and he accepted the suggestion at once. The first gleam of
animation that had lighted his eyes for many a day was when planning
out the line of reading he intended them to follow. Taking less eras of
history than some of the great men who had illustrated them, he thought
how such characters would be sure to interest one whose views of life
were e