"But have a care, brother, I say again, have a care of worldly pride and worldly lust," interposed the primitive old father, gravely. "I would rather have my son the meek and uncomplaining pauper in his old age, than an overbearing purseproud fool; the one tired of life and sighing for the sweet rest of heaven, and the other so wedded to the world, and all its pomps and vanities, that he wants no other heaven than the gross luxuries of the earth."

"I detest mere worldlyism, Josh, as much as you do," returned his brother Benjamin. "But because it is base and wicked to be utterly worldly, it by no means follows that it is noble and good to be utterly unworldly. To despise the world about us because there is another and a better world to come, is as wrong as not to value life because we hope to live hereafter. And as it is our duty to promote our health by conforming our habits to the laws of bodily welfare, so is it our duty to conform our pursuits to the laws of worldly happiness-laws which are as much part of God's ordination as the conditions of health, or the succession of the seasons themselves. The laws of worldly life are written on the tablets of the world, and the handwriting is unmistakably the Creator's own. There was no need of any special revelation to make them known to us. If we will but open our eyes, we may read them in letters of light; and surely they are as much for the guidance of our worldly lives as the Biblical commandments are for the regulation of our spiritual ones."

"There is no gainsaying your brother's words, Josh," urged the dame, for she was too anxious to get to bed to say a syllable that was likely to prolong the argument; and then, by way of a gentle hint as to the hour, the housewife proceeded

to place the tin candlesticks on the table before the two brothers.

"Well, Ben, the days of monkish folly are past,' responded Josiah as he rose from his seat," and people no longer believe that true philosophy puts up with a tub for a home. There may be as much worldly pride, too, in the austerity of a hermit's life as in the pomp of Solomon' arrayed in all his glory.' Nevertheless, the heart of man is fond enough of the world's gewgaws, without needing any schooling in the matter."

"Can that be truly said, Josiah, so long as three fourths of the world remain steeped to the very lips in poverty ?" Uncle Ben calmly inquired. "All men may covet wealth, brother, but that few know the way to win even a competence is proven by the misery of the great mass of the people. I want to see comfort reign throughout the world instead of squalor; competence rather than want; self-reliance rather than beggary; independence rather than serfdom. I wish to teach a man to get money rather than want it or beg for it; to get money with honor and dignity; to husband it with honor and dignity; and, what is more, to spend it with honor and dignity too. And, please God, that is the high lesson your boy shall learn before I have done with him."

"Be it so, then, brother, be it so; and may he prove the fine, honorable, and righteous man we both desire to see him," cried the father.

"Amen!" added the mother; and then, with a "God bless you," the brothers parted for the night.

CHAPTER XV.

THE GREAT RAREE-SHOW.

YOUNG Ben, on the morrow, was a different lad from the tired, drowsy, and taciturn little traveler of the previous night; for no sooner was sister Deborah below stairs arranging for the morning meal, than he was by her side, following her, now to the wood-house, then to the pantry, and afterward to the parlor, with a shoe on one of his hands and a brush in the other, busily engaged in the double office of disburdening his mind of the heavy load of wonders he had seen on his travels, and getting rid at the same time of a little of the mud he had brought back with him from the country.

Then, as the girl began to set the basins and the platters on the table, he fell to dodging her about the room as she rambled round and round, and chattering to her the while of the curious old French town of St. Louis, but still polishing away as he chattered. And though Deborah insisted that he must not clean his shoes over the breakfast-table, on he went, scrubbing incessantly, with his head on one side, and talking to the girl by jerks, first of that darling Jacky, the pony they had borrowed of the French farmer, and next of the "ark" in which they had descended the great Ohio River.

When, too, the boy retired with the little maid to assist her in opening the store, there he would stand in the street, with one of the shutters in his hand resting on the stones, as he described to her