It impressed him now as a question that demanded his most serious
thought. For the first time there came to him a full realization that
some day he would have to earn his way in the world with his own brain
and hands. A vista of the future years with their responsibilities,
lay before him as a reality, and he decided that it was up to him to
make the most of those years and to make a success of life. No doubt
this realization fell upon him as a shock, as it does upon most lads
whose parents have supplied their every need. Now he was called upon
to decide the matter for himself, and his future education was to be
guided by his choice.

At various periods of his youthful career nearly every boy has an
ambition to be an Indian fighter, or a pirate, or a locomotive
engineer, or a fireman and save people from burning buildings at the
risk of his own life, or to be a hunter of ferocious wild animals.
Grenfell had dreamed of a romantic and adventurous career. Now he
realized that these ambitions must give place to a sedate profession
that would earn him a living and in which he would be contented.

All of his people had been literary workers, educators, clergymen, or
officers in the army or navy. There was Charles Kingsley and "Westward
Ho." There was Sir Richard Grenvil, immortalized by Tennyson in "The
Revenge." There was his own dear grandfather who was a master at Rugby
under the great Arnold, whom everybody knows through "Tom Brown at
Rugby."

It was the wish of some of his friends and family that he become a
clergyman. This did not in the least suit his tastes, and he
immediately decided that whatever profession he might choose, it would
_not_ be the ministry. The ministry was distasteful to him as a