A new resolution fixed itself in the Boy's soul. He _would_ live his own
life. No other human being should do it for him.




V

HOME


The mother's heart rebelled at last. She would not be put off longer.
Her baby had been gone two years. She refused point blank to listen to
any further argument.

Charles Green, the young Mississippian, studying law in Kentucky, and
acting as the Boy's guardian, was notified to bring him at the end of
the spring term.

On a glorious day in June they left Bardstown for Louisville, to take
the new steamboat line for home. These wonderful boats were the marvels
of their day. Their names conveyed but a hint of the awe they inspired.
The fleet of three vessels bore the titles, _Volcano_, _Vesuvius_ and
_Ætna_. And the sparks that flew heavenward from their black chimneys
were far more impressive to the people who crowded the shores than the
smoke and lava of old Vesuvius to the lazy loungers of Naples.

The Boy saw his pony safely housed on board the _Ætna_, and amid the
clang of bells and the scream of whistles, the floating wonder swung out
from her wharf into the yellow tide of the Ohio.