opportunity, therefore, she went over to Mr. Stewart's cottage, and,
finding him at home, opened her heart fully to him. Mr. Stewart, or Alec
Stewart, as he was generally called, listened with ready sympathy to what
Mrs. Kingston had to say, and showed much interest in the matter, for he
had held a high opinion of his former chief, and knew Frank well enough
to admire his spirit and character.

"Well, you see, Mrs. Kingston, it's just this way," said he, when his
visitor had stated the case upon which she wanted his opinion: "if
Frank's got his heart so set upon going into the woods, I don't know as
there's any use trying to cross him. He won't take kindly to anything
else while he's thinking of that; and he'd a big sight better be a good
lumberman than a poor clerk, don't you think?"

Mrs. Kingston felt the force of this reasoning, yet could hardly make up
her mind to yield to it at once.

"But, Mr. Stewart," she urged, "it may only be a boyish notion of
Frank's. He thinks, perhaps, he'd like it because that's what his father
was before him, and then he may find his mistake."

"Well, Mrs. Kingston," replied Mr. Stewart, "if you think there's any
chance of that being the case, we can settle the question right enough in
this way:--Let Frank come to the woods with me this winter. I will give
him a berth as chore-boy in one of the camps; and if that doesn't sicken
him of the business, then all I can say is you'd better let the lad have
his will."

Mrs. Kingston sighed.