To send a boy out into the world to earn his own living is a hazardous experiment, and fathers are less sanguine than their sons.

Their experience suggests difficulties and obstacles of which the inexperienced youth knows and possesses nothing.

But in the present case Mr.Walton reflected that the little farming town in which he lived offered small inducements for a boy to remain there, unless he was content to be a farmer, and this required capital.

His farm was too small for himself, and of course he could not give Harry a part when be came of age.

On the whole, therefore, Harry's plan of becoming a mechanic seemed not so bad a one after all.