It was a large house, of considerable pretension for a village, and Oscar's room was large and handsomely furnished.

But what attracted Harry's attention was not the furniture, but a collection of over a hundred books, ranged on shelves at one end of the room.

In his father's house it had always been so difficult to obtain the necessaries of life that books had necessarily been regarded as superfluities, and beyond a dozen volumes which Harry had read and re-read, he was compelled to depend on such as he could borrow.

Here again his privileges were scanty, for most of the neighbors were as poorly supplied as his father.
"What a fine library you have, Oscar!" he exclaimed.
"I have a few books," said Oscar.

"My father filled a couple of boxes, and sent me.