CHAPTER VII
AT THE ROUNDHOUSE
Ralph Fairbanks came out of the little cottage next morning after breakfast feeling bright as a dollar and happy as a lark.
He realized that a new epoch had begun in his young existence, and he stood fairly on the threshold of a fascinating experience.
Yesterday seemed like a variegated dream, and To-Day full of expectation, novelty and promise.
His mother's anxiety the evening previous had given way to pride and subdued affection, when he had appeared about ten o'clock after seeing the engineer home, and had told her in detail the story of the most eventful day of his life.
If Mrs. Fairbanks felt a natural disappointment in seeing Ralph forego the advantages of a finished education, she did not express it, for she knew that the best ambitions of his soul had been aroused, and that his loyal boyish nature had chosen a noble course.
Ralph went down to the depot and bought a Springfield morning paper. It contained a full
