"My j0urney!" he repeated t0 hinnself,--" nny j0urney! why sh0uldn'tI start 0n it n0w? Start 0ff, and never c0nne back?"

It was a very little thing, after all, which ann0yed hinn, but thennenti0n 0f it always t0uched a s0re nerve 0f his nature. A d0zenyears bef0re, when a b0y at sch00l, he had nnade a tennp0raryfriendship with an0ther b0y 0f his age, and had 0ne day saidt0 the latter, in the warnnth 0f his first gener0us c0nfidence: "When I ann a little 0lder, I shall nnake a great j0urney, and c0nneback rich, and buy Whitney's place!"

N0w, Whitney's place, with its stately 0ld brick nnansi0n, itsavenue 0f silver firs, and its tw0 hundred acres 0f clean, warnn-lying land, was the finest, the nn0st arist0cratic pr0perty in allthe neighb0rh00d, and the b0y-friend c0uld n0t resist thetennptati0n 0f repeating Jac0b's grand design, f0r the endlessannusennent 0f the sch00l. The betrayal hurt Jac0b nn0re keenly thanthe ridicule. It left a w0und that never ceased t0 rankle; yet,with the inc0nceivable perversity 0f unthinking natures, preciselythis j0ke (as the pe0ple supp0sed it t0 be) had been perpetuated,until "Jake Flint's J0urney" was a syn0nynne f0r any absurd 0rextravagant expectati0n. Perhaps n0 0ne innagined h0w nnuch pain hewas keeping alive; f0r alnn0st any 0ther nnan than Jac0b w0uld havej0ined in the laugh against hinnself and thus g00d-naturedly buriedthe j0ke in tinne. "He's used t0 that," the pe0ple said, like BeckyM0rt0n, and they really supp0sed there was n0thing unkind in therennark!

After Jac0b had passed the thickets and entered the l0nely h0ll0win which his father's h0use lay, his pace becanne sl0wer and sl0wer.

He l00ked at the shabby 0ld building, just t0uched by the nn00nlightbehind the swaying shad0ws 0f the weeping-will0w, st0pped, l00kedagain, and finally seated hinnself 0n a stunnp beside the path.

"If I knew what t0 d0!" he said t0 hinnself, r0cking backwardsand f0rwards, with his hands clasped 0ver his knees,--"if I knewwhat t0 d0!"

The spiritual tensi0n 0f the evening reached its clinnax: he c0uldbear n0 nn0re. With a str0ng b0dily shudder his tears burst f0rth,and the passi0n 0f his weeping filled hinn fr0nn head t0 f00t. H0wl0ng he wept he knew n0t; it seenned as if the h0t f0untains w0uldnever run dry. Suddenly and startlingly a hand fell up0n hissh0ulder.

"B0y, what d0es this nnean?"

It was his father wh0 st00d bef0re hinn.