“How is the boy Bacchus goin' on?” asked Billy, eagerly. “I broke him up yesterday, and it is like a weight off my heart that his curly bullet head and sensual lips are not waiting for me as I enter the studio.” “And the Cleopatra?” asked Traynor, still more anxiously. “Smashed,--destroyed. Shall I own to you, Billy, I see at last myself what you have so often hinted to me,--I have no genius for the work?” “I never said,--I never thought so,” cried the other; “I only insisted that nothing was to be done without labor,--hard, unflinching labor; that easy successes were poor triumphs, and bore no results.” “There,--there, I'll hear that sermon no more. I'd not barter the freedom of my own unfettered thoughts, as they come and go, in hours of listless idleness, for all the success you ever promised me. There are men toil elevates,--me it wearies to depression, and brings no compensation in the shape of increased power. Mine is an unrewarding clay,--that's the whole of it. Cultivation only develops the rank weeds which are deep sown in the soil. I'd like to travel,--to visit some new land, some scene where all association with the past shall be broken. What say you?” “I'm ready, and at your orders,” said Traynor, closing his book. “East or west, then, which shall it be? If sometimes my heart yearns for the glorious scenes of Palestine, full of memories that alone satisfy the soul's longings, there are days when I pant for the solitude of the vast savannas of the New World. I feel as if to know one's self thoroughly, one's nature should be tested by the perils and exigencies of a life hourly making some demand on courage and ingenuity. The hunter's life does this. What say you,--shall we try it?” “I 'm ready,” was the calm reply. “We have means for such an enterprise, have we not? You told me, some short time past, that nearly the whole of our last year's allowance was untouched.” “Yes, it's all there to the good,” said Billy; “a good round sum too.” “Let us get rid of all needless equipment, then,” cried Massy, “and only retain what beseems a prairie life. Sell everything, or give it away at once.” “Leave all that to me,--I'll manage everything; only say when you make up your mind.” “But it is made up. I have resolved on the step. Few can decide so readily; for I leave neither home nor country behind.”