“I’ve been thinking about it,” his father answered meditatively, “and I don’t think I will. Wait a bit—” he continued, as he saw the bitter disappointment in the lad’s face, “I haven’t finished. I don’t say that I won’t let you go on a search for fossils some time, but I don’t think this Princeton expedition is the right thing for you. And I’ll tell you why.” “I’m sure it would,” burst out Perry. “I’ll tell you why,” his father said again, with that calm repetition from which the boy knew of old there was no appeal. “You would simply go as a helper, you wouldn’t have any real share in the plan, and you would only have a lot of dirty and laborious work to do without any real chance to learn.” “But, Father,” interrupted the boy. He caught the glance of reproof and stopped. “If you interrupt me again, Perry, I shall not say what I was going to say—and you’ll be the loser.” Distinctly set back, Perry straightened himself and sat still. After a pause, his father continued: “That book of drawings you showed me, son, which covered several years of work, looks to me like fairly good evidence that your interest is genuine. I want to be sure that it’s not just a fad, that you’ll tire of in a month or two.” “Oh, it isn’t, Father!” “You’d say that, Perry, of course, in any case. Just the same I rather think you mean it. Now, what I want to say is this: Since you really so seem to have an interest in these dragon-forms of old times, and as I suppose you’ve inherited it, to a certain extent, it seems to me that I ought to give you a chance to find out if that’s the sort of thing you want to take up for your life-work. “So far, I haven’t made any special plans for your future, Perry, because I haven’t known just how your desires would run. I wanted to see which way the cat would jump, first. Do you really think that you would like to give your whole time to paleontology, or do you want to keep it as a hobby? Answer carefully, now, because quite a stretch of your life may hang on the reply.” Perry thought for a minute or two, then answered slowly: “I think I’d rather try to find the monsters that no one has ever seen. I’d like to dig up secrets in all the queer corners of the world. I’d rather find a new kind of creature, such as no one had even dreamt of before, than be a multi-millionaire!” “Very good,” his father answered, “if that’s your feeling, my boy, you shall have your chance and you shall have it in the best way possible. I suppose you know that your Uncle George is going to take out an expedition for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, this year?” “No, Father, I didn’t know it,” Perry replied. “Out West?” “I think not,” his father answered. “If I remember rightly, when he was here a month or two ago, he said something about going to Egypt.” “And I could go?”