"I must dismiss it all," he at last said, bitterly. "They have had their sufferings; I will not be so cowardly as to shrink from mine. I'll take an interest in the governor's pursuits; and here goes to begin. I'll run over to the Marsh, and see where they are pegging out the drain; but I may as well take a gun, and see if I cannot bag a couple or two of ducks." Brace Norton's reverie had been in his own room; and with this determination fresh upon him, he walked, cheery of aspect, into the room where Captain and Mrs Norton had been discussing the unsatisfactory turn matters had taken, when the young man's bright look, and apparently buoyant spirits, came upon them like a burst of sunshine. "Gun? Yes, my dear boy!" exclaimed the Captain, delighted at the change that seemed to have come over his son. "Here you are," he said, opening a case--"everything to your hand. You'll be back to dinner?" "Ay, ay, sir!" cried Brace, strengthened in his resolve, on seeing the pleasure his high spirits seemed to impart to his elders. "I am going to see where they are marking out the drain." "To be sure. Quite right, Brace--quite right. I should like, above all things, to go with you." "Well, why not?" said Brace, heartily. Captain Norton smiled, and shook his head, as he pointed to his writing-table, covered with correspondence. "Too much engaged, my boy--too many letters to write. I'll go over with you one day, though, if you will." "To be sure," said Brace. And then he saluted his mother, who held his hands tightly, as if unwilling to part from him, as she gazed fondly in his face. Then having secured the gun and ammunition, he started off, with a bold, elastic step, apparently as free from care as if no cloud had crossed his young career. He had not gone far before again and again came the longing desire to sit down beneath some shady tree, and picture the soft sweet face that his heart whispered him he loved--the face that seemed to be so impressed upon his brain, that, sleeping or waking, asked for or uncalled, it was always there vividly before his gaze; though, beyond a distant salute and its response, since the day of the accident, he had never held the slightest intercourse with Isa Gernon. He might have laughed at another for being so impressionable; but, none the less, he felt himself to be greatly moved, and hour by hour he felt that the task he had imposed upon himself was greater than he could ever expect to master. But that day Brace would not yield to the sweet temptation, striving manfully and trying hard to tire himself out. He visited the portions of the great marsh where arrangements were being made for forming the drain; he tramped to and fro over the boggy land with his gun, hour after hour; and at last, utterly weary, he entered the pine-wood on the marsh edge, having unwittingly wandered to the spot where, years before, his father had, in his wild despair, so nearly cast away his life.