"No, sir. It will not be near _me_ for two years," said Magnus, trying to speak with the proper pride of a young man off on his travels, and far from home, but the boyish voice betraying itself and him. "Two years!" Mr. Wayne repeated; adding with a breath that was almost a groan, "Two years out of sight of home! You are going to West Point?" he said the next minute in his quick way. "Yes, sir. But how did you know?" said the boy, rousing up in his surprise. "Yankees aren't worth a red cent if they can't guess," said Mr. Wayne, smiling. "Well, that settles the question of supper. If you get to West Point in a die-away condition, they'll not take you in; and you will see the home station quicker than you care about, maybe. The first thing they'll tell you at West Point will be to 'brace up,' so you'd better do a little at it before you get there." If Magnus was half ready to resent the words he could not, for the merry glance that went with them. "Were you ever at West Point, sir?" "Often." "Well, what sort of a place is it?" said Magnus, sitting straight up in his interest. "One of the very loveliest places on this fair earth," said Mr. Wayne. "With hills and woods and river that you will lose your heart to, and never get it back." "Nice people, too?" questioned Magnus. "All sorts of people. As in every other bit of the world. All sorts." "There is only one sort at home," said Magnus proudly. "Ah, true! But home is the only exception. And so, "Be it ever so homely, There is no place like home." "But even in the home neighbourhood, I think, you can remember varieties?" "Yes, indeed," said Magnus, smiling. "Chaff Pointer said it was waste time for me to go to West Point, for he knew I'd never get through." "Well, I'd prove that man a false prophet, if he does belong near home," said Mr. Wayne. "How did 'Chaff' get his name?" "All the rest of the family are sound and good for something, and so everybody calls him 'Chaff,'" said Magnus. Mr. Wayne laughed heartily. "All sorts there, too," he said. "But here is our ten-minute station. Come along. I invite you to be my guest, and when you are invited out to supper, you must go when you don't want to go, and eat when you are not hungry." And Magnus laughed and followed. But to hurry into that brilliantly lighted room after a cheerful companion, and to eat all sorts of queer railway providings at railway speed, was a very different thing from munching his dry sandwich alone in the dusky car, and all the time seeing nothing but the dear fingers that put it up. Appetite came back, and spirits, with somewhat of the joyous sense of enterprise and novelty; confidence and liking for his new friend sprang up into life-size proportions, and it did not take long to tell over the whole little home story. It was such a comfort to speak to somebody.