Good-bye--and mind what I say: Rest perfectly easy, one and all of you, for our troubles are nearly at an end." Poor lad, he could not know that his mother would cry some loving, compassionate tears over his letter and put off the family with a synopsis of its contents which conveyed a deal of love to then but not much idea of his prospects or projects.

And he never dreamed that such a joyful letter could sadden her and fill her night with sighs, and troubled thoughts, and bodings of the future, instead of filling it with peace and blessing it with restful sleep.
When the letter was done, Washington and the Colonel sallied forth, and as they walked along Washington learned what he was to be.

He was to be a clerk in a real estate office.

Instantly the fickle youth's dreams forsook the magic eye-water and flew back to the Tennessee Land.

And the gorgeous possibilities of that great domain straightway began to occupy his imagination to such a degree that he could scarcely manage to keep even enough of his attention upon the Colonel's talk to retain the general run of what he was saying.