Captain Hargate had been a very gallant officer, and the despatches had spoken most highly of the bravery with which he led his company into action in the fight in which he lost his life.

Therefore Mrs.Hargate hoped that Frank would have little difficulty in obtaining a commission without purchase when the time for his entering the army arrived.
Frank's desire for a military life was based chiefly upon the fact that it would enable him to travel to many parts of the world, and to indulge his taste for natural history to the fullest.

He was but ten years old when he left India with the regiment, but he had still a vivid recollection of the lovely butterflies and bright birds of that country.
His father had been at pains to teach him that a student of natural history must be more than a mere collector, and that like other sciences it must be methodically studied.

He possessed an excellent library of books upon the subject, and although Frank might be ignorant of the name of any bird or insect shown to him he could at once name the family and species.
In the year which Frank had been at school at Dr.Parker's he had made few intimate friends.

His habits of solitary wandering and studious indoor work had hindered his becoming the chum of any of his schoolfellows, and this absence of intimacy had been increased by the fact that the straitness of his mother's means prevented his inviting any of his schoolfellows to his home.