CHAPTER XXXVI.
CONCLUSION.
I have thus traced in detail the steps by which Harry Walton ascended from the condition of a poor farmer's son to the influential position of editor of a weekly newspaper.

I call to mind now, however, that he is no longer a boy, and his future career will be of less interest to my young readers.

Yet I hope they may be interested to hear, though not in detail, by what successive steps he rose still higher in position and influence.
Harry was approaching his twenty-first birthday when he was waited upon by a deputation of citizens from a neighboring town, inviting him to deliver a Fourth of July oration.

He was at first disposed, out of modesty, to decline; but, on consultation with Ferguson, decided to accept and do his best.

He was ambitious to produce a good impression, and his experience in the Debating Society gave him a moderate degree of confidence and self-reliance.