42 Fred the Apprentice.

uneasy about the future, whatever it might be.
He now possessed resources which ought never
to fail him, except that God in His wisdom
should see fit to deprive him of them, or that,
by the divine will, ill-health should come to
make him unfit for work. He feared nothing
else, for, humanly speaking, success seemed to
be securely within his reach, and he trusted that
God, who had thus far blessed and preserved
him, would continue to do so,

CHAPTER VII.
A TEMPTATION,

eT was one of those hot, clear evenings
which are so frequent at Mulhausen ;
it was the hour when the workpeople
leave the factories. Parties of them
were ascending the rising ground that borders
the canal, singing in chorus; and their songs
were heard in the valley beneath.

Fred was seated with his drawing-board on
his knees, engaged in making a drawing of some
machinery that he had sketched during the day.