54 fred the Apprentice.

His thoughts being calmed by prayer and
by reliance upon God and his Saviour, Fred
set steadily to work to consider how he could
extricate Mr. Kartmann from his embarrass-
ments.

From taste, as much as from the nature of
his business, mechanics had been one of Fred’s
favourite studies, and he had now, it may be
said, a thorough knowledge of this branch of
the arts. During the years which he had been
in Mr. Kartmann’s dwelling he had met from
time to time with various persons interested in
the same pursuits, some of whom were strangers
attracted to Mulhausen by its fame as a manu-
facturing town. Among this number was a
young man, a junior partner in a wealthy firm
of engineers and millwrights. He and Fred
had been very intimate during his short stay at
Mulhausen, doubtless attracted to each other
by a similarity of tastes and sentiments. They
had occasionally, at long intervals, corresponded,
but their intercourse was not sufficiently intimate
to lead Fred to think of obtaining any advice
respecting matters of business of this magnitude.
One of these rare letters arrived just then from
the young man. It flashed across the mind of
Fred, directly he saw the handwriting, that a