very smart. But, struggle as you please, a man has to work in this

world. He must be an honest man or a thief, Loudon."

You can see for yourself how vain it was to argue with my father.

The despair that seized upon me after such an interview was, besides,

embittered by remorse; for I was at times petulant, but he invariably

gentle; and I was fighting, after all, for my own liberty and pleasure,

he singly for what he thought to be my good. And all the time he never

despaired. "There is good stuff in you, Loudon," he would say; "there

is the right stuff in you. Blood will tell, and you will come right in

time. I am not afraid my boy will ever disgrace me; I am only vexed he

should sometimes talk nonsense." And then he would pat my shoulder or

my hand with a kind of motherly way he had, very affecting in a man so

strong and beautiful.

As soon as I had graduated from the high school, he packed me off to the

Muskegon Commercial Academy. You are a foreigner, and you will have a

difficulty in accepting the reality of this seat of education. I assure

you before I begin that I am wholly serious. The place really existed,

possibly exists to-day: we were proud of it in the State, as something

exceptionally nineteenth century and civilized; and my father, when he

saw me to the cars, no doubt considered he was putting me in a straight

line for the Presidency and the New Jerusalem.

"Loudon," said he, "I am now giving you a chance that Julius Caesar

could not have given to his son--a chance to see life as it is, before

your own turn comes to start in earnest. Avoid rash speculation, try

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