Part 8 (1/2)

'A human life,' he said, in instant response, 'is worth more than words can measure. You gave the greatest gift in your power. Be content. When you behold the sunlight on the sea to-morrow, say to yourself, ”But for me there is one on whom the sun would not s.h.i.+ne to-day.”'

She looked at him in silence, and he saw her breast rise and fall in one slow breath as if of relief.

A little longer he sat, considering, in strange humility, this old and humble woman toward whom he had had such generous intentions. What of the many gifts in his power might he offer that could enrich her life?

Nothing! Nothing to give to this poor, lonely, ignorant, toil-worn being who in her starved existence had found more joy than she could make return for!

Once more he thanked her in his son's name and his own, and with as careful a courtesy as if she had been his sovereign, bade her farewell.

The moon had climbed above the bank of clouds now, and the hillside lay transfigured in its light. Sister Anne leaned her head against the window-casing and looked for a while into the still summer night; then presently, being very weary, she slept, a dreamless sleep.

SETH MILES AND THE SACRED FIRE

BY CORNELIA A. P. COMER

I

'RICHARD,' said my dad about a week after Commencement, 'life is real.

You have had your education and your keep, and you're a pleasant enough lad around the house. But the time has come to see what's in you, and I want you to begin to show it right away. If you go to the coast with the family, it will mean three months fooling around with the yacht and the cars and a bunch of pretty girls. There's nothing in that for you any longer.'

Of course, this rubbed me the wrong way.

'Now you've got your degree, it's time we started something else. You say you want to be a scholar--I suppose that means a college professor.

Of course scholars.h.i.+p doesn't pay, but if I leave you a few good bonds, probably you can clip the coupons while you last. I don't insist that you make money, but I do insist that you work. My son must be able to lick his weight in wild-cats, whatever job he's on. Do you get me?'

I looked out of the window and nodded, somewhat haughtily. Of course I couldn't explain to dad the mixture of feelings that led me to choose scholars.h.i.+p. For, while I am keen on philology, and really do love the cla.s.sics so that my spirit seems to swim, if you know what I mean, in the atmosphere that upheld Horace and the wise Cicero of 'De Senectute,'

I also thought there was money enough in the family already. Wasn't it a good thing for the Bonniwells to pay tribute to the humanities in my person? Didn't we, somehow, owe it to the world to put back in culture part of what we took out in cash? But how could I get that across to dad?

He looked at me as if he, too, were trying to utter something difficult.

'There are pa.s.sions of the head as well as of the heart,' he said finally. I opened my eyes, for he didn't often talk in such fas.h.i.+on.

'The old Greeks knew that. I always supposed a scholar, a teacher, had to feel that way if he was any good--that it was the mark of his calling. Perhaps you've been called; but, if so, you keep it pretty dark.'

He stopped and waited for an appropriate response, but I just couldn't get it out. So I remarked, 'If I'm not on the boat this summer, you'll need another man when you cruise.'

'That's my affair,' said he, looking disappointed. 'Yours will be to hold down your job. I've got one ready for you. If you don't like it, you can get another. We'll see about a Ph.D. and Germany later on. But for this season, I had influence enough to get you the summer school in the Jericho district beyond Garibaldi, and you can board with Seth Miles.'

When I was a child, before we moved to Chicago, we lived in Oatesville, at the back of beyond. Garibaldi is an Indiana cross-roads about five miles farther on the road to nowhere.

'_O dad!_' I said; but I put everything I thought into those two words.

He instantly began to look as much like the heavy father on the stage as is possible to a spare man with a Roman nose. So I shrugged my shoulders.

'Oh, very well!' I said. 'If you find me a fossil in the fall, pick out a comfortable museum to lend me to, won't you?'

'Richard.' said my dad, 'G.o.d only knows how a boy should be dealt with.

I don't. If I could only tell you the things I know so you would believe them, I'd set a match to half my fortune this minute. I want you to _touch life_ somewhere, but I don't know how to work it in. I'm doing this in sheer desperation.'