Do you think your father will like this plan ?" "Pretty sure he will.

Yesterday, when I told him I must go at something right off, he said, 'Anything honest, Tom, and don't forget that your father began the world as a shop-boy.' You knew that, did n't you ?" "Yes, he told me the story once, and I always liked to hear it, because it was pleasant to see how well he had succeeded." "I never did like the story, a little bit ashamed, I 'm afraid; but when we talked it over last night, it struck me in a new light, and I understood why father took the failure so well, and seems so contented with this poorish place.

It is only beginning again, he says; and having worked his way up once, he feels as if he could again.

I declare to you, Polly, that sort of confidence in himself, and energy and courage in a man of his years, makes me love and respect the dear old gentleman as I never did before." "I 'm so glad to hear you say that, Tom! I 've sometimes thought you did n't quite appreciate your father, any more than he knew how much of a man you were." "Never was till to-day, you know," said Tom, laughing, yet looking as if he felt the dignity of his one and twenty years.

"Odd, is n't it, how people live together ever so long, and don't seem to find one another out, till something comes to do it for them.