have a like need of their good offices. Many a man has been made or
broken by the smile or frown of one of these deities which are so
entirely beyond our control, and which still make so important a part
of our lives. I state facts again, without further moralizing.
Indeed, I could not moralize on this theme if I tried. I don't know
any one who can, though the world is full of people who constantly try
to. They all fail. The mystery is as great now as it was in the days
when Eve happened to walk up to the tree where the serpent and the
apples happened to be together. One should take off his hat when he
speaks seriously of these things. They are stupendous!

Nor should you blame Mr. Bright too much for doing as he did. Hear the
story out before you pass judgment. He was only a man. You are under
the same condemnation, my self-contained critic!

I will admit without argument, however, that the machine would never
have slid down a banister in pursuit of a fleeing pupil. Never! It
never concerns itself enough about the doings of any individual pupil
to follow him an inch for any cause whatever. The machine would have
sat still and let the boy run. Then it would have suspended him the
next morning and expelled him a few days later. The machine always has
regular ways of doing things. It has all the rules for its movements
set down in a book.

But Mr. Bright was very anxious about "Dodd" Weaver. When he came to
reflect, he was glad that he had not met him while in pursuit of him.
Yet the question remained, what should be done when they did meet? He
thought about this, deep down in his soul, all the rest of the morning.
When noon came he was as much as ever at a loss how to proceed. One of
the worst features of the case, as he thought about it, was this: