to have you make them right as soon as possible, before it is too late."

You know, good people, that when a bone is broken, the thing that needs
to be done is to set it as soon as possible; if it is left out of place
very long, it is ten times as hard to put it right again as it would
have been at first, and, even if set at last, it is apt to grow
together imperfectly, or perhaps make a crooked limb ever after. The
sooner a fault is redressed, the better for all parties to it.

"So now I have this to say to you," Mr. Bright went on:

"I don't want you to drop out of school on account of this occurrence.
This is what you are in danger of doing, and it is the very thing you
ought not to do. You have been doing well in your work for a good
while now, and you can't afford to let this affair break you off."

"Well, I guess it won't hurt anybody but myself, and that is my own
business," said "Dodd" sulkily.

Off, away off as yet. Drawn, but unwilling to come. Seeing, knowing
what he should do, but, ruled by some rebellious devil, persistently
turning away and doing the other thing. It is the way of perverse
human nature. Call it "total depravity," "original sin," "infirmity,"
"the natural man," I don't care what, only this--recognize the
condition and deal with it, when you come squarely up against it, so
that it will not ruin its victim.

"The very thing I am fearing," returned Mr. Bright. "In one sense it
is nobody's business but your own what becomes of you; in another
sense, it is the business of a great many. Young man, I tell you again