me enter upon some handicraft. I would rather that, by a great deal, than
farming. All these books you have lent me, Walter, have shown me what
great and noble deeds there are to be done in the world--I don't mean in
fighting, you know, but in other ways. And they make the life here,
toiling on the farm from sunrise to sunset, with no object save that of
laying by every year more money, seem terribly empty and worthless.

"By the way, my grandfather was, yesterday evening, rating my father
because, instead of always keeping me hard at work, he allowed me once or
twice a week to be away for hours wasting my time--which means, though he
didn't know it, going about with you. My father said stoutly that he did
not think the time was altogether wasted, for that, in the last two
years, I had made a notable advance in learning, and he was satisfied
that I had benefited much by these intervals of recreation. Thereupon my
grandfather grumbled that I was too fond of reading, and that I was
filling my mind with all sorts of nonsense, whereas true wisdom was to be
found in one book only.

"My father said that was true of religious wisdom, but that, for the
advancement of the world, it was needed that men should learn other
things. Of course, my grandfather had three or four texts ready at hand;
but my father had him by saying: 'You see, father, all the commands
issued to the Jews are not strictly applicable to us--for example, they
were ordered not to use horses; and I do not remember that Cromwell felt
that he was doing wrong, when he raised his ironsides.' That was a poser,
and so the matter dropped."

Ten days later, when the boys met, John said:

"This is the last time we shall meet for some time, Walter, for I am