He said, in another tone: "Tim, I've thought so many things,
that now I've about given up thinking. All I can do is to
live along the best way I know how and help the world move
the best I'm able."

"You bet _I_ ain't going to help the world move," said the boy;
"I'm going to look out for myself!"

"Then my training of you has turned out pretty badly, if that's
the way you feel."

A little shiver passed over the lad's sullen face; he flushed until
he lost his freckles in the red veil and burst out passionately:
"Well, I got eyes, ain't I? I ain't going to be bad, or drink,
or steal, or do things to git put in the penitentiary; but I ain't
going to let folks walk all over me like you do; no, sir!"

Nelson did not answer; in his heart he thought that he had failed
with the children, too; and he relapsed into that dismal study
of the face of Failure.

He had come to the city to show Tim the sights, and, therefore, though
like a man in a dream, he drove conscientiously about the gay streets,
pointing out whatever he thought might interest the boy, and generally
discovering that Tim had the new information by heart already.
All the while a question pounded itself, like the beat of the heart
of an engine, through the noise and the talk: "Shall I give up Richards
or be turned out myself?"

When the afternoon sunlight waned he put up the horse at a modest