but not yet ascended into heaven. It's unpleasant to be out of a job.
I confess I shall always cherish a more intelligent sympathy henceforth
for the great unemployed. But cheer up, dad! You are taking this thing
much too seriously. The world is wide, and there is something waiting me
that I can do better than any one else."

But the father had little to say. He felt bitterly the humiliation to
which his son had been subjected.

Barry refused to see the humiliation.

"Why should I not resign if I decide it is my duty so to do? And why,
on the other hand, should not they have the right to terminate my
engagement with them when they so desire? That's democratic government."

"But good Lord, Barry!" burst out his father, with quite an unusual
display of feeling; "to think that a gentleman should hold his position
at the whim of such whippersnappers as Hayes, Boggs et hoc genus omne.
And more than that, that I should have to accept as my minister a man
who would be the choice of cattle like that."

"After all, dad, we are ruled by majorities in this age and in this
country. That is at once the glory and the danger of democratic
government. There is no better way discovered as yet. And besides, I
couldn't go on here, dad, preaching Sunday after Sunday to people who I
felt were all the time saying, 'He's no good'; to people, in short, who
could not profit by my preaching."

"Because it had no pep, eh?" said his father with bitter scorn.