than I ever knew him to be before."

"I don't quite get the hang of that, Bob."

"Well, you must know that my dad is reckoned a stern man. Folks have
always looked on him as what they call austere. He's engaged in a
business that keeps his mind away up in the clouds most of the time,
and he just can't pay much attention to the small things of life. I
heard him tell that once, and I've tried to understand what it really
meant, but somehow I couldn't, because my nature is just the opposite,
so I guess I must take after my mother's side of the family. I can
hardly remember the time when my dad played with me, or seemed at all
interested in my childish hopes and fears. It was always Ma to whom I
went with my troubles; and Jack, she never failed me. That's what
makes it so hard for me now. Only for you to confide in, I don't know
what I'd have done."

He seemed on the verge of breaking down at this point. Jack in order
to prevent anything like this hastened to ask again:

"Go on, Bob, and tell me just how your father is acting differently
nowadays from what he's always done."

"Why, you see," continued the other, with a spasmodic movement of his
big frame that might have been caused, Jack suspected, by a half-
suppressed sob welling up from his sorely distressed heart, "he's not
only been watching me close at times, but twice now he's even asked me
something about the football match with Marshall; and last night Ma
told me he had said they must surely go over today and watch me play.
Oh! Jack, that nearly broke me all up. I felt just like I must throw