"Just permit me," continued Mr. Grant, "to get him sent to the
Saskatchewan or Athabasca for a couple of years. By that time he'll
have had enough of a rough life, and be only too glad to get a berth
at headquarters. If you thwart him now, I feel convinced that he'll
break through all restraint."

"Humph!" ejaculated Mr. Kennedy, with a frown--"Come here, Charley,"
he said, as the boy approached with a disappointed look to tell of
his failure in getting a horse; "I've been talking with Mr. Grant
again about this business, and he says he can easily get you into the
counting-room here for a year, so you'll make arrangements--"

The old gentleman paused. He was going to have followed his wonted
course by _commanding_ instantaneous obedience; but as his eye fell
upon the honest, open, though disappointed face of his son, a gush of
tenderness filled his heart. Laying his hand upon Charley's head, he
said, in a kind but abrupt tone, "There now, Charley, my boy, make up
your mind to give in with a good grace. It'll only be hard work for a
year or two, and then plain sailing after that, Charley!"

Charley's clear blue eyes filled with tears as the accents of
kindness fell upon his ear.

It is strange that men should frequently be so blind to the potent
influence of kindness. Independently of the Divine authority, which
assures us that "a soft answer turneth away wrath," and that "_love_
is the fulfilling of the law," who has not, in the course of his
experience, felt the overwhelming power of a truly affectionate word;
not a word which possesses merely an affectionate signification, but
a word spoken with a gush of tenderness, where love rolls in the