u know will
come. Stupidity or cowardice are the only causes for not being willing
and ready to help in time of danger."

"What can a chap do?" asked Ross, aflame with eagerness.

The Forecaster looked at him thoughtfully, but before he answered, Anton
piped in, with a plaintive note in his voice:

"Is there anything that I could do?"

In spite of himself, the Forecaster's glance fell on the crutch. Anton's
intent gaze followed the look and he flushed. A sudden silence fell, the
silence of an abiding tragedy from which all eyes are always turned, the
tragedy of the disabled.

"Yes," he said with grave quietness, "there's a great deal that you can
do."

The crippled lad regarded him steadily.

The steady rushing of the Mississippi in flood could be heard near by
with its thousand miles of menace.

"We need work," the weather expert said, at last, "work with the heart
behind it. Even now, the United States Weather Bureau has over four
thousand co-operative observers, who work without pay, who work with
their hearts behind their duties. Still, this is all too few."

Anton's gaze never wavered, but a question crept into his eyes.

"Yes," answered the Forecaster, "you can be one. I know your father
well, and I'm sure that he will be guaranty for the instruments. The
work of making and recording observations will be yours. Never late,
never forgetting, never swerving from your duty, your post at the
rain-gauge and the barometer will be as honorable and responsible a post
as the soldier's at sentry-post or behind the gun."

The lad's eyes glowed more deeply.

"Storms, frosts, and droughts will be your enemies," the Forecaster
continued, "and they never sleep and never give quarter. The
lighthouse-keeper who lets his light go out and permits a ship to go
unwarned to wreck upon the rocks is not more guilty than the Weather
Observer who allows disaster to sweep, unwarned, upon his district. It
is a trust, Anton. Can you and will you take it?"

The sun broke through the clouds, lighting up the yellow wood of the
crutch and turning it into gold. It caught the boy's eye, but with a new
significance. No longer would it stand between him and his future. There
was something he could do for his country, as well as though he were
the strongest and best-built lad in all the neighborhood. Life, with its
promises of work, opened before him.

"I'll take the trust," he answered simply.

CHAPTER III

PUTTING THE SUN