rls and some of the boys asked me to
give them a lift--"

"Gif dem _vat_?"

"A lift--that is, I helped them."

"Dot ish all right, but don't let me hears dot nopody vos efer helping
_you_; if I does--"

And taking his pipe from his mouth, Mr. Ribsam shook his head in a way
which threatened dreadful things.

Then the old gentleman would continue smoking a while longer, and more
than likely, just as Nick was in the midst of some intricate problem, he
would suddenly pronounce his name. The boy would look up instantly, all
attention.

"Hef you been into any fights mit nopodies to-day?"

"I have not, sir; I have not had any trouble like that for a long
while."

"Dot is right--dot is right; but, Nick, if you does get into such bad
tings as fightin', don't ax nopodies to help you; _takes care mit
yorself!_"

The lad modestly answered that he did not remember when he had failed to
take care of himself under such circumstances, and the father resumed
his pipe and brown study.

The honest German may not have been right in every point of his creed,
but in the main he was correct, his purpose being to implant in his
children a sturdy self-reliance. They could not hope to get along at all
times without leaning upon others, but that boy who never forgets that
God has given him a mind, a body, certain faculties and infinite powers,
with the intention that he should cultivate and use them to the highest
point, is the one who is sure to win in the great battle of life.

Then, too, every person is liable to be overtaken by some great
emergency which calls out all the capacities of his nature, and it is
then that false teaching and training prove fatal, while he who has
learned to develop the divine capacities within him comes off more than
conqueror.

CHAPTER III.

A MATHEMATICAL DISCUSSION.

The elder Ribsam took several puffs from his pipe, his eyes fixed
dreamily on the fire, as though in deep meditation. His wife sat in her
chair on the other side, and was busy with her knitting, while perhaps
her thoughts were wandering away to that loved Fatherland which she had
left so many years before, never to see again. Nellie had grown sleepy
and gone to bed.

Mr. Ribsam turned his head and looked at Nick. The boy was seated close
to the lamp on the table, and the scratching of his pencil on his slate
and his glances at the slip of paper lying on the stand, with the
problems written upon it, told plainly enough w