The
instructors were, many of them, the same men who gave similar courses
at a neighboring college. Not only that, but the hours were so
arranged as to accommodate workers of all classes. If you couldn't
attend in the daytime, you could at night. I was astonished to think
that this opportunity had always been at my hand and I had never
suspected it. In the ten years before I was married I could have
qualified as a lawyer or almost anything else.

This was not all; a young man took me over the building and showed me
the library, the reading-room, rooms where the young men gathered for
games, and then down stairs to the well equipped gymnasium with its
shower baths. Here a boy could take a regular course in gymnasium work
under a skilled instructor or if he showed any skill devote himself to
such sports as basketball, running, baseball or swimming. In addition
to these advantages amusements were provided through the year in the
form of lectures, amateur shows and music. In the summer, special
opportunities were offered for out-door sports. Moreover the
Association managed summer camps where for a nominal fee the boys
could enjoy the life of the woods. A boy must be poor indeed who could
not afford most of these opportunities. And if he was out of work the
employment bureau conducted here would help him to a position. I came
back to the main office wondering still more how in the world I'd
ever missed such chances all these years. It was a question I asked
myself many times during the next few months. And the answer seemed to
lie in the dead level of that other life. We never lifted our eyes; we
never looked around us. If we were hard pressed either we accepted our
lot resignedly or cursed our luck, and let it go at that. These
opportunities were for a class which had no lot and didn't know the
meaning of luck. The others could have had them, too--can have
them--for the taking, but neither by education nor temperament are
they qualified to do so. There's a good field for missionary work
there for someone.

Before I came out of the building I had enrolled Dick as a member and
picked out for him a summer course in English in which he was a bit
backward. I also determined to start him in some regular gymnasium
work. He needed hardening up.

I came home and announced my success to Ruth and she was delighted. I
suspected by the look in her eyes that she had been worrying all day
for fear there would be no alternative but t