ry bitter. All Uncle Timothy had said about his father
was true, and Ellis realized what a count it was against him in his
efforts to obtain employment. Nobody wanted to be bothered with "Old
Sam Duncan's son," though nobody had been so brutally outspoken as his
Uncle Timothy.

Sam Duncan and Timothy Robinson had been half-brothers. Sam, the
older, had been the son of Mrs. Robinson's former marriage. Never were
two lads more dissimilar. Sam was a lazy, shiftless fellow, deserving
all the hard things that came to be said of him. He would not work and
nobody could depend on him, but he was a handsome lad with rather
taking ways in his youth, and at first people had liked him better
than the close, blunt, industrious Timothy. Their mother had died in
their childhood, but Mr. Robinson had been fond of Sam and the boy had
a good home. When he was twenty-two and Timothy eighteen, Mr. Robinson
had died very suddenly, leaving no will. Everything he possessed went
to Timothy. Sam immediately left. He said he would not stay there to
be "bossed" by Timothy.

He rented a little house in the village, married a girl "far too good
for him," and started in to support himself and his wife by days'
work. He had lounged, borrowed, and shirked through life. Once Timothy
Robinson, perhaps moved by pity for Sam's wife and baby, had hired him
for a year at better wages than most hired men received in Dalrymple.
Sam idled through a month of it, then got offended and left in the
middle of haying. Timothy Robinson washed his hands of him after that.

When Ellis was fourteen Sam Duncan died, after a lingering illness of
a year. During this time the family were kept by the charity of
pitying neighbours, for Ellis could not be spared from attendance on
his father to make any attempt at earning money. Mrs. Duncan was a
fragile little woman, worn out with her hard life, and not strong
enough to wait on her husband alone.

When Sam Duncan was dead and buried, Ellis straightened his shoulders
and took counsel with himself. He must earn a livelihood for his
mother and himself, and he must begin at once. He was tall and strong
for his age, and had a fairly good education, his mother having
determinedly kept him at school when he had pleaded to be allowed to
go to work. He had always been a quiet fellow, and nobody in Dalrymple
knew much about him. But they knew all about his father, and nobody
would hire Ellis unless he were willing to work for a pit