ve been a builder and
a maker; and two blades of grass have grown where one grew before,
whenever I laid my hand on the ground and willed 'em to grow. I've built
big, and I want the buildin' to go on. And when my last hour comes I
want to know that my boys are ready to take charge; that they're fit
to take charge and go ON with it. Bibbs, when that hour comes I want
to know that my boys are big men, ready and fit to hold of big things.
Bibbs, when I'm up above I want to know that the big share I've made
mine, here below, is growin' bigger and bigger in the charge of my
boys."

He leaned back, deeply moved. "There!" he said, huskily. "I've never
spoken more what was in my heart in my life. I do it because I want you
to understand--and not think me a mean father. I never had to talk that
way to Jim and Roscoe. They understood without any talk, Bibbs."

"I see," said Bibbs. "At least I think I do. But--"

"Wait a minute!" Sheridan raised his hand. "If you see the least bit
in the world, then you understand how it feels to me to have my son set
here and talk about 'poems and essays' and such-like fooleries. And you
must understand, too, what it meant to start one o' my boys and have
him come back on me the way you did, and have to be sent to a sanitarium
because he couldn't stand work. Now, let's get right down to it, Bibbs.
I've had a whole lot o' talk with ole Doc Gurney about you, one time
another, and I reckon I understand your case just about as well as he
does, anyway! Now here, I'll be frank with you. I started you in harder
than what I did the other boys, and that was for your own good, because
I saw you needed to be shook up more'n they did. You were always kind of
moody and mopish--and you needed work that'd keep you on the jump. Now,
why did it make you sick instead of brace you up and make a man of you
the way it ought of done? I pinned ole Gurney down to it. I says, 'Look
here, ain't it really because he just plain hated it?' 'Yes,' he says,
'that's it. If he'd enjoyed it, it wouldn't 'a' hurt him. He loathes it,
and that affects his nervous system. The more he tries it, the more he
hates it; and the more he hates it, the more injury it does him.' That
ain't quite his words, but it's what he meant. And that's about the way
it is."

"Yes," said Bibbs, "that's about the way it is."

"Well, then, I reckon it's up to me not only to make you do it, but to
make you like it!"

Bibbs shivered. And he turned upon