some mighty
big peepul tried to krawl into some mighty little holes, but they stuck
out wuss then ef they hed stood up an' sed, 'Well, we tuk Alfred's money
but we thought we wur right but we find we were wrong.'"

Of those who levied on the money at Redstone School-house, but one
returned the amount he had illegally received. Fred Chalfant, the
liveryman, was that man.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Forgot is the time when the clouds hid the sun.
And cold blasts the earth forced to shiver.
For such is the power of one warm spring day
From winter's whole spell to deliver.

Alfred was unconsciously broadening in his knowledge; life in its
various phases was unfolding to him, and he was profiting by his
experiences. His faults appeared very great to others, were only an
incentive to him. He had learned thus early that it was not the being
exempt from faults so much as to have the will power to overcome them.

In early life he had it very strongly impressed upon his mind that some
men were perfect, others hopelessly vile. Experience and observation
forced Alfred to the conclusion that none were so good but that some
thought them bad, and none so vile but that some thought them good.

We generally judge others as to their attitude towards us, agreeable or
otherwise. Our estimate of another depends greatly upon the manner in
which that person affects our interests. It is difficult to think well
or speak well of those by whom we are crossed or thwarted. But we are
ever ready to find excuses for the vices of those who are useful and
agreeable to us. Therefore, he is a mighty poor mortal who is not
something on his own account.

Alfred had graduated in that dear old school of experience, wherein
education costs more but lasts longer than that acquired in colleges,
that it is with the follies of the mind as with the weeds of a
field--those destroyed and consumed upon the place of their growth,
enrich and improve that place more than if none had ever grown there.

The boy had been so continually advised against evil associates that he
began taking a mental inventory of every stranger at first meeting.

Harrison was his estimate of the bad; Mr. Steele of the good.

Alfred had arrived at that stage where he not only stood aside and
watched himself go by, but he was also watching the other fellow go by.

He was out of newspaper business, out of the tannery, had abandoned the
practice of medicine. Charle