n to squirm about in the bundle, began to demand room and air. What
an almighty pother this has caused! What an altogether serious business
for the bundle-binders!

These observations may seem to lead entirely around the celebrated barn
of Robin Hood, but if you follow them patiently you will find that they
bring you back at last (by way of Europe) to the dilapidated door of the
quiet old printing-office of the _Star_ of Hempfield. If you venture
inside you will discover, besides a cat and a canary, one of the most
interesting bundles of human beings I know anything about.

And one specimen in this bundle, as you may already suspect, has
developed a prodigious power of squirming and wriggling, and otherwise
making the bundle-binders of the _Star_ uncomfortable. I refer to
Norton Carr.

The world, of course, is in a secret conspiracy against youth and
growth. Any man who dares to be young, or to grow, or to be original,
must expect to have the world set upon him and pound him
unmercifully--and if that doesn't finish him off, then the world clings
desperately to his coat tails, resolved that if it cannot stop him
entirely it will at least go along with him and make travelling as
difficult as possible. This latter process is what a friend of mine
illuminatively calls the "drag of mediocrity."

But this punching and pounding is mostly good for youth and
originality--good if it doesn't kill--for it proves the strength of
youth, tests faith and enthusiasm, and measures surely the power of
originality. And as for the provoking drag upon their coat tails, youth
and originality should reflect that this is the only way by which
mediocrity ever gets ahead!

As I look back upon the history of the _Star_ it seems to me it is a
record of Nort's wild plunges within our bundle, and our equally wild
efforts to keep him disciplined. I say "our" efforts, but I would, of
course, except Ed Smith. Ed had a narrow vision of what that bundle
called the _Star_ should be. He wanted it no larger than he was, so that
he could dominate it comfortably, and when Nort became obstreperous, he
simply cut the familiar cord which bound Nort into the bundle: to wit,
his wages. Ed had the very common idea that the only really important
relationships between human beings are determined by monetary payments,
which can be put on or put off at will. But the fact is that we are
bound together in a thousand ways not set down in the books on
scientific manag