ey--I ask your
pardon--Mr. Googe wouldn't touch a penny of it more 'n he'd touch
carrion. I _know_ this; nor he wouldn't have his boy touch it either. I
ain't saying he don't appreciate the good money does, for he's told me
so; but for himself--well, sir, I think you know what I mean: he's
through with what is just money. He's a man, is Champney Googe, and he's
living his life in a way that makes the almighty dollar look pretty
small in comparison with it--Father Honore, you know this as well as I
do."

The priest nodded gravely in the affirmative.

"Tell me something of his life, Father Honore," said Mr. Van Ostend;
"you know the degree of respect I have always had for him ever since he
took his punishment like a man--and you and I were both on the wrong
track," he added with a meaning smile.

"I don't quite know what to say," replied his friend. "It isn't anything
I can point to and say he has done this or that, because he gets beneath
the surface, as you might say, and works there. But I do know that where
there is an element of strife among the men, there you will find him as
peacemaker--he has a wonderful way with them, but it is indefinable. We
don't know all he does, for he never speaks of it, only every once in a
while something leaks out. I know that where there is a sickbed and a
quarryman on it, there you will find Champney Googe as watcher after his
day's work--and tender in his ministrations as a woman. I know that when
sickness continues and the family are dependent on the fund, Champney
Googe works many a night overtime and gives his extra pay to help out. I
know, too, that when a strike threatens, he, who is now in the union
because he is convinced he can help best there, is the balance-wheel,
and prevents radical unreason and its results. There's trouble brewing
there now--about the automatic bush hammer--"

"I have heard of it."

"--And Jim McCann is proving intractable. Mr. Googe is at work with him,
and hopes to bring him round to a just point of view. And I know,
moreover, that when there is a crime committed and a criminal to be
dealt with, that criminal finds in the new foreman of Shed Number Two a
friend who, without condoning the crime, stands by him as a human being.
I know that out of his own deep experience he is able to reach out to
other men in need, as few can. In all this his wife is his helpmate, his
mother his inspiration.--What more can I say?"

"Nothing," said Henry Van Ostend