reprove Brother Josiah for what he has said. He has given over
your education to me, and it is my duty to develop you after your own
gifts.

"Let us go back to the shop. I want to have a talk with Josiah; but,
before we leave, I have a short word to say to you.

"Hoi, Ben, hoi!--I don't know what makes me repeat these words; they are
not swear words, Ben, but they come to me when my feelings are awakened.

"It is hard, hard for one to see what he wants to be and to be kept
back. I wanted to be a philosopher and a poet. Don't you laugh, Ben. I
did; I wanted to be both, and I was so poor that I was obliged to write
my thoughts on the margin of the leaves of my pamphlets, which I sold to
come to teach you. Ben, Ben, listen: I can never be a philosopher or a
poet, but you may. Don't laugh, Ben. Don't let any one laugh you out of
your best ideas, Ben. You may. The world will never read what I wrote.
They may read what you will write, and if you follow my ideas and they
are read, you will be content. Hoi, Ben, hoi!"

They went to the candle shop.

"Josiah, you do wrong to try to suppress Ben's gift at rhyme. A man
without poetry in his soul amounts to no more than a chopping block. The
world just hammers itself on him, and that is all. You would not make
Ben a dunce!"

"No, brother, no; but a goose is not a nightingale, and the world will
not stop to listen if she mounts a tree and attempts to sing."

"No, Brother Josiah, but a goose that would like to sing like a
nightingale would be no common goose; she would find better pasture than
other geese. Small gifts are to be prized. 'A little diamond is worth a
mountain of glass,' as the proverb says."

"Well, if you must write poetry, don't publish it until it is called
for."

"Well, Brother Josiah, your advice will do for me, for I am an old man;
but I must teach Ben never to be laughed out of any good idea that may
come to him. Is not that right, brother?"

"Yes, Uncle Ben. But you can't make a hen soar to the skies like an
eagle. If you are not a poet, you have a perfect character, and that is
why I leave the training of Ben to you. If you can make a man of him,
the world will be better for him; and if you can make something else of
him besides a poet out of his poetical gift, I shall be very glad. Your
poetry has not helped you in life, has it, Benjamin?"

"I don't know. You think it is that that has made me a burden to you."

Josiah looked his brother in the f