Denver  next  week.  Ben  is  still  laid  up.  Eldreth
has  the  right  to  your  time  and  services  until  you  are
twenty-one :  you  have  given  him  the  right.  He  will
never  consent."

"  He  must.  He  can  not  refuse  me  one  week.  I
haven't  had  a  day  for  two  years,  not  since  Bradley
and  I  went  to  Ward  prospecting.  Ben  wants  me
to  take  him  to  Idaho  Springs  for  the  baths.  The
Lower  Ranch  should  be  visited.  I  must  get  away
on  some  plea.  Help  me,  for  I  can  not  stay."  And
he  passed  his  hand  over  his  damp  forehead  in  a
helpless  way  quite  unlike  anything  his  teacher  had
ever  observed  in  him.
"  So  you  would  break  your  thrice-pledged  word
for  want  of  a  little  self-control?  You  would  run
away  from  your  duties  when  you  know  how  much
rests  upon  you,  duties  no  other  can  assume?  Not
the  responsibilities  of  Eldhurst's  management  alone,
but  there  are  the  schools  which,  with  my  other
work,  have  outgrown  my  strength.  You  would  go,
when  you  know  that  if  Eldreth  makes  the  proposed
cut  in  wages,  either  at  the  quarries  or  at  the  saw-mill,
there  will  be  trouble  which  only  you  or  I  can  avert  ?
You  would  leave  your  mother  who  each  month
grows  more  frail?  You  would  go,  thereby  ack-
nowledging your  weakness,  your  want  of  reliance
in  the  Strong  Arm?  I  tell  you  such  weakness  is
not  remedied  by  flight.  A  coward  never  won  a


THIS  WAS  A  MAN.  45

victory.  '  To  him  that  overcometh '  is  the  promise
made.  Be  yourself,  Paul, — stay,  conquer !  "

But  the  young  man  shook  his  head.
"  You  don't  know  what  you  are  asking,  man.  It
may  be  weakness  to  go;  it  is  madness  to  remain.
