To hear this was very sweet for Flowers, for he had always wanted Tom to learn his trade, and help him in it. And so when Tom began to give proof that he was likely to be a good blacksmith, he felt consoled for the failure of the London plan.
It was in Dick, however, that Tom felt the greatest reward for his toil and painstaking efforts to get on. The little, shy, delicate lad, who would never have been strong enough to wield his father's hammer, was making such good progress at school, that masters as well as friends began to feel quite proud of him, and in this Tom could feel he had a right to share, for had he not conquered himself in order that Dick might have this chance?
Slowly but surely public opinion began to turn towards Tom again, and people as they talked over the old story, as they would sometimes remember to have heard, said that Tom had been rather foolish than wicked over what had happened in London. But they all agreed that, for Tom at least, it had been a good job that he had had the bitter lesson, for he was less proud, less arrogant and exacting as to his own "rights" and far more considerate of the rights of others.
So God brought good out of the evil at last, although for this Tom had to wait and suffer many an unmerited sneer, and endure many a cold look. For the world is slow to forget such a slip as Tom had made at the outset of his life—a slip that is the ruin of many a promising lad, and might have been for Tom, if he had not bravely set himself to work to overcome all difficulties and all dislikes for the sake of his brother Dick—and by this means made his three months in London, and the acquaintance of his dangerous friend, a means of ultimate good by seeking the help and blessing of God in conquering himself for the sake of another.
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