“No, sir,” he said. “She gave up every dollar of her own private means, and if I live, every penny that was lost thro’ my father shall be repaid, if it takes me a lifetime to do it.”
“Clark,” said Mr. Horton, “I am proud of you. No danger but you will succeed, only,” he laid his hand kindly across the lad’s shoulders—“only you must not allow yourself to grow morbid under it. Remember you are responsible for no one’s wrong-doing but your own. Keep that in mind, and don’t let any chance reference or intentional fling embitter you, or turn you against others. Remember that they can judge only by what they see, and they see but little of the truth.”
“It’s done me no end of good to talk with you, Mr. Horton. It’s a great deal to me to feel that you trust me,” and Clark’s voice would tremble a little, as he added, “I shan’t feel so alone now. You see I’ve had no one to talk to—for of course I couldn’t let mother know how things went at school. She has enough to bear without any worries on my account.”
“There goes a young hero, if there ever was one,” the teacher said to himself as he looked after the tall lad going down the street a little later. “I must try to find some way to make it pleasanter for him at school. I’ll talk to Hamlin about it, the first chance I get.”
It was not long before he made the opportunity, and the few words he felt at liberty to say awakened in David Hamlin a very strong interest in his schoolmate.
Hamlin had already become a member of the law and order society, though he grumblingly declared that he thought it was a shame to make him promise to give up all his fun.
A few days after this, Clark happened to be a little later than usual in getting off to school, and rushing out of his doorway, ran plump into a lad who was standing in the vestibule.
“I beg your pardon,” he said hastily, and would have hurried on, but the other held out his hand, saying:—
“Well, now, if that isn’t a friendly greeting for a fellow that’s been standing here twenty minutes waiting for you! Do you always come out of your front door in such a boomerang style as that?”
“No,” said Clark with a laugh, as he took Hamlin’s offered hand. “I’m not often so late.”