'Father went off to bed a good deal happier after I told him I’d stand by. He even chippered up so he said this: "You’re all right, Seth, and teachin''s all right. But I’ve thought it all over and I’ve come to the conclusion that teachin' and studyin''s like hard cider. It goes to your head and makes you feel good, but after all, there ain’t nothing nourishing about it. I’d like to see you make some money."
'I sat on those steps the rest of the night, I guess, while that waning moon climbed up the sky and then dropped down again. 'T ain’t often a man is called on to fight two such fights in a single day. I ain’t been able to look at a moon past the full since that night.
'And yet—toward morning there come peace. I saw it this way at last. To help is bigger yet than to teach. If Prometheus could be chained to that rock a thousand years while the vultures tore his vitals just so that men might know, couldn’t I bear the beaks an’ the claws a little lifetime so that father and Cynthy and Dick might live? I thought I could—an’ I have.'
Mr. Miles stopped short. Something gripped my throat. I shall never see again such a luminous look as I caught on his face when he turned it toward the darkening west. The black clouds had rolled up rapidly while we were talking and, if you’ll believe me, when he had finished, it thundered on the right!
'Is—is that all?' I said chokily.
'Cynthy’s had a happy life,' he said. 'Dick made good in the store, and he’s made good out yonder in the world. Dick has gone very far. And as for me, there’s only one thing more I want in this world. If—if I could see her boy and his pick up the torch I dropped, and carry on that sacred fire—'
It was mighty queer, but I found I was shaking all over with an excitement I hardly understood. Something that had been hovering in the air while he talked came closer and suddenly showed me its face.
'But,' I said thick and fast, 'but—why, mother’s name is Cynthia!'
'Yes, Richard.'
'And father—father—?'