"And no chance at all so long as you are doing nothing."
"I cannot bear to compare myself with you," — Rufus went on moodily.
"Compare yourself with yourself, Will, — the actual with the possible, — and then go forward."
"What is possible in an engineer's life!" said Rufus.
"Everything is possible, in any place where Providence has put you, for the future at least. And the firm purpose of serving God in it, will dignify for the present any life.
"'A man that looks on glass
"'On it may stay his eye;
"'Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass,
"'And then the heaven espy!'"
Rufus met the grave slight smile on his brother's face, and his eye watered.
"You are better than I am," he said with one of very different meaning.
"If that be true to-day, Will, don't let it be true to- morrow."
They wrung each other's hands, and the elder brother went soberly away.