Page:Stanwood Pier--Harding of St Timothys.djvu/189

Rh just as we've gone to school, maybe—with just an idea of being socially prominent and popular, getting into clubs and societies, making athletic teams, holding offices, being talked about and looked up to as if we were somebody. And maybe we succeed in that ambition. And then, when we've done it, we find that it's a pretty empty success, after all.

"We find that some fellow like Clark Harding, who has n't lifted a hand to gain what we've prized, has got that and more, too. And we begin to feel like the pacemaker in a running race, who starts out as if he were going to leave the whole field behind—and then, after the first lap, is passed by every one. That's what comes to the boy who, either here or at college, acquires no more solid ambition than just to shine."

Ward paused a moment, and in that interval, while the other boys were sitting gravely silent, Harry stirred in a discomfort that was almost physical. With a sudden sensitiveness, which had made him wince, he had felt that, unintentionally, this discourse was aimed at