Page:The Art of Helping People Out of Trouble (1924).pdf/73

 had been a refuge to him from his troubles. He had found solace and self-expression in religion and he was rarely absent from services.

Then one afternoon in Sunday school the teacher of the Bible class asked him to read a verse of Scripture. McKloskey tried to decline, but the more he demurred the more insistent did the teacher become in encouraging this apparently bashful young man. Finally McKloskey left his seat and walked out of the room, his face ablaze with mortification. That broke his connection with the church.

With each new experience, either of this kind or of an attack of epilepsy, McKloskey's fears grew stronger, until he lost all confidence in himself. He became ashamed of his appearance, although his clothes were no worse than those of many of his neighbors, and in order to avoid being seen he almost never entered his own house by the front door.

Is it surprising that, with such a background of fear and barrenness of opportunity, McKloskey should have been shy, that his jobs were shortlived, and that he made few friends? Yet McKloskey had character; he was not without initiative; he had a substantial asset in the devo-