Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/165



Go on now and keep it up, Mumps. I believe in you.”

“Why, Eddie,” the Judge says, as another boy comes up crying. “What are you crying for? Haven’t you made good ? ”

“No, sir,” Eddie says, weeping the harder.

“Well, I told you I thought you’d better go to Golden. You don’t want to go, eh ? Get an- other job, you say ? But you can’t keep it, Eddie. You know you can’t. Give you another chance ? What’s the use, Eddie? You’ll lose it. The best thing for you, Eddie, is Golden. They’ll help you up there, make you stick to things, just make you; and so you’ll get strong.”

Eddie swims in tears, and it seemed to me I’d have to give that boy “another chance,” but the Judge, who is called “easy,” was not moved at all. His mind was on the good of that boy; not on his own feelings, nor yet on the boy’s. “You see,” said he to me, “he is hysterical, abnormal. The discipline of Golden is just what he needs.” And he turned to the room full of boys.

“Boys,” he said, “Em going to send Eddie up to Golden. He hasn’t done wrong; not a thing. But he’s weak. He and I have tried again and again to win out down here in the city, and he wants another trial. But I think a year or so at Golden will brace Eddie right up, and make him