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4 beating and the trumpets blowing outside. And yet I should like to be tried!"

"See, mother!" he broke out again, "see what a life it is, getting and spending, living handsomely and doing the proper thing towards society, and all that, rubbing through the world in the old hereditary way; though I needn't growl at it, for I enjoy it enough, and find it a pleasant enough way. Heaven knows. Lazy idler! enjoying the sunshine with the rest. Heigh-ho!"

"You have your profession. Willie. There's work there, and opportunity sufficient to help others and do for yourself."

"Ay, and I'll do it! But there is so much that is poor and mean, and base and tricky, in it all, so much to disgust and tire one, all the time, day after day, for years. Now if it were only a huge giant that stands in your way, you could out rapier and have at him at once, and there an end, laid out or triumphant. That's worth while!"

"O youth, eager and beautiful," thought the mother who listened, "that in this phase is so alike the world over,—so impatient to do, so ready to brave encounters, so willing to dare and die! May the doing be faithful, and the encounters be patiently as well as bravely fought, and the fancy of heroic death be a reality of noble and earnest life. God grant it! Amen."