"Not at all. You are an old man. You have done your work in the world,
and a great work. Leave the present battle to youth and strength. We
young fellows have our work yet to do. Avis will stand by my side in
what is to come. She will be your representative in the battle-front."

"But they can't hurt me," father objected. "Thank God I am independent.
Oh, I assure you, I know the frightful persecution they can wage on
a professor who is economically dependent on his university. But I am
independent. I have not been a professor for the sake of my salary. I
can get along very comfortably on my own income, and the salary is all
they can take away from me."

"But you do not realize," Ernest answered. "If all that I fear be so,
your private income, your principal itself, can be taken from you just
as easily as your salary."

Father was silent for a few minutes. He was thinking deeply, and I could
see the lines of decision forming in his face. At last he spoke.

"I shall not take the vacation." He paused again. "I shall go on with
my book.* You may be wrong, but whether you are wrong or right, I shall
stand by my guns."

* This book, "Economics and Education," was published in
that year. Three copies of it are extant; two at Ardis, and
one at Asgard. It dealt, in elaborate detail, with one
factor in the persistence of the established, namely, the
capitalistic bias of the universities and common schools.
It was a logical and crushing indictment of the whole system