and a man can raise a thirst,' but for me, home, if I can call it
home."

"Well, then, stick it out."

"That's easy enough to say, McLean; but ten to one you've got some
snap picked out for you already, now 'fess up, ain't you?"

"Well, of course I'm going in with my father, I can't help that, but
I've got--"

"To be sure," broke in Davis, "you go in with your father. Well, if
all I had to do was to step right out of college into my father's
business with an assured salary, however small, I shouldn't be falling
on my own neck and weeping to-night. But that's just the trouble with
us; we haven't got fathers before us or behind us, if you'd rather."

"More luck to you, you'll be a father before or behind some one else;
you'll be an ancestor."

"It's more profitable being a descendant, I find."

A glow came into McLean's face and his eyes sparkled as he replied:
"Why, man, if I could, I'd change places with you. You don't deserve
your fate. What is before you? Hardships, perhaps, and long waiting.
But then, you have the zest of the fight, the joy of the action and
the chance of conquering. Now what is before me,--me, whom you are
envying? I go out of here into a dull counting-room. The way is
prepared for me. Perhaps I shall have no hardships, but neither have I
the joy that comes from pains endured. Perhaps I shall have no battle,