the lion's share, if opportunity offered, without a moment's
hesitation. So, not content with doing well in a safe path, I must
step aside, and try my strength at climbing more rapidly, even
though danger threatened on the left and on the right; even though I
dragged others down in my hot and perilous scramble upwards. I lost
my footing--I stumbled--I fell, crashing down to the very bottom of
the hill, half way up which I had gone so safely ere the greedy
fiend took possession of me."

"And have not been really hurt by the fall," I remarked.

"I have suffered pain--terrible pain; for I am of a sensitive
nature," he replied. "But in the convulsions of agony, nothing but
the outside shell of a false life has been torn away. The real man
is unharmed. And now that the bitter disappointment and sadness that
attend humiliation are over, I can say that my gain is greater than
my loss. I would rather grope in the vale of poverty all my life,
and keep my conscience clean, than stand high up among the mountains
of prosperity with a taint thereon.

"God knows best," he added, after a pause, speaking in a more
subdued tone. "And I recognize the hand of His good providence in
this wreck of my worldly hopes. To gain riches at the sacrifice of
just principles is to gather up dirt and throw away goodly pearls."

"How is it with your family?" I asked. "They must feel the change
severely."

"They did feel it. But the pain is over with them also. Poor weak
human nature! My girls were active and industrious at home, and