"
"Ah, little mother, well you may!" he answered, smiling, and taking her
hand,--"well you may, for I am afraid I should fall dreadfully short
when the time came; and then how ashamed you'd be of your big boy, who
took his ease at home, with the great drums 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.
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