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rls and some of the boys asked me to give them a lift--" "Gif dem _vat_?" "A lift--that is, I helped them." "Dot ish all right, but don't let me hears dot nopody vos efer helping _you_; if I does--" And taking his pipe from his mouth, Mr. Ribsam shook his head in a way which threatened dreadful things. Then the old gentleman would continue smoking a while longer, and more than likely, just as Nick was in the midst of some intricate problem, he would suddenly pronounce his name. The boy would look up instantly, all attention. "Hef you been into any fights mit nopodies to-day?" "I have not, sir; I have not had any trouble like that for a long while." "Dot is right--dot is right; but, Nick, if you does get into such bad tings as fightin', don't ax nopodies to help you; _takes care mit yorself!_" The lad modestly answered that he did not remember when he had failed to take care of himself under such circumstances, and the father resumed his pipe and brown study. The honest German may not have been right in every point of his creed, but in the main he was correct, his purpose being to implant in his children a sturdy self-reliance. They could not hope to get along at all times without leaning upon others, but that boy who never forgets that God has given him a mind, a body, certain faculties and infinite powers, with the intention that he should cultivate and use them to the highest point, is the one who is sure to win in the great battle of life. Then, too, every person is liable to be overtaken by some great emergency which calls out all the capacities of his nature, and it is then that false teaching and training prove fatal, while he who has learned to develop the divine capacities within him comes off more than conqueror. CHAPTER III. A MATHEMATICAL DISCUSSION. The elder Ribsam took several puffs from his pipe, his eyes fixed dreamily on the fire, as though in deep meditation. His wife sat in her chair on the other side, and was busy with her knitting, while perhaps her thoughts were wandering away to that loved Fatherland which she had left so many years before, never to see again. Nellie had grown sleepy and gone to bed. Mr. Ribsam turned his head and looked at Nick. The boy was seated close to the lamp on the table, and the scratching of his pencil on his slate and his glances at the slip of paper lying on the stand, with the problems written upon it, told plainly enough w
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