o neither wish
nor will, and he begged his friend not to lead him into temptation.

But the commercial traveller came again; he came many times, and once
he was accompanied by a famous singer; and one evening Peal, after much
applause from a professor of singing, took his fate into his own hands.

He said good-bye to his master, and over a glass of wine heartily
thanked his friend, the commercial traveller, for having given him
self-confidence and will,--"will, that iron bar, which keeps a man's
back erect and prevents him from grovelling on all fours." And he swore
a solemn oath never to forget his friend, who had taught him to have
faith in himself.

Then he went to say good-bye to his parents.

"I will be a singer," he said in a loud voice, which echoed through the
room.

The father glanced at the horse-whip, and the mother cried; but it was
no use.

"Don't lose yourself, my darling boy," were the mother's last words.

***

Young Peal managed to raise enough money to enable him to go abroad.
There he learned singing according to all the rules of the art, and in a
few years' time he was a very great singer indeed. He earned much money
and travelled with his own impresario.

Peal was prospering now and found no difficulty in saying "I will," or
even "I command." His "I" grew to gigantic proportions, and he suffered
no other "I's" near him. He denied himself nothing, and did not put
his light under a bushel. But now, as he was about to return to his own
country, his impresario told him that no man could be a great singer and
at the same time be called Peal; he advised him to adopt a more elegant
name, a foreign name by preference, for that was the fashion.

The great man fought an inward struggle, for it is not a very nice thing
to change one's name; it looks as if one were ashamed of one's father
and mother, and is apt to create a bad impression.

But hearing that it was the fashion, he let it pass.

He opened his Bible to look for a name, for the Bible is the very best
book for the purpose.

And when he came to Jubal, "who was the son of Lamech, and the father of
all such as handle the harp and organ," he considered that he could
not do better. The impresario, who was an Englishman, suggested that he
should call himself Mr. Jubal, and Peal agreed. Henceforth he was Mr.
Jubal.

It was all quite harmless, of course, since it was the fashion, but it
was nevertheless a strange thing with the new name Pea