was just goin' to say that when you
first came here I was prejudiced against you, not only because your
father and I didn't agree, but because he was what he was. Because he
was--was--"

Albert finished the sentence for him.

"A Portygee," he said.

"Why, yes, that's what I called him. That's what I used to call about
everybody that wasn't born right down here in Yankeeland. I used to be
prejudiced against you because you was what I called a half-breed. I'm
sorry, Al. I'm ashamed. See what you've turned out to be. I declare,
I--"

"Shh! shh! Don't, Grandfather. When I came here I was a little snob, a
conceited, insufferable little--"

"Here, here! Hold on! No, you wa'n't, neither. Or if you was, you was
only a boy. I was a man, and I ought to--"

"No, I'm going to finish. Whatever I am now, or whatever I may be. I owe
to you, and to Grandmother, and Rachel and Laban--and Helen. You made me
over between you. I know that now."

They walked home instead of riding in the new car. Captain Zelotes
declared he had hung on to that steering wheel all the forenoon and he
was afraid if he took it again his fingers would grow fast to the rim.
As they emerged from the office into the open air, he said:

"Al, regardin' that makin'-over business, I shouldn't be surprised if
it was a kind of--er--mutual thing between you and me. We both had some
prejudices to get rid of, eh?"

"Perhaps so. I'm sure I did."

"And I'm sartin sure I did. And the war and all that came with it put
the finishin' touches to the job. When I think of what the thousands
and thousands of men did over there in those hell-holes of trenches, men
with names that run all the way from Jones and Kelly to--er--"

"Speranza."

"Yes, and Whiskervitch and the land knows what more. When I think of
that I'm ready to take off my hat to 'em and swear I'll never be so
narrow again as to look down on a feller because he don't happen to be
born in Ostable County. There's only one thing I ask of 'em, and that
is that when they come here to live--to stay--under our laws and takin'
advantage of the privileges we offer 'em--they'll stop bein' Portygees
or Russians or Polacks or whatever they used to be or their folks were,
and just be Americans--like you, Al."

"That's what we must work for now, Grandfather. It's a big job, but it
must be done."

They walked on in silence for a time. Then the captain said:

"It's a pretty fine country, after all, ain't it, Albert?"