there never
was such a time before; there never was such opportunity. The sluggard
is despoiled while he sleeps--yes, by George! if a man lays down they'll
eat him before he wakes!--but the live man can build straight up till
he touches the sky! This is the business man's day; it used to be the
soldier's day and the statesman's day, but this is OURS! And it ain't a
Sunday to go fishin'--it's turmoil! turmoil!--and you got to go out and
live it and breathe it and MAKE it yourself, or you'll only be a dead
man walkin' around dreamin' you're alive. And that's what my son Bibbs
has been doin' all his life, and what he'd rather do now than go out and
do his part by me. And if anything happens to Roscoe--"

"Oh, do stop worryin' over such nonsense," Mrs. Sheridan interrupted,
irritated into sharp wakefulness for the moment. "There isn't anything
goin' to happen to Roscoe, and you're just tormentin' yourself about
nothin'. Aren't you EVER goin' to bed?"

Sheridan halted. "All right, mamma," he said, with a vast sigh. "Let's
go up." And he snapped off the electric light, leaving only the rosy
glow of the fire.

"Did you speak to Roscoe?" she yawned, rising lopsidedly in her
drowsiness. "Did you mention about what I told you the other evening?"

"No. I will to-morrow."

But Roscoe did not come down-town the next day, nor the next; nor did
Sheridan see fit to enter his son's house. He waited. Then, on the
fourth day of the month, Roscoe walked into his father's office at nine
in the morning, when Sheridan happened to be alone.

"They told me down-stairs you'd left word you wanted to see me."

"Sit down," said Sheridan, rising.

Roscoe sat. His father walked close to him, sniffed suspiciously, and
then walked away, smiling bitterly. "Boh!" he exclaimed. "Still at it!"

"Yes," said Roscoe. "I've had a couple of drinks this morning. What
about it?"

"I reckon I better adopt some decent young man," his father returned.
"I'd bring Bibbs up here and put him in your place if he was fit. I
would!"

"Better do it," Roscoe assented, sullenly.

"When'd you begin this thing?"

"I always did drink a little. Ever since I grew up, that is."

"Leave that talk out! You know what I mean."

"Well, I don't know as I ever had too much in office hours--until the
other day."

Sheridan began cutting. "It's a lie. I've had Ray Wills up from your
office. He didn't want to give you away, but I put the hooks into him,
and he came thro