ace than a child has, not half so much as Evert
himself, with his youth and health, his success and his fortune, to aid
him. But, curiously enough, David was quite well aware of his own
faults; his appreciation of them, indeed, had given him a manner of
walking slightly sidewise, his right shoulder and right leg a little
behind, as though conscious of their master's inefficiency and ashamed
of it. For the same reason he chronically hung his head a little as he
walked, and, if addressed, looked off at a distance mildly instead of at
the person who was speaking to him. But though thus conscious generally
of his failings, David was never beyond a sly joke about them and
himself. It was the way in which he laughed over these jokes (they were
always good ones) which had endeared him to his younger cousin: there
was such a delightful want of worldly wisdom about the man.

Having disentangled David, refunded his losses, and set him going again
in a small way, Evert had come southward. He would have preferred to go
back to Europe for a tour in Spain; but he felt sure that David would
entangle himself afresh before long (David had the most inscrutable ways
of entangling himself), and that, unless he were willing to continually
refund, he should do better to remain within call, at least for the
present. In the early spring another relative on his father's side, a
third cousin, was to add himself to the partnership, and this young man,
Evert hoped, would not only manage the foundery, but manage David as
well; when once this arrangement had been effected, the owner of the
foundery would be free.

All this was very characteristic of Evert Winthrop. He could easily have
given up all business enterprises; he could have invested his money
safely and washed his hands of that sort of care. To a certain extent he
had done this; but he wished to help David, and so he kept the foundery,
he wished to help two or three other persons, and so he retained other
interests. This, at least, was what he said to himself, and it was true;
yet the foundations lay deeper--lay in the fact that he had been born
into the world with a heavy endowment of energy; quiet as he appeared,
he had more than he knew what to do with, and was obliged to find
occupation for it. During boyhood this energy had gone into the double
tasks of education in books and in iron which his father had imposed
upon him; in young manhood it had gone into the scientific studies in
wh