of a
spider and fly combination and not the ordinary combination either, when
the fly is usually inside of the spider and very soon a part of his
majesty. And yet when you've told all that you know, it's a sort of
monstrosity after all, and that the truth is that a fellow really _is_
his best self if he'll only give that part half a chance. That's why I
say the way of the transgressor is hard and not easy. A fellow is going
against the grain of his best side. He throws away his best chances
under protest all the while, and _he_ doesn't want to do it either. No,
Phelps, I believe if a fellow goes down hill it's like a man dragging a
balky horse. It looks easy but it isn't, and he himself is pulling
against it all the time."

"I never thought of it in that way before."

"Then on the other hand this very kind of work you're doing now is the
sort that stirs your blood. I expect that those fellows who live down in
the tropics and about all the work they have to do to feed themselves is
to pick a banana off a tree and go through the exertion of peeling it,
don't really get half the fun out of life that some of us boys had up on
the hillside farms in Vermont. Why, when we'd have to get up winter
mornings, with the weather so cold that we'd have to be all the while on
the lookout that we didn't freeze our ears or noses, and when we'd have
to shovel out the paths through three feet of snow and cut the wood and
carry water to the stock, it did seem at times to be a trifle strenuous;
but really I think the boys in Vermont get more fun out of life than the
poor chaps in the tropics do who plow their fields by just jabbing a
hole in the ground with their heel, and when they plant, all they have
to do is to just stick a slip in the ground. It's the same way here,
Phelps. This sort of thing you're doing is hard, no doubt about that;
but it's the sort of thing that really stirs up a live man, after all."

"I'm afraid I'll be all stirred up if we don't get at this work pretty
soon," laughed Will, who was nevertheless deeply impressed by the words
he had heard from the prospective valedictorian of the senior class.
"Why can't we do it all up this morning?" he inquired eagerly.

"All?"

"Oh, I mean all we were planning to do to-day. I'd like to go down to
the gym this afternoon and watch the bulletins of the game. I decided
not to go, but if I can get my work off that'll be the next best thing;
and besides it'll help to pass the time