The daily Alaskan., 1919-03-08
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called me to him and said:
 q shall be gone when you are up in the morning. It may be a long time before see you; I shall leave something for you In sealed envel. Ope with your name on 1t. You are not to open the envelope until you 90 away to school. I know how you will feel that first day. When night falls you will think of your aunt and uncle and be very lonely. When you go to your room for the night l want you to sit down all by yourself and open the envelope and read what l shall write. They will be- think, the most impressive words you ever read. You will think them over but you will not understand them for a long time. Ask every wise man you meet to explain them to you, for all your happiness will depend upon your un- derStanding of those few words in the envelope"
 In the morning Aunt Deel put it in my hands.
 "I wonder what In the world he wrote there-ayeS !" said she. we must keep 1t careful-ayes m put 1t in my trunk an give it to ye when ye go to Canton to school"
 "Has Mir. Wright gOneT I asked rather sadly.
 "AyeS. Land O mercy! He went away long before daylight with q lot O jerked meat in Q pack basket ayes, Yer uncle is goin' down to the village to see bout the mortgage this afternoon, ayeS!'
 It was Saturday and l spent Its hours corling wood In the shed, paus- ing now and then for a look into my grammar.
 What day it was as!-the first of many like it. I never think of those days without saying to myself: What Gods blessing a man like Silas Wright can be in the community In which his heart and soul are as an open book"
 As the evening came on I took a long look at my cords. The shed was nearly half full of them. Four rules of syntax, also, had been carefully stored away in my brain. l said them over as I hurried down into the pasture with old Shep and brought in the COWS. l got through milking just as Uncle Peabody came. saw with joy that his face was cheerful.
 "Yip." he shouted as he stopped his team at the barn door, where Aunt Deel and l were standing. "We ain't got much to worry about now. I've got the interest money right here in my pocket"
 We unhtchcd and went In to sup per. l was hoping that Aunt Deel would speak of my work but she seemed not to think of 1t.
 l went out on the porch and stood looking down with a sad countenance. Aunt Deel followed ne.
 "W'y, Bart" she exclaimed, you're too tired to cat-ayes! Be ye sick?" I shook my head.
 Peabody" she called, "this boy has worked like a beaver every minute since you left-ayes he has! l never see anything to beat it-neveri l want you to come right out Into the wood-shed an see what he's done 1''
 I followed them into the shed.
 "W'y of all things!" my uncle ex- claimed. "He's worked like mailer, ain't he?"
 There were tears in his eyes when he took my hand in his rough palm and squeezed it and said:
 Sometimes I wish ye was little again so l could take ye up in my arms an kiss ye just as I used to. Horace Dunkelberg says that you're the best-lOokin' boy he ever see"
 repeated the rules I had learned as we went to the table.
 "Tm goin' to be like SllaS Wright if I can," I added.
 "That's the ldee!" said Uncle Pea body. "You keep on as you've start ed an everybodyll milk into your pail"
 I kept On-not with the vigOr of that first day with it's new inspiration but with growing strength and effeC- tiveness. Nights and mornings and Saturdays I worked with a will and my book in my pocket or at the side of the field and was, 1 know, help of some value on the farm. My schol- arship improved rapidly and that year I went about as far as l could hope to go in the little school at Leonard's Corners.
 q wouldn't wonder if oP Kate was right about our boy" said Aunt Deel one day when she saw me with my book in the field.
 I began to know than that Op Kate had somehow been at work in my soul-subcOnsciously as l would now put it. I was trying to put truth into the prophecy. AS l look at the whole matter these days l can see tha4 Nc GriInShaW himself was .a