It is
honest work. Why then should I live in idleness upon thy bounty, when I
can still play my part in the world?"
I could not but see the force of his argument, so I contented myself
with making my parents comfortable in the old home by adding many
improvements which my mother desired but could not afford, while I
presented my father with a new fishing-boat fitted with all the latest
improvements.
It is wonderful, the power of money. It brought a new happiness into
the lives of my parents, and it made my mother look ten years younger.
My father also, and my two brothers, who were all fishermen, had now
come to regard me as the flower of the flock. Yet they had not scrupled
to knock me about, with little ceremony, in the days of my boyhood; nor
do I think they would have been behindhand in finding fault with me for
my folly, had I returned from my second voyage as poor and needy as
from the first. But such is life, and a man must take what comes, and
make the best of it and not the worst; so I accepted my new role as the
patron saint of my family with philosophy and content.
Anna approved my parents' decision not to give up their independence.
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