Produced by Meredith Bach, Katherine Ward and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) ALMOST A MAN. BY MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D. Author of TEACHING TRUTH, CHILD-CONFIDENCE REWARDED, THE MAN WONDERFUL IN THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, etc. "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" DAVID. "Every true man is a cause, a country and an age." EMERSON. "God on thee Abundantly his gifts hath also poured; Inward and outward both his image fair." MILTON. PUBLISHED BY WOOD-ALLEN PUBLISHING CO. ANN ARBOR, MICH. COPYRIGHTED BY MARY WOOD-ALLEN, M. D. 1895. CONTENTS. PAGE Prelude iii Almost a Man 5 A Gateway and a Gift 22 The White Cross 40 PRELUDE. Two lads had crossed the sunny meadow-land of childhood and stood by the gate, at the entrance to the rougher paths of youth leading up to the grander heights of maturity. They glanced backward, but not with regret, for their eyes shone with eagerness to climb the upward way. As they waited, an angel came bearing a gift for each, which he gave them, saying: "I have brought you a wondrous gift, not for yourselves but for others. Listen." And they bent their heads and listened. And one said: "I hear most entrancing music. It thrills my very being. It is for me, for me." But the angel said: "Listen again. Shut your ears to those bewildering tones and you will hear a deeper, holier strain." But the youth said: "No, I hear only that melody which speaks to my own heart. I can hear nothing else." The other youth too took the gift and, bending his head at the command of the angel, said: "I hear that sweet entrancing strain which speaks to myself, and which promises me pleasure; but deeper than all that I hear a tone soft, sweet and low, that sounds like the voices of happy children, and of a mother singing to her babe." The angel smiled. "It is for them," he said, "that you must keep your gift. And in the years to come that music will be to you the sweetest in the world."