Although this is true, it should deter no one from holding out a helping hand to the needy whenever possible, for he will find that the joy of the action is its own exceeding great reward. Frank had never hesitated when an opportunity offered to aid a fellow being. He had ever been merciful to the extreme with his enemies. Often he had thus caused those enemies to regard him as weak and yielding, but when they had pressed him to the very verge and he realized that further leniency was worse than folly, they had found him hard as iron. But he had been rewarded for the course he pursued. The lads who were his firmest friends had once been his enemies, and it seemed that the more they hated him and tried to harm him in the long ago the better they loved him, and the more devoted they were now. For example, Hodge had once been his most malignant foe, ready to do anything to harm him; but Frank believed he saw in Bart something that did not appear to other eyes, believed the passionate, head-strong youth had in him the making of an admirable man, and he had refused to bring on Bart the punishment and disgrace merited a score of times. At first, Hodge had believed Frank weak and lacking spirit, but slowly his eyes were opened and he finally saw Merry in the true light. Then he realized that his lenient foe was the possessor of moral and physical courage, and was so far his superior in every way that he felt small and miserable and mean and contemptible by contrast. For a time, being proud and obstinate, Bart continued to try to fight on as Frank’s enemy, but he was forced to surrender at last, and he became Merry’s firmest friend, ready in a moment to sacrifice life for him. One such victory was enough to satisfy and reward Frank for all his defeats. But that one was not all. Strangely enough, nearly all his intimate friends had been won to him in a similar way, his “flock” being made up mainly of those who had once been his bitter enemies, among whom were Diamond, Browning, and Badger. Harry Rattleton alone had been his true and constant friend from their first meeting, and often Frank wondered if Rattleton’s affection for him was as deep and sincere as that of the others. And now, thinking of all that he had done, Frank could see that he had been urged on by a strange, subtle influence that remained always with him—the influence of the dark-eyed girl who had given him her maiden kiss of love over the gate that moonlight night in Fardale. It is true that man seldom makes much of himself, seldom mounts to great heights unless behind him is the influence of a woman. He may without woman’s influence become a miser, a Shylock, a money magnate, and a wrecker of human lives; but he seldom becomes noble, honored, loved, and cherished in the hearts of his fellow men unless behind him is the influence of a good, true woman urging him on to the splendid deeds which uplift him.