During the last years of his life, Scott undertook the payment of a heavy debt. He had been partner in a publishing enterprise which was conducted with far too little reasonable caution in entering upon undertakings and expenditure. Although Scott was not an active partner, and unfortunately had not informed himself about the firm's transactions, he was liable for the full amount of the debt. He refused to become a bankrupt and set himself the enormous task of paying every creditor in full. This last labour of his life is a heroic story. Friends, some of them unknown friends, offered him money. His sense of honour was so high that he would allow no mitigation {34} of his task. He laboured single-handed and paid back large sums to his creditors. The final payments were arranged only after his death. He had cut down his way of living at Abbotsford. He allowed himself little rest and no luxury. Any boy who reads this story will learn from it something of the nature of business and of what is wise and right in business dealings. He will learn to love too, as we all may, Sir Walter's radiant sense of the beauty of honour. We discover at last the true reason why the characters in Scott's novels are great. It is because he is himself great and noble, with such a nobility that in all likelihood the world will keep him always as one of its heroes. His last words to his son-in-law, Lockhart, "My dear, be a good man", come into the minds of many people every now and then as they live their daily lives and bring them help and encouragement. We read Scott's novels because they tell thrilling and romantic stories; and we read them again for their nobility, high-mindedness, dignity and beauty. {35} CHAPTER VI THE TEMPEST AND OTHER OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS Shakespeare, as you know, wrote plays. Here is the story of one of these plays: Prospero, an old man, and his daughter, Miranda, a very beautiful girl, lived alone on an island in the sea far from any known land. Their only dwelling was a cell made in a rock; probably the cell was really a cave in the rock. Now Prospero was a duke in exile, the Duke of Milan in Italy, and Miranda was a princess, his only child. Prospero was a very clever man and a great student. He had had in Milan a younger brother, Antonio, to whom he trusted all his affairs so that he might give his time wholly to study. Prospero's special study was magic. Shakespeare wrote this play very early in the seventeenth century: _The Tempest_, therefore, is more than three hundred years old. Antonio conspired against his brother Prospero, and in this conspiracy he was aided by the King of Naples. Prospero and Miranda, then a baby, were kidnapped, carried on board a ship and later cast adrift in a small boat. Finally, the sea carried them to this island. A kind nobleman, Gonzalo, had concealed on the little boat, water, food, clothing and some books, which were Prospero's books of magic. {36}