“Poor! _me_ poor! Mother, where am I poor at?” exclaimed Gusty, starting up and stretching himself—“_me poor!_ with all this strength to struggle, and the world to struggle against! Oh! for God’s sake, stand out of my way everybody! give me room! swing! sweep! lest I hurt some one unintentionally! I feel like Strong-back in the fairy tale, and I wish some one would commission me to take an island up out of the Atlantic and carry it across the American continent to the Pacific; or, mother, would you like an iceberg for a butter-cooler, or mother, say the word and I’ll bring you the North pole for a churning stick. And then, mother, I have so much faith. Hurrah! Hallelujah! haven’t I faith! God bless you, mother, I have ‘the faith to move mountains,’ for look you, mother, when I say to the mountain, ‘Be thou removed and be thou cast into the midst of the sea,’ I lay right hold of the mountain bodily and hurl it into the water myself, to put life into faith, for ‘faith without work is dead,’ and ‘God helps those who help themselves.’” Emily looked at him gravely and said, “That is from Hagar, that wild perverted spirit will ruin you! Oh you irreverend boy, what would your sainted father say if he could see you and hear you.” “Don’t you suppose he _does_ see and hear me, mother? _I_ do.” “I hope he watches over you. I hope his spirit will stand between you and that wild dark girl.” “That Hagar of the lightning! That electric Hagar whose touch might kindle a statue to life! Talk of a galvanic battery! Why, mother, everything that passes from her hands to mine is galvanized! That magnetic Hagar! why, mother, everything of hers is magnetized so that it sticks to my fingers, and I am obliged to carry it off—her glove, her tiny shoe, the eagle feather she wore in her riding cap. I shall be taken up for petty larceny yet. Hagar the magnet! Hagar the North star, who draws me involuntarily, inevitably after her!” “She did not draw you across Devil’s Gorge this afternoon,” said Emily, maliciously. Gusty wilted down all of a sudden. “Mother, who told you _that_?” “Why everybody, it is all over the neighborhood, how in _our_ woods the witch didn’t pursue Tam O’Shanter, but Tam O’Shanter the witch, and how she carried all his courage with her when she swept across the gorge. Come, Mr. Gusty, you have been talking very grandly, sublimely, about strength, and force, and impetuosity, and irresistibility, but I have heard very loud thunder before now that did very little damage!” “So! but you never heard very loud thunder that did not do a great deal of _good_! Ha! I have you there, _maman_! but never mind, mother, next time I ride a hunt with Hagar I’ll follow her through fire and blood, now mind if I don’t. I’ll purchase a hunter, then see!”