Mr. Leigh took it with so pitiful an eagerness that Tommy felt very sorry for him. When he finished reading Mr. Leigh frowned. Tommy wondered why. Presently the old man asked, almost diffidently, “Do you think you--you can meet the expected requirements?” Tommy's entire life-to-be passed pageant-like before his mind's eye in a twinkling. The banners were proudly borne by Tommy's emotions; and Tommy's resolve to do what he must was the drum-major. “Sure thing!” answered' Tommy. He felt the false note in his reply even before he saw the change that came over his father's face. “Yes, sir,” pursued Mr. Thomas Leigh, in a distinctly middle-aged voice. “I don't know what he wants, but I know what I want. And if I want to be a man and he wants me to be one, I can't see what's to hinder either of us. My boy days are over, and I have got to pay back--I'm going to do what I can to show I appreciate your”--here Tommy gulped--“the sacrifices you've made for me. And--oh, father!” Tommy ceased to speak. He couldn't help it. Mr. Leigh's face took on the grim look Tommy could never forget, and his voice was harsh. “I have made no sacrifice for you. What your mother wished you to have I have seen to it that you had. You owe me no thanks.” There was a long pause. Tommy didn't break it, because he did not know what to say. And the reason was that he couldn't say all the things he wished to say. But presently the old man said, gently: “My son, I--I should like to shake hands with you.” Tommy would have been happier if he could have thrown his arms about his mother's neck and told her his craving to comfort himself by being comforted. But he rose quickly, grasped his father's hand, and shook it vehemently. He kept on shaking it, gripping it very tightly the while and gulping as he shook, until Mr. Leigh said: “I'll be going now, Thomas. I must be at the bank before the--” Tommy dropped his father's hand very suddenly. CHAPTER III AFTER his father left Tommy sat in the dining-room. The _Herald_ lay unopened beside his plate, but he knew without trying that he could not read. Presently he found that he could not sit quietly. He went out of the house, that he might not think about the one thing that he could not help thinking about. Thinking about it did not end the trouble. But on the street he found that he did not wish to see front stoops or shop windows, so he decided to walk in the park. There, surrounded by the new green growth of grass and trees, he might be able to think of his own new life, the life that was beginning to bud out. He thought about it without words, for that was the way his mind worked. And it was not long before he began to take notice of the sun-loving nurses and the blinking babies--human beings enjoying the azure smiles of the sky.