HIS LIFE AND WORK 



are so uninterestingly self-controlled as to be 

 always the same. There were times when his 

 mirth was contagious and times when his 

 wrath was kindled a little. We did not 

 always agree, and sometimes we both grew 

 hot in argument; but at the end his cheery 

 laugh proclaimed the fact that our differences 

 had only been the free and easy give-and-take 

 of friendship." 



To see McCormick laugh was a spectacle. 

 There was first a mellowing of his usual Jovian 

 manner. His gray-brown eyes twinkled. The 

 tense lines of his face relaxed. Then came a 

 smile and soon a burst of laughter, shaking his 

 powerful body and putting the whole company 

 for the time into an uproar of merriment. It 

 was the triumph of the genial and magnetic side 

 of his nature the side that was ordinarily 

 repressed by the pressure of his big affairs. 



McCormick had humor, but not wit. His 

 jokes were simple and old-fashioned, such as 

 Luther and Cromwell would have laughed at. 

 There was no innuendo and no cynicism. 

 On one occasion two small urchins knocked at 



[173] 



