Expeditions in the Texas Permian 239 



power which that helplessness gives him ; or he looks 

 at things from the hired man's point of view, and if 

 he can better his wages by leaving his employer, 

 thinks that he has a perfect right to do so, even if he 

 has made a contract to remain. 



After working for weeks in accordance with 

 Cope's instructions, although it was as useless as 

 carrying bricks from one side of a yard to the other 

 and back again, I returned, worn and discouraged, 

 to the beds which produced at least a few fossils. I 

 determined, moreover, to give up the field at the end 

 of my contract, and go home, and wrote a de- 

 spondent letter to Cope, asking to be relieved when 

 the contract expired, as I needed rest. It was then 

 that I received the letter which I publish here in 

 facsimile, a letter which I shall always cherish, not 

 only because it shows the very best side of Cope's 

 character, but because it makes me feel that he 

 realized that my life work could not be measured by 

 money. It gave me at the time the kind of encour- 

 agement which I needed more than any other, and 

 on receipt of it, although I was just ready to give 

 up from exhaustion and homesickness, I decided to 

 remain another month in those barren fields. Cope 

 promised that he would never again send me into a 

 field against my own judgment; and by having my 

 own way again, I was so fortunate as to add many 

 new specimens to the collection. 



