182 THE COUNTRY BOY 



shine and rain, sickness and good health, had 

 always been just the same, willing and oblig- 

 ing, working hour after hour that he might 

 enlighten me so that I could avoid some things 

 that he had learned through hard knocks. I 

 saw in him the finest type of the Western 

 pioneer who had educated bimself by his own 

 efforts, who had come to Oregon in the early 

 days; who had grown up with the State; who 

 had been identified wdth its very earliest 

 politics; who had risen in the esteem of his 

 fellow-men to a high position; a man whose 

 honor had never been questioned; a philoso- 

 pher, a mathematician, a scientist, a poet, — in 

 fact, the highest form of a scholar. He had 

 been my champion against all comers who be- 

 lieved that I should have done manual labor, 

 while he was satisfied if I would only draw 

 pictures. 



I was to leave this man perhaps forever, as 

 his features commenced to show the letting 

 down of the physical man that had made him 

 so alert in the years past. 



Finally we looked down the track toward 

 Portland, and we could see the headlight on 

 the engine that was to take me away. We 



