think ' How few,' but cry ' How strong ! How 

 free ! ' Be wise and do not venture. Here it is safe : 

 there is no fortune there ! " 



But there was something stronger than the things 

 he knew, around, without, beyond the thing that 

 strove within him : that grew and grew, and beat 

 and fought for freedom : that bade him go and walk 

 alone and tell his secret on the mountain slopes to 

 one who would not laugh a little red retriever ; 

 that made him climb and feel his strength, and find 

 an outlet for what drove within. And thus the end 

 was sure ; for of all the voices none so strong as this ! 

 And only those others reached him that would chime 

 with it ; the gentle ones which said : " We too 

 believe," and one, a stronger, saying : " Fifty years 

 ago I did it. I would do it now again ! " 



So the Boy set out to seek his fortune, and did not 

 find it ; for there was none in the place where he 

 sought. Those who warned him were in the little 

 right : yet was he in the greater right too ! 

 It was not given to him as yet to know that fortune 

 is not in time or place or things ; but, good or bad, 

 in the man's own self for him alone to find and prove. 



Time and place and things had failed him ; still 

 was effort right ; and, when the first was clear beyond 

 all question, it was instinct and not knowledge bade 

 him still go on, saying : " Not back to the cage. 

 Anything but that ! " 



When many days had passed, it was again a 

 friend who met him, saying : " Common sense is not 



4 



