THE RETURN HEROISM UNDER PAIN 407 



perfume, the other with a great "din," "poor stuff," as Mr. 

 Shaler phrased it. The "din" kept him awake at night and 

 lowered his opinion of this European nonpareil. To his mind 

 the Philomela of poets was not worthy of his reputation. He 

 claimed that in America we had songsters whose notes were far 

 sweeter that we had the bird, but we had n't the poet to cele- 

 brate its music in words still more melodious. 



As the train drew off into the country, a glimmering glory of 

 sunlight rested on the Imperial City, and for the last time Mr. 

 Shaler looked upon Rome. Travelling to Naples, he took a 

 farewell view of Vesuvius, and thence sailed for America. Cir- 

 cumstances had shortened his vacation and made him anxious 

 to get home. England, which he counted upon visiting, was 

 left for another time, and along with it many other undertak- 

 ings, for as yet no warning voice had spoken, and life, so far as 

 planning was concerned, might have been in its first quarter, 

 as always the waxing, not the waning time of things was what 

 he oftenest thought of, such being the privilege of his energetic 

 soul. 



Within a few days' sail of New York, while taking his daily 

 "constitutional," so many times the length of the vessel, 

 he lost his footing on the slippery deck and broke his left arm 

 just above the wrist. The ship's surgeon set the bone, but from 

 the beginning there were signs that the work was not well done, 

 and therefore, with the sense that it would have to be repeated 

 when he came ashore, the pain was less easy of endurance. But 

 from the very first he refused to yield to the infliction and en- 

 deavored to do everything for himself. And this, it may be said, 

 was a characteristic that often gave pain to those nearest to 

 him ; he would not allow them to do for him what their love 

 prompted. This strong motive of self-reliance was founded 

 upon the heroic element of his nature which, at all hazards, 

 would beat down and dominate whatever was soft and feeble ; 

 la mollesse was the quality of all others for which he had the 

 greatest contempt. Therefore to those who knew how much he 



