The Rules of the Game

poured in on the little office. Poor Bob was far from skilled. He felt as awkward amid all these swift and accurate activities as he had when

the hair back from his clear eyes, and bent his lean athlete's frame again to the labour. He soon discovered that this work demanded

as to a demi-god. Then for the few months of the football season the newspapers had made of him a national character. His picture appeared at least once a week; his opinions were recorded; his physical measurements carefully detailed. When he appeared on the streets and in hotel lobbies, people were apt to recognize him and wh

atural qualifications, in ability to learn, and in

ere? Four out of five of these rivermen are huskier than I am. Me a business man! Why I can't seem even to learn the first principles of the first job of the whole lot! I've _got_ to!" he admonished; himse

ought he needed. Here one task followed close on the heels of another, without chance for a breathing space or room to take

e overslept! Hastily he leaped into his clothes, and rushed out into the dining room. There he found the

rinned; "break

ithout Bob's having

he winning, handsome young man in her fat and good-

sively, "just let me rummage aro

chuckled. "Law! I'll ha

used to being in an office. I want to steal a hunk of bread, and a fe

uld do you more good,"

Bob, "and I won't

Hallowell, "there's teamsters and such in here

slashing--with its rotting, fallen stumps, its network of tops, its soggy root-holes, its fallen, uprooted trees. Along one of these strutted a partridge. It clucked at Bob, but refused to move faster, lifting its feet deliberately and spreading its fanlike tail. The River Trail here took to poles laid on rough horses. The poles were old and slippery, and none too large. Bob had to walk circumspectly to stay on them at all. Shortly, however, he stepped off into the higher country of the hardwoods. Here the spring had passed, scattering her fresh green. The tops of

picture of the river, distant and below. In contrast to the modulated browns of the tree-trunks, the new green and lilac of the undergrowth and the far-off hills across the way, it showed like a patch of burnished blue steel. Logs floated across the vista, singly, in scattered groups, in masses. Again, the river was clear. W

le of admiration

said to himself. "They're always guying the fe

opped

aloud; "nor I couldn't learn

ds had drawn. With the disappearance of the sunlight a little breeze, before but a pleasant and wandering companion to the birds, became cold and draught

. He trudged doggedly on. After a time a gleam of water caught his attention to the left. He deserted the River Trail, descended a slope

ater was dark slate colour, and ruffled angrily by the breeze which here in the open developed some slight strength. It reminded Bob of a

f it, his feet suspended above the wet, and abandoned himself to reflection. The lonesome diver reappear

e homiletic magazines, fashionable at that period, pointed out but one road to success in this world--the beginning at the bottom, as Bob was doing; close application; accuracy; frugality; honesty; fair dealing. The homiletic magazines omitted idealism and imagination; but perhaps those qualities are so common in what some people are pleased to call our humdrum modern bus

rybody tells you; a nice, big, blund

id boys either played polo or drove fancy horses or ran yachts--or occupied ornamental--too ornamental--desks for an hour or so a day. Bob re

d aloud in disgust. At the sound of his voice the di

ough, and that he had courage. It was just a case of limitation. Bob, for the first t

prototype in the mournful little lake with its leaden water, its cold breeze, it