Boys of this kind—­and in saying this I cast no reflections whatsoever upon that edifying race of living creatures whom I admire and respect more than any other—­are so rare that it did not take the neighbors of the Barkis family many days to discover that the little chap was worth watching, and if need be caring for in a way which should prove substantial.  There are so many ways, too, in which one may help a boy without impairing his self-reliance that on the whole it was not very difficult to assist Barkis.  So when one of his neighbors employed him in his office at a salary of eight dollars a week, when other boys received only four for similar service, the lad, instead of feeling himself favored, assumed an obligation and made himself worth five times as much as the other boys, so that really his employer, and not he, belonged to the debtor class.

Some said it was a pity that little Barkis wasted his talents in a real estate office, but they were the people who didn’t know him.  He expended his nervous energy in the real estate office, but his mind he managed to keep free for the night school, and when it came to the ultimate it was found that little Barkis had wasted nothing.  He entered college when several other boys—­who had not served in a real estate office, who had received diplomas from the high-school, and who had played while he had studied—­failed.

That his college days were a trial to his mother every one knew.  She wished him to keep his end up, and he did—­and without spending all that his mother sent him, either.  The great trouble was that at the end of his college course it was understood that Barkis intended studying medicine.  When that crept out the neighbors sighed.  They deprecated the resolve among themselves, but applauded the boy’s intention to his face.

“Good for you, Jack!” said one.  “You are just the man for a doctor, and I’ll give you all my business.”

This man, of course, was a humorist.

Another said:  “Jack, you are perfectly right.  Real estate and coal are not for you.  Go in for medicine; when my leg is cut off you shall do the cutting.”

To avoid details, however, some of which would make a story in themselves, Jack Barkis went through college, studied medicine, received his diploma as a full-fledged M.D., and settled down at Dumfries Corners for practice.  And practice did not come!  And income was not.

It was plainly visible to the community that Barkis was hard up, as the saying is, and daily growing more so.  To make matters worse, it was now impossible to help him as the boy had been helped.  He was no longer a child, but a man; and the pleasing little subterfuges, which we had employed to induce the boy to think he was making his way on his own sturdy little legs, with the man were out of the question.  His clothing grew threadbare, and there were stories of insufficient nourishment.  As time went on the outward and visible signs of his poverty increased, yet no one could devise any plan to help him.