“Good afternoon, Sibylla,” said the Professor, good-naturedly.  “How are you today?”

“I’d be a whole lot better if some people weren’t so smart,” replied Sibylla, venting her feelings on the broom.  “Should think a Perfesser would feel himself too big to talk to a ’servant’.”

“On the contrary, my dear girl, I feel honored.  I presume you are not feeling as well as usual.  What makes you think it is condescension for me to address you?” asked the genial old man, kindly.

“Well, since you ask me, I don’t mind a-tellin’ you.  Yesterday your son insulted me, I won’t take no insult from nobody, I am just as good as what you are, even if I hain’t got much book larnin’.”

With this deliverance, Sibylla felt she had done full justice to the occasion and would have closed the interview abruptly had not the Professor, with a restraining hand, detained her.

“We must get to the bottom of this grievance, Sibylla.  I am sure there is some mistake somewhere.  What did my son say?”

“Well, if you want to know,” replied the irate domestic, ’I’ll tell you.  He called me a ‘servant.’  I know I’m only a working girl, but your son nor nobody else ain’t got no right to abuse me by callin’ me a ’servant’.”

“Ah!  I see.  You object to the term ‘servant’ being applied to you,” said the Professor, comprehendingly.  “The word ‘servant’ is distasteful to you.  You feel it is a disgrace to be called a servant.  I see!  I see!” In a fatherly way, the old man resumed:  “In a certain sense we are all servants.  The history of human achievements is a record of service.  The men and women who have helped the world most were all servants—­servants to humanity.  The happiest man is he who serves.  God calls some men to sow and some to reap; some to work in wood and stone; to sing and speak.  Work is honorable in all, regardless of the capacity in which we serve.  There is no great difference, after all, between the ordinary laborer and the railroad president; both are servants, and the standard of measurement to be applied to each man is the same.  It is not so much a question of station in life as it is the question of efficiency.  Best of all, work is education.  There is culture that comes without college and university.  He who graduates from the college of hard work is as honorable as he who takes a degree at Yale or Harvard; for wisdom can be found in shop and foundry, field and factory, in the kitchen amid pots and kettles, as well as in office and school.  The truly educated man is the man who has learned the duty and responsibility of doing something useful, something helpful, something to make this old world of ours better and a happier place in which to live.  The word ‘servant,’ Sibylla, is a beautiful one, rightly understood.  The greatest man who ever lived was a servant.  All His earthly ministry was filled with worthy deeds.  When man pleaded with Him to rest, He answered:  ‘My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.’