He splashed across the pool and poked around with a stick in the hole in the ground, and almost right away he saw what the reason was.  He ran back to tell Mr. Welles.  “I see now.  The brook had kept sidling over that way, and washed the earth from under the rocks.  It just didn’t have enough ground left to hold on to.”

He felt all right now he knew some simple reason for what had looked so crazy.  He looked up confidently at the old man, and was struck into awed silence by the expression of Mr. Welles’ face.

“Paul,” said Mr. Welles, and his voice wasn’t steady, “I guess what I ought to try to be is one more drop of water in the brook.”

Paul stared hard.  He did not understand this either, but he understood the expression in that tired, old face.  Mr. Welles went on, “That wrong feeling about colored people, not wanting them to be respected as much as any American, is . . . that’s a tree that’s got to come down.  I’m too old to take an axe to it.  And, anyhow, if you cut that sort of thing down with an axe, the roots generally live and start all over again.  If we can just wash the ground out from under it, with enough people thinking differently, maybe it’ll fall, roots and all, of its own weight.  If I go and live there and just am one more person who respects them when they deserve it, it’ll help that much, maybe, don’t you think?”

Paul had understood more what Mr. Welles’ face and voice said to him than the words.  He kept on looking into the old man’s eyes.  Something deep inside Paul said “yes” to what Mr. Welles’ eyes were asking him.

“How about it, Paul?” asked the old man.

The child gave a start, climbed up beside him, and took hold of his hand.  “How about it?  How about it?” asked Mr. Welles in a very low tone.

The little boy nodded.  “Maybe,” he said briefly.  His lips shook.  Presently he sniffed and drew his sleeve across his nose.  He held the old hand tightly.

“Oh dear!” he said again, in a small, miserable voice.

The old man made no answer.

The two sat motionless, leaning against each other.  A ray of sun found the newly opened spot in the roof of the woods, and it seemed to Paul it pointed a long steady finger down on the fallen beech.

At first Paul’s throat ached, and his eyes smarted.  He felt heavy and sore, as though he hadn’t eaten the right thing for lunch.

But by and by this went away.  A quiet came all over him, so that he was better than happy.  He laid his head against Mr. Welles’ shoulder and looked up into the worn, pale old face, which was now also very quiet and still as though he too were better than happy.

He held Paul close to him.

Paul had a great many mixed-up thoughts.  But there was one that was clear.  He said to himself solemnly, “I guess I know who I want to be like when I grow up.”

* * * * *