As he began to put his thoughts into words, the giant got upon his feet, and walked the floor like one insane.  “He shan’t have her,” he cried, clenching his great fists; “he shan’t have her.  If he was a man I could stand it, Dad.  But look at him!  Look at him, will you?  The little white-faced, washed out runt, what is he?  He ain’t no man, Dad.  He ain’t even as much of a man as he was.  And Sammy is—­God!  What a woman she is!  You’ve been a tellin’ me that I could be a gentleman, even if I always lived in the backwoods.  But you’re wrong, Dad, plumb wrong.  I ain’t no gentleman.  I can’t never be one.  I’m just a man.  I’m a—­a savage, a damned beast, and I’m glad of it.”  He threw back his shaggy head, and his white teeth gleamed through his parted lips, as he spoke in tones of mad defiance.

“Dad, you say there’s some things bigger’n learnin’, and such, and I reckon this here’s one of them.  I don’t care if that little whelp goes to all the schools there is, and gets to be a president or a king; I don’t care if he’s got all the money there is between here and hell; put him out here in the woods, face to face with life where them things don’t count, and what is he?  What is he, Dad?  He’s nothin’! plumb nothin’!”

The old shepherd waited quietly for the storm to pass.  The big fellow would come to himself after a time; until then, words were useless.  At last Young Matt spoke in calmer tones; “I run away, Dad.  I had to.  I was afraid I’d hurt him.  Something inside o’ me just fought to get at him, and I couldn’t a held out much longer.  I don’t want to hurt nobody, Dad.  I reckon it was a seein’ ’em together that did it.  It’s a God’s blessin’ I come away when I did; it sure is.”  He dropped wearily into his chair again.

Then the teacher spoke, “It is always a God’s blessing, lad, when a man masters the worst of himself.  You are a strong man, my boy.  You hardly know your strength.  But you need always to remember that the stronger the man, the easier it is for him to become a beast.  Your manhood depends upon this, and upon nothing else, that you conquer and control the animal side of yourself.  It will be a sad moment for you, and for all of us who love you, if you ever forget.  Don’t you see, lad, it is this victory only that gives you the right to think of yourself as a man.  Mind, I say to think of yourself, as a man.  It doesn’t much matter what others think of you.  It is what one can honestly think of one’s self that matters.”

So they spent the evening together, and the big mountaineer learned to see still more deeply into the things that had come to the older man in his years of study and painful experience.

When at last Young Matt arose to say good-night, the shepherd tried to persuade him to sleep at the ranch.  But he said, no, the folks at home would be looking for him, and he must go.  “I’m mighty glad I come, Dad,” he added; “I don’t know what I’d do if it wasn’t for you; go plumb hog wild, and make a fool of myself, I reckon.  I don’t know what a lot of us would do, either.  Seems like you’re a sort of shepherd to the whole neighborhood.  I reckon, though, I’m ’bout the worst in the flock,” he finished with a grim smile.