'
"Now these girls who have hurt you so cruelly, have done it solely
through ignorance. They have never seen anything beyond their own
little strip ''twixt the hill and the sky,' and they can only follow a
leader like a flock of pretty sheep. It is true that they ought to
have a broader horizon than the boundary of the little social circle
in which they were born, but you must make allowances for them, my
child. From their cradles they have been hedged round with
conventionalities which have made them short-sighted. It is your
privilege to rise above the petty social hollows of life. Learn to
take an eagle view, my dear. What does the eagle care for the
happenings down in the hollows?
"'With wing on the wind, and eye on the sun,
He swerves not a line, but bears onward--right on!'
That is a true American motto, learned from our national emblem.
"It is absolute foolishness for us to prate of old-world castes when
it is a part of our national creed that any one among us may rise as
high as the best of us, provided he can grow the wings wherewith to
soar. That little speech which almost broke your heart is a part of
our creed, too. 'The hand of Douglas _is_ his own.' The American
Douglas reserves the right to extend it, regardless of all arbitrary
social lines, to any palm that has proved itself worthy, no matter
how hard and toil-stained it may be.
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