As his hand had fitted naturally a weapon, so his mind turned naturally to larger things than those offered in these long-tilled fields of life.

He came back from the war disillusionized, irreverent, impatient, and full of that surging fretfulness which fell upon all the land.

Thousands of young men, accustomed for years to energy, activity, and a certain freedom from all small responsibility, were thrust back at once and asked to adjust themselves to the older and calmer ways of peace.

The individual problems were enormous in the aggregate.
Before Franklin, as before many other young men suddenly grown old, there lay the necessity of earning a livelihood, of choosing an occupation.

The paternal arm of the Government, which had guided and controlled so long, was now withdrawn.