If this were not the best, it was the _only_ thing they could do; so it seemed to them, and so they spoke of it.

How the young men were to be _kept_ at College, no mortal knew; the father and mother did not; but the pressure of necessity and the strength of will took and carried the whole burden.

The boys must go; they should go; and go they did.
In a strong yearning that the minds of their children should not lack bread, in the self-denying love that would risk any hardship to give it them, -- the father and mother found their way plain if not easy before them.

If his sons were to mount to a higher scale of existence and fit themselves for nobler work in life than he had done, his shoulders must thenceforth bear a double burden; but they were willing to bear it.

She must lose, not only, the nurtured joys of her hearthstone, but strain every long-strained nerve afresh to keep them where she could not see and could but dimly enjoy them; but she was willing.