It is the spirit that stoopeth the shoulders, I ween, and not the weight; for armor is heavy, yet it is a proud burden, and a man standeth straight in it....
Nay, but me no buts, offer me no objections.

I will have the thing.
Strap it upon my back." He was complete now with that knapsack on, and looked as little like a king as any man I had ever seen.

But it was an obstinate pair of shoulders; they could not seem to learn the trick of stooping with any sort of deceptive naturalness.

The drill went on, I prompting and correcting: "Now, make believe you are in debt, and eaten up by relentless creditors; you are out of work--which is horse-shoeing, let us say--and can get none; and your wife is sick, your children are crying because they are hungry--" And so on, and so on.

I drilled him as representing in turn all sorts of people out of luck and suffering dire privations and misfortunes.