The Measure of a Man

Measure of a Man, The

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Title: The Measure of a Man
Author: Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
Illustrator: Frank T. Merrill
Release Date: August 6, 2005 [EBook #16453]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MEASURE OF A MAN ***

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[Illustration: "Holding Bendigo's bridle, he had walked with her to the
Harlow residence." Page 43.]

THE MEASURE OF A MAN
BY

AMELIA E. BARR
AUTHOR OF "THE BOW OF ORANGE RIBBON," "PLAYING
WITH FIRE," "THE WINNING OF LUCIA," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY FRANK T. MERRILL
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON
1915

WITH SINCERE ESTEEM I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO
MRS. ARTHUR ROBERTS
OF EVANSTON, ILLINOIS

PREFACE
My Friends:
I had a purpose in writing this novel. It was to honor and magnify the
sweetness and dignity of the condition of Motherhood, and of those
womanly virtues and graces, which make the Home the cornerstone of
the Nation. For it is not with modern Americans, as it was with the old
Greek and Roman world. They put the family below the State, and the
citizen absorbed the man. On the contrary, we know, that just as the
Family principle is strong the heart of the Nation is sound. "Give me
one domestic grace," said a famous leader of men, "and I will turn it
into a hundred public virtues."
A Home, however splendidly appointed, is ill furnished without the
sound of children's voices; and the patter of children's feet. It may be
strictly orderly, but it is silent and forlorn; and has an air of solitude.
Solitude is a great affliction, and Domestic Solitude is one of its hardest
forms. No number of balls and dinner parties, no visits from friends,

can make up for the absence of sons and daughters round the family
table and the family hearth.
Yet there certainly is a restless feminine minority, who declare, both by
precept and example, Family Life to be a servitude. Alas! They have
not given themselves opportunity to discover that self-sacrifice is the
meat and drink of all true affection.
But women have learned within the last two decades to listen to every
side of an argument. Their Club life, with its variety of "views," has led
them to decide that every phase of a question ought to be attentively
considered. So I do not doubt that my story will receive justice, and I
hope approval, from all the women--and men--that read it.
Affectionately to all, AMELIA E. BARR.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE GREAT SEA WATERS 1
II. THE PEOPLE OF THE STORY 18
III. LOVE VENTURES IN 39
IV. BROTHERS 56
V. THE HEARTH FIRE 78
VI. LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM 99
VII. SHOCK AND SORROW 125
VIII. THE GODDESS OF THE TENDER FEET 146
IX. JOHN INTERFERES IN HARRY'S AFFAIRS 182

X. AT HER GATES 204
XI. JANE RECEIVES A LESSON 235
XII. PROFIT AND LOSS 262
XIII. THE LOVE THAT NEVER FAILS 286
SEQUENCES 312

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"Holding Bendigo's bridle, he had walked with her to the Harlow
residence"...Frontispiece "He knew her for his own ... as she stood with
her father at the gate of their little garden"...72
"He ran down the steps to meet her, and she put her hand in his"...168
"Noiselessly he stepped to her side and ...stood in silent prayer"...232

THE MEASURE OF A MAN
CHAPTER I
THE GREAT SEA WATERS
Gray sky, brown waters, as a bird that flies My heart flits forth to these;
Back to the winter rose of Northern skies, Back to the Northern seas.
* * * * *
The sea is His, and He made it.
I saw a man of God coming over the narrow zigzag path that led across
a Shetland peat moss. Swiftly and surely he stepped. Bottomless bogs
of black peat-water were on each side of him, but he had neither fear

nor hesitation. He walked like one who knew his way was ordered, and
when the moss was passed, he pursued his journey over the rocky moor
with the same untiring speed. Now and then he sang a few lines, and
now and then he lifted his cap, and stood still to listen to the larks. For
the larks sing at midnight in the Shetland summer, and to the music of
their heaven-soaring songs he set one sweet