The other letter asks why I and other young men who
have had to battle with the world did not go to the Young Men's
Christian Association, or to the missionaries, for help. I do not
know about the others, but I did not want anybody to help me. There
were plenty that were worse off and needed help more. The only time
I tried was when Pater Breton, the good French priest in Buffalo,
tried to get me across to France to fight for his country, and
happily did not succeed. As to battling with the world, that is
good for a young man, much better than to hang on to somebody for
support A little starvation once in a while even is not out of
the way. We eat too much anyhow, and when you have fought your way
through a tight place, you are the better for it. I am afraid that
is not always the case when you have been shoved through.
And then again, as I have just told, when I did go to the ministers
with a fair proposition, they did not exactly jump at it. No, it
was better the way it was.
The thing I had sought vainly so long came in the end by another
road than I planned.
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