text: 22
  
  After Grit got his inheritance, it was as if he'd never received one. He got up every morning and went to work at the lumber yard, which grew along with the capital city. His mind and body craved work, so a year after building the first lumber yard, Grit built a second one on the west side of Lincoln, and the business kept growing.
  
  In early June, right after Colleen had finished classes for the year, she gave birth to a sweet little boy that they named Rory, and two years later, she had Luke, who seemed to be a carbon copy of Rory. Grit was as happy as Colleen had ever seen him. He loved coming home and playing with his little boys and talking with Astrid, who seemed more grown up by the day.
  
  When Paulie graduated from the university in 1878, Grit asked with a laugh, "So what are you gonna do now that you're all educated."
  
  "I'm gonna get married," Paulie said. "I've waited long enough."
  
  "And then what?"
  
  "I've got lots of job offers, but I've heard you need somebody to keep track of your finances, and I'm your man if you'll have me."
  
  "Just like old times," Grit said smiling.
  
  "Yep, only then we kept everything in a leather bag with a drawstring."
  
  A few weeks later, Paulie married his college sweetheart, Mary Beth Parkins, who'd graduated from the university in the same class. The wedding was held in Mary Beth's hometown of Bellevue, 50 miles east of Lincoln, and Grit's whole family attended. When they returned from their honeymoon in St. Louis, Grit and Colleen introduced them to a house not far away, all furnished and decorated just for the newlyweds.
  
  Grit worked wherever he was needed, at the east side lumber yard or the west, and occasionally he'd leave for a week or so to check on the lumberjacks who were working on the acreage he'd gotten from the railroad.
  
  One day, Grit found out that Willie Abbott, a negro man who'd been one of Grit's first hires, was going to lose the small frame home where he lived with his wife and four children. The bank had notified him they were going to foreclose on it. Grit paid off the loan and brought the deed back to the office.
  
  When Willie got his weekly pay, Asa gave him an envelope containing the deed to the house and the surrounding property. When he pulled the deed from the envelope, Abbott swallowed hard, then looked across the lumber yard to keep Asa from seeing his tears. He wiped his eyes with the back of his work-hardened hand and said, "Nobody ever done nothin' like this for me before. You be sure and tell Mister Grit how much I 'preciate it."
  
  "He already knows, Willie," Asa said. "He did it 'cause you're such a good worker."
  
  Willie nodded and walked out the gate that night with a lighter step as one big worry had been lifted from his life.
  
  That simple act of charity became a pattern for Grit. He was generous by nature, and he seldom missed an opportunity to help somebody when he knew they needed it. Most of the widows near the lumber yards got bags of groceries delivered to them at Christmas, and none ever knew where the packages came from. They were dropped off by a messenger from the grocery store.
  
  When Colleen started teaching school in 1879 after graduating from the University of Nebraska, Grit built a small cottage behind the house and Colleen hired a housekeeper named Celia Gomez to help with the children. Things at home worked out quite well.
  
  While teaching, Colleen would sometimes see a student who obviously came from a poor family, and Grit would learn what he could about the family and then provide the help needed. Most often, it was food and clothing, and he anonymously sent a gift voucher the family could spend at the store just like cash to get what they needed.
  
  The summer after Colleen's first year of teaching, she gave birth to Samuel, and it was obvious from the moment he was born that there were problems. A new physician in town, Dr. Aaron Wright, was attending, and Colleen asked him what the problem was with the baby.
  
  He told her straight out, "He's what's called a Mongolian child."
  
  Colleen was stunned. She'd studied about the feeble-minded at the university. So she said, "Which means he'll not have normal intelligence."
  
  "That's right, his head size is a little small, and there are issues with his palate. It's probably best that you put him in an institution that can care for him. I'm not sure what could be done for him at home."
  
  Colleen was so overwrought she didn't know what to think, and when Grit came into the room to see the new baby, Colleen burst into tears and told him the baby would be feeble-minded, and the doctor thought they ought to put him in an institution. Grit sat on the bed and held Colleen's hand for a long while.
  
  After a time, Grit said, "We're a loving family, and we always will be. We'll welcome the little fella into our home so that he can feel our love for him. No institution can give him that. I got a feeling our love will make him blossom and be all he can be."
  
  And so they brought Samuel home and loved him. Colleen quit teaching to take care of Samuel, who proved to be both a challenge and a blessing in her life. He was slow but he learned to feed himself and pretty much take care of himself. Astrid and his brothers were very kind to him, and so was Celia, the housekeeper. Samuel didn't have angry outbursts, though sometimes he'd retreat into a corner and cry or sulk. One of the family would have to comfort him and tease him out of his distress.
  
  Samuel learned to speak pretty well and could comprehend most of the things he was told. He was obedient but easily distracted and often wouldn't finish what Colleen asked him to do. In the evenings, Grit would lie on the floor and play games with Samuel, stacking blocks and putting together six-and eight-piece wooden puzzles that Grit had made and painted different colors. When Samuel could consistently put together his first puzzles well, Grit made puzzles of 10, 12 and then 18 pieces and had Astrid paint a picture on the puzzle pieces so that putting it together made sense to Samuel.
  
  As he grew up, he begged to go to work with Grit, and it scared Colleen a little. "You won't let him get hurt, will ya?"
  
  "No, I won't," Grit said. "Don't worry."
  
  After the first day, Samuel wanted to work with Grit every day, and when he could, Grit took him and let him play in areas that presented no danger. But it was a trial for Grit because he couldn't do his own work.
  
  Eventually, they worked out an arrangement where Colleen taught Samuel in the mornings and in the afternoons, he'd go with Grit to the lumber yard where Grit had fenced off and made a small lumber yard for Samuel with stacks of lumber everywhere. On his third day in his very own lumber yard, Grit came back to check on him and Samuel had arranged every piece of lumber by its length and stacked them at the side of his "lumber yard." Grit praised him.
  
  "You're such an amazing little boy. Look what you've done."
  
  Samuel soaked in all the praise and wanted more lumber so that he could arrange the boards in what he considered to be the right order.
  
  "One thing we got around here is plenty of lumber," Grit said.
  
  As time went on, Samuel became obsessed with the lumber yard and wanted to work there all the time. Grit started taking him down on Sunday afternoons with Rory and Luke, and they'd do various odd jobs, cleaning up and getting things ready for Monday mornings. Grit had employees to do all that work, but he was trying to teach Samuel to start and finish whatever job he was given.
  
  Grit had Rory and Luke keep an eye on Samuel, and when a job seemed too difficult for him so that he might want to quit, they'd encourage Samuel to finish it and help if necessary. This worked out well until one day, Samuel wanted to use the saw, and Grit had to say "no." Samuel retreated into his shell and Grit brought him home all out of sorts.
  
  Grit told Colleen what had happened, and she sat down and explained it over and over to Samuel. "You could get hurt," I told him, "and that's why Papa says 'no.'" The other children started playing with him, and he was his usual self by suppertime.
  
  In summers, both Rory and Luke did odd jobs around the lumber yard for a little spending money. Both boys tossed around big boards and stacked lumber most of the day, and they'd grown strong and tall.
  
  One summer afternoon after working, Rory and Luke were headed downtown to get an ice cream cone and Samuel wanted to go. He was only nine at the time, but Colleen gave her permission.
  
  Ever-protective of her youngest, she said, "Rory, you and Luke watch out for him."
  
  "Yeah, we will, Mama," Rory said.
  
  At the drugstore they ran into a group of older boys that Rory and Luke didn't know, and one of them started making fun of Samuel.
  
  "Hey, boy, you wanna run a race?" he asked.
  
  Samuel said, "No, I can't run fast. I just want my ice cream."
  
  After he got his ice cream cone, the boy bumped into Samuel and pretended it was an accident. He caused Samuel to drop his ice cream cone, and he started to cry.
  
  "Aw, I didn't mean to make the little moron cry," the boy said.
  
  Rory drew Samuel aside and said, "Come on, Samuel, we'll get you another one."
  
  "No, I want that one," Samuel said, looking at the cone on the ground.
  
  "No, it's dirty, Samuel, we'll get you another one."
  
  "No," the boy said. "Let 'im eat the one on the ground."
  
  Rory said, "Shut up and leave us alone."
  
  "Who's gonna make me?"
  
  Before the boy could say another word, Rory's fist hit the boy's mouth and kept striking him until he had the boy on the floor with a badly bloodied nose and torn lips.
  
  Rory stepped back, pointed down at him and said, "I told you to leave us alone. Next time maybe you'll listen."
  
  When the Milburn boys got home, Samuel ran to Colleen to tell her all about it. When she asked Rory about the incident, he said, "Aw Mama, Samuel's exaggerating. It was nothin'."
  
  "Oh, why are your knuckles all skinned up?"
  
  Rory smiled and said, "Skinned 'em on some guy's teeth."
  
  Colleen shook her head and said, "Oh boy, just like your father and Uncle Paulie."
  
  She turned to leave and Rory said, "Wait, wait, Mama. What does that mean?"
  
  Colleen debated whether to tell Rory or not. "One time, years ago, a man said some inappropriate things to me in Yankton, Dakota Territory, and Papa knocked him silly. The man had five friends with him, and they all came after Papa. Uncle Paulie jumped into the fray, and he and Papa stood back to back and left all five of the men in the dust of the street. Uncle Paulie wasn't much older than you are. They bloodied his nose, but he was smiling after the fight."
  
  That night, the boy from the drugstore came to the door of the house with his father, who was threatening revenge. The boy's face was such a mess, it was hard to look at it. Right after it happened, Grit had heard from several people who couldn't wait to run over to the lumber yard and tell him about what Rory had done.
  
  When he answered the door, Grit listened to the father's rantings and said, "I know all about what happened today, and here's the truth." Grit stepped out onto the porch and shut the door behind him. "Your boy made fun of my disabled son and knocked his ice cream cone out of his hand and then suggested my son eat it off the ground. My older son told your son to leave them alone. And your son said, "Who's gonna make me?" So Rory taught your son a lesson. What your son deserves is a strap across his backside."
  
  The father turned to his son and asked, "Did you do that?"
  
  "Yeah, but he had no right..."
  
  "Get on home," the father said. "Sorry to have bothered you, Mister Milburn.