Simple , generous goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon . It lasts when fame and money fail , and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us . Remember that , my boys ; and if you want to earn respect and confidence and love follow in the footsteps of John Brooke . '' When Demi returned to school , after some weeks at home , he seemed to have recovered from his loss with the blessed elasticity of childhood , and so he had in a measure ; but he did not forget , for his was a nature into which things sank deeply , to be pondered over , and absorbed into the soil where the small virtues were growing fast . He played and studied , worked and sang , just as before , and few suspected any change ; but there was one and Aunt Jo saw it for she watched over the boy with her whole heart , trying to fill John 's place in her poor way . He seldom spoke of his loss , but Aunt Jo often heard a stifled sobbing in the little bed at night ; and when she went to comfort him , all his cry was , `` I want my father ! oh , I want my father ! '' for the tie between the two had been a very tender one , and the child 's heart bled when it was broken . But time was kind to him , and slowly he came to feel that father was not lost , only invisible for a while , and sure to be found again , well and strong and fond as ever , even though his little son should see the purple asters blossom on his grave many , many times before they met . To this belief Demi held fast , and in it found both help and comfort , because it led him unconsciously through a tender longing for the father whom he had seen to a childlike trust in the Father whom he had not seen . Both were in heaven , and he prayed to both , trying to be good for love of them . The outward change corresponded to the inward , for in those few weeks Demi seemed to have grown tall , and began to drop his childish plays , not as if ashamed of them , as some boys do , but as if he had outgrown them , and wanted something manlier . He took to the hated arithmetic , and held on so steadily that his uncle was charmed , though he could not understand the whim , until Demi said , `` I am going to be a bookkeeper when I grow up , like papa , and I must know about figures and things , else I ca n't have nice , neat ledgers like his . '' At another time he came to his aunt with a very serious face , and said `` What can a small boy do to earn money ? '' `` Why do you ask , my deary ? '' `` My father told me to take care of mother and the little girls , and I want to , but I do n't know how to begin . '' `` He did not mean now , Demi , but by and by , when you are large . '' `` But I wish to begin now , if I can , because I think I ought to make some money to buy things for the family . I am ten , and other boys no bigger than I earn pennies sometimes . '' `` Well , then , suppose you rake up all the dead leaves and cover the strawberry bed .
I 'll pay you a dollar for the job , '' said Aunt XXXXX .
Brooke Demi Father Jo John bookkeeper deary night strawberry weeks