This I could not fail to realize. The wrench was
indeed severe and there was pain in the good-bye which was also a
farewell.
Upon my return to New York some months later, I felt myself entirely
out of place, but was much cheered by seeing several of "the boys" on
the pier to welcome me--the same dear friends, but so different. I had
lost my partners, but not my friends. This was something; it was much.
Still a vacancy was left. I had now to take up my self-appointed task
of wisely disposing of surplus wealth. That would keep me deeply
interested.
One day my eyes happened to see a line in that most valuable paper,
the "Scottish American," in which I had found many gems. This was the
line:
"The gods send thread for a web begun."
It seemed almost as if it had been sent directly to me. This sank into
my heart, and I resolved to begin at once my first web. True enough,
the gods sent thread in the proper form. Dr. J.S. Billings, of the New
York Public Libraries, came as their agent, and of dollars, five and a
quarter millions went at one stroke for sixty-eight branch libraries,
promised for New York City. Twenty more libraries for Brooklyn
followed.
My father, as I have stated, had been one of the five pioneers in
Dunfermline who combined and gave access to their few books to their
less fortunate neighbors.
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