THE BATTALION.
13
they seemed so far justified, if men are ever able to prophesy.
Was not Jean the foremost boy in his classes? Was he not
perfect in his deportment? Was he not far ahead of a!l child
ren of his age? He received the unlimited praise of his teach
er and school mates and the adulation of the entire town.
But Jean was only human, such continued praise wrought a
pernicuous effect, brought on an undermining influence which,
in later years proved his ruin. It cultivated in him a restless
ambition, associated with hot-headed impatience, to which
there was no curb. It brought on a greed for flattery, an ap
petite for greatness that he could not yet contain.
It grew on him until he tried to compass everything, to learn
everything, to do everything in a day.
With all this, he would never admit his faults or his
weakness and frequentW he tried, in order to show his disre
gard of such inordinate desires, to appear as one of the meek
est, humblest and simplest of individuals; but behind all, the
gutter of his eye, the firm set mouth showed the true spirit,
the rulihg desire. In early childhood this weakness was not
apparent, except by a close inspection of his habits. To all
he seemed the model child, animated only by a natural and
commendable desire to excel, accordingly he was encouraged
until his fault became deep-rooted and precluded real advance
ment. Whether this character was inherited in part or alto
gether developed by his peculiar surroundings, we leave for
the speculative reader, but undoubtedly his surroundings and
training worked a most potent cause in his development.
Naturally endowed with a bright and capable mind, in which
no doubt, (as phrenologists term it,) the organ of imagina-
tio /- was prominent, nurtured in a country full of romance
and adventure, at a time in the “boom” of the west in which
the most triffling man was filled Avith hope and ambition,
overpraise and flattery of parents and friends should develop
a morbid state in the child.
In the beginning of Jean’s school days, he often worried
his mother by grumbling because there Avere some studjfing
the same book, who were ahead of him. She tried to pacify
him, telling him that he had just begun the book and Avould