how welcome it was

　　Ah, how welcome it was! how eagerly he read the long pages full ofaffectionate wishes from all at home! For everyone had sent a line,and as each familiar name appeared, his eyes grew dimmer and dimmertill, as he read the last--'God bless my boy! Mother Bhaer'--he brokedown; and laying his head on his arms, blistered the paper with arain of tears that eased his heart and washed away the boyish sinsthat now lay so heavy on his conscience.

　　'Dear people, how they love and trust me! And how bitterly they wouldbe disappointed if they knew what a fool I've been! I'll fiddle inthe streets again before I'll ask for help from them!' cried Nat,brushing away the tears of which he was ashamed, although he felt thegood they had done.

　　Now he seemed to see more clearly what to do; for the helping handhad been stretched across the sea, and Love, the dear Evangelist, hadlifted him out of the slough and shown him the narrow gate, beyondwhich deliverance lay. When the letter had been reread, and onecorner where a daisy was painted, passionately kissed, Nat feltstrong enough to face the worst and conquer it. Every bill should bepaid, every salable thing of his own sold, these costly rooms givenup; and once back with thrifty Frau Tetzel, he would find work ofsome sort by which to support himself, as many another student did.

　　He must give up the new friends, turn his back on the gay life, ceaseto be a butterfly, and take his place among the grubs. It was theonly honest thing to do, but very hard for the poor fellow to crushhis little vanities, renounce the delights so dear to the young, ownhis folly, and step down from his pedestal to be pitied, laughed at,fake jordans for sale,and forgotten.

　　It took all Nat's pride and courage to do this,Website, for his was asensitive nature; esteem was very precious to him, failure verybitter, and nothing but the inborn contempt for meanness and deceitkept him from asking help or trying to hide his need by somedishonest device. As he sat alone that night, Mr Bhaer's words cameback to him with curious clearness, and he saw himself a boy again atPlumfield, punishing his teacher as a lesson to himself, whentimidity had made him lie.

　　'He shall not suffer for me again, and I won't be a sneak if I am afool. I'll go and tell Professor Baumgarten all about it and ask hisadvice. I'd rather face a loaded cannon; but it must be done. ThenI'll sell out, pay my debts, and go back where I belong. Better be anhonest pauper than a jackdaw among peacocks'; and Nat smiled in themidst of his trouble, as he looked about him at the little eleganciesof his room, remembering what he came from.

　　He kept his word manfully,fake jordan shoes, and was much comforted to find that hisexperience was an old story to the professor, who approved his plan,thinking wisely that the discipline would be good for him, and wasvery kind in offering help and promising to keep the secret of hisfolly from his friend Bhaer till Nat had redeemed himself.

　　The first week of the new year was spent by our prodigal in carryingout his plan with penitent dispatch, and his birthday found him alonein the little room high up at Frau Tetzel's, with nothing of hisformer splendour, but sundry unsalable keepsakes from the buxommaidens, who mourned his absence deeply. His male friends hadridiculed, pitied, and soon left him alone, with one or twoexceptions,fake delaine ugg boots, who offered their purses generously and promised to standby him. He was lonely and heavy-hearted, and sat brooding over hissmall fire as he remembered the last New Year's Day at Plumfield,when at this hour he was dancing with his Daisy.