He was quite sure of this. His mood was tinctured with recklessness when
he summed it up in words. A man must stand on his own feet!
He would never forget that sentence. It was burned into his memory. He
was beginning to understand what Sophie Carr meant by it. Looking
backward he could see that he never had stood on his own feet like a
man. Always he had required props. And they had been forthcoming from
the time the prim spinster aunts took his training in hand until he came
to Lone Moose self-consciously, rather flauntingly, waving the banner of
righteousness. Thompson could smile wryly at himself now. He could see
the unreckonable element of chance functioning largely in a man's life.
And in the meantime he went about Wrangel looking for a job!