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page 1
page 3
 page 2

DIGITAL ELECTRONICS: PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS

Published by McGraw Hill LLC, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10121. Copyright ©2022 by
McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system,
without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC, including, but not limited to, in any network or other
electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.

Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the
United States.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 LWI 24 23 22 21

ISBN 978-1-260-59786-8
MHID 1-260-59786-5

Cover Image: ©Pitju/Getty Images

All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are considered to be an extension of the copyright page.

The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion of a website
does not indicate an endorsement by the authors or McGraw Hill LLC, and McGraw Hill LLC does not
guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites.

mheducation.com/highered
 page v

Contents

Preface ix
Acknowledgments x
Walkthrough xii
About the Author xiv
Safety xv

Chapter 1 Digital Electronics 1

1-1 What Is a Digital Signal? 2
1-2 Why Use Digital Circuits? 4
1-3 Where Are Digital Circuits Used? 8
1-4 How Do You Generate a Digital Signal? 9
1-5 How Do You Test for a Digital Signal? 15
1-6 Simple Instruments 19
Summary 22
Correlated Experiments 22
Chapter Review Questions 22
Critical Thinking Questions 24
Answers to Self-Tests 25

Chapter 2 Numbers We Use in Digital Electronics 26

2-1 Counting in Decimal and Binary 26
2-2 Place Value 27
2-3 Binary to Decimal Conversion 29
2-4 Decimal to Binary Conversion 30
2-5 Electronic Translators 31
2-6 Hexadecimal Numbers 34
2-7 Octal Numbers 36
2-8 Bits, Bytes, Nibbles, and Word Size 37
Summary 39
Correlated Experiments 39
Chapter Review Questions 39
Critical Thinking Questions 40
Answers to Self-Tests 42
Chapter 3 Logic Gates 43
3-1 The AND Gate 43
3-2 The OR Gate 46
3-3 The Inverter and Buffer 48
3-4 The NAND Gate 50
3-5 The NOR Gate 51
3-6 The Exclusive OR Gate 53
3-7 The Exclusive NOR Gate 54
3-8 The NAND Gate as a Universal Gate 56
3-9 The NOR Gate as a Universal Gate 59
3-10 Gates with More Than Two Inputs 63
3-11 Using Inverters to Convert Gates 65
3-12 Practical TTL Logic Gates 68
3-13 Practical CMOS Logic Gates 71
3-14 Troubleshooting Simple Gate Circuits 75
3-15 IEEE Logic Symbols 77
3-16 Simple Logic Gate Applications 79
3-17 Logic Functions Using Software (BASIC Stamp Module) 83
Summary 88
Correlated Experiments 89
Chapter Review Questions 89
Critical Thinking Questions 92
Answers to Self-Tests 95

Chapter 4 Combining Logic Gates 96

4-1 Constructing Circuits from Boolean Expressions 97
4-2 Drawing a Circuit from a Maxterm Boolean Expression 98
4-3 Truth Tables and Boolean Expressions 99
4-4 Sample Problem 103
4-5 Simplifying Boolean Expressions 105
4-6 Boolean Algebra 106
4-7 Karnaugh Maps 114
4-8 Karnaugh Maps with Three Variables 115
4-9 Karnaugh Maps with Four Variables 117
4-10 More Karnaugh Maps 118
4-11 A Five-Variable Karnaugh Map 119
4-12 Using NAND Logic 120
4-13 Computer Simulations: Logic Converter 122
4-14 Solving Logic Problems: Data Selectors 126
4-15 Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs) 130
4-16 Using De Morgan’s Theorems 138
4-17 Solving a Logic Problem (BASIC Stamp Module) 140 page vi

Summary 145
Correlated Experiments 146
Chapter Review Questions 146
Critical Thinking Questions 150
Answers to Self-Tests 150

Chapter 5 IC Specifications and Simple Interfacing 155

5-1 Logic Levels and Noise Margin 155
5-2 Other Digital IC Specifications 160
5-3 MOS and CMOS ICs 165
5-4 Interfacing TTL and CMOS with Switches 167
5-5 Interfacing TTL and CMOS with LEDs 171
5-6 Interfacing TTL and CMOS ICs 175
5-7 Interfacing with Buzzers, Relays, Motors, and Solenoids 179
5-8 Optoisolators 182
5-9 Interfacing with Servo and Stepper Motors 185
5-10 Using Hall-Effect Sensors 193
5-11 Troubleshooting Simple Logic Circuits 200
5-12 Interfacing the Servo (BASIC Stamp Module) 201
Summary 204
Correlated Experiments 205
Chapter Review Questions 205
Critical Thinking Questions 209
Answers to Self-Tests 210

Chapter 6 Encoding, Decoding, and Seven-Segment Displays 212

6-1 The 8421 BCD Code 212
6-2 The Excess-3 Code 214
6-3 The Gray Code 215
6-4 The ASCII Code 218
6-5 Encoders 219
6-6 Seven-Segment LED Displays 221
6-7 Decoders 224
6-8 BCD-to-Seven-Segment Decoder/Drivers 225
6-9 Liquid-Crystal Displays 229
6-10 Using CMOS to Drive an LCD Display 234
6-11 Vacuum Fluorescent Displays 237
6-12 Driving a VF Display 240
6-13 Troubleshooting a Decoding Circuit 243
Summary 245
Correlated Experiments 246
Chapter Review Questions 246
Critical Thinking Questions 249
Answers to Self-Tests 250

Chapter 7 Flip-Flops 252

7-1 The R-S Flip-Flop 252
7-2 The Clocked R-S Flip-Flop 255
7-3 The D Flip-Flop 257
7-4 The J-K Flip-Flop 259
7-5 IC Latches 263
7-6 Triggering Flip-Flops 265
7-7 Schmitt Trigger 267
7-8 IEEE Logic Symbols 268
7-9 Application: Latched Encoder-Decoder System 270
Summary 273
Correlated Experiments 274
Chapter Review Questions 274
Critical Thinking Questions 275
Answers to Self-Tests 276

Chapter 8 Counters 278

8-1 Ripple Counters 278
8-2 Mod-10 Ripple Counters 281
8-3 Synchronous Counters 282
8-4 Down Counters 283
8-5 Self-Stopping Counters 285
8-6 Counters as Frequency Dividers 286
8-7 TTL IC Counters 288
8-8 CMOS IC Counters 292
8-9 A Three-Digit BCD Counter 296
8-10 Counting Real-World Events 300
8-11 Using a CMOS Counter in an Electronic Game 304
8-12 Using Counters—An Experimental Tachometer 307
8-13 Troubleshooting a Counter 311
Summary 314
Correlated Experiments 314
Chapter Review Questions 315
Critical Thinking Questions 318
Answers to Self-Tests 319
page vii
Chapter 9 Shift Registers 321
9-1 Serial-Load Shift Registers 323
9-2 Parallel-Load Shift Registers 324
9-3 A Universal Shift Register 327
9-4 Using the 74LS194 IC Shift Register 329
9-5 An 8-Bit CMOS Shift Register 331
9-6 Using Shift Registers: Digital Roulette 333
9-7 Troubleshooting a Simple Shift Register 338
Summary 340
Correlated Experiments 340
Chapter Review Questions 340
Critical Thinking Questions 342 page viii

Answers to Self-Tests 343

Chapter 10 Arithmetic Circuits 345

10-1 Binary Addition 345
10-2 Half Adders 347
10-3 Full Adders 348
10-4 3-Bit Adders 350
10-5 Binary Subtraction 351
10-6 Parallel Subtractors 353
10-7 IC Adders 355
10-8 Binary Multiplication 358
10-9 Binary Multipliers 360
10-10 2s Complement Notation, Addition, and Subtraction 363
10-11 2s Complement Adders/Subtractors 368
10-12 Troubleshooting a Full Adder 370
Summary 372
Correlated Experiments 372
Chapter Review Questions 372
Critical Thinking Questions 373
Answers to Self-Tests 374
Chapter 11 Memories 377
11-1 Overview of Memory 378
11-2 Random-Access Memory (RAM) 381
11-3 Static RAM ICs 383
11-4 Using a SRAM 386
11-5 Read-Only Memory (ROM) 388
11-6 Using a ROM 391
11-7 Programmable Read-Only Memory [PROM] 393
11-8 Nonvolatile Read/Write Memory 397
11-9 Memory Packaging 400
11-10 Computer Bulk Storage Devices 403
11-11 Digital Potentiometer: Using NV Memory 410
Summary 414
Correlated Experiments 415
Chapter Review Questions 415
Critical Thinking Questions 417
Answers to Self-Tests 417

Chapter 12 Simple Digital Systems 419

12-1 Elements of a System 419
12-2 A Digital System on an IC 422
12-3 Digital Games 423
12-4 The Digital Clock 425
12-5 The LSI Digital Clock 429
12-6 The Frequency Counter 434
12-7 An Experimental Frequency Counter 439
12-8 LCD Timer with Alarm 441
12-9 Simple Distance Sensing 447
12-10 JTAG/Boundary Scan 453
Summary 456
Correlated Experiments 456
Chapter Review Questions 456
Critical Thinking Questions 458
Answers to Self-Tests 459

Chapter 13 Computer Systems 461

13-1 The Computer 461
13-2 The Microcomputer 463
13-3 Microcomputer Operation 466
13-4 Microcomputer Address Decoding 470
13-5 Data Transmission 473
13-6 Detecting Errors in Data Transmissions 477
13-7 Data Transmission in a Computer System 480
13-8 Programmable Logic Controllers 485
13-9 Microcontrollers 489
13-10 The BASIC Stamp Microcontroller Modules 491
13-11 Digital Signal Processing 498
13-12 DSP in a Digital Camera 502
13-13 Microcontroller: Photo Input and Servo Motor Output 504
Summary 509
Correlated Experiments 509
Chapter Review Questions 510
Critical Thinking Questions 512
Answers to Self-Tests 513

Chapter 14 Connecting with Analog Devices 515

14-1 D/A Conversion 516
14-2 Operational Amplifiers 517
14-3 A Basic D/A Converter 518
14-4 Ladder-Type D/A Converters 520
14-5 An A/D Converter 522
14-6 Voltage Comparators 524
14-7 An Elementary Digital Voltmeter 526
14-8 Other A/D Converters 528
14-9 A/D Converter Specifications 532
14-10 An A/D Converter IC 533
14-11 Digital Light Meter 536
14-12 Digitizing Temperature 539
Summary 541
Correlated Experiments 541
Chapter Review Questions 541
Critical Thinking Questions 543
Answers to Self-Tests 544

Appendix A Solder and the Soldering Process 546

Appendix B 2s Complement Conversions 551

Glossary of Terms and Symbols 552

Index 566
 page v

Preface

Digital Electronics: Principles and Applications, ninth edition, is an easy-to-read introductory text for students
new to the field of digital electronics. Providing entry-level knowledge and skills for a wide range of
occupations is the goal of this textbook and its ancillary materials. Prerequisites are general math and
introductory electricity/electronics. Binary math, Boolean concepts, simple programming, and various codes
are introduced and explained as needed. Concepts are connected to practical applications, and a systems
approach is followed that reflects current practice in industry. Earlier editions of the text have been used
successfully in a wide range of programs: electronic technology, electrical trades and apprenticeship training,
computer repair, communications electronics, and computer science, to name a few. This concise and practical
text can be used in any program needing a quick and readable overview of digital principles.

New to This Edition

Over 100 Multisim simulation files have been developed to bring the examples within these chapters to life.
These simulation files can be run within Multisim, to provide students with a firsthand experience with the
examples presented in the textbook. Multisim simulation files have also been developed for the laboratory
experiments to provide an improved learning experience for the student.
The experiments in the Experiments Manual are designed to provide a hands-on learning experience, to
reinforce the topics covered in this textbook. The titles of the individual experiments associated with each
chapter are listed in a new section, Correlational Experiments, following the summary at the end of each
chapter in this textbook. This listing will help the reader identify the experiments in the Experiments Manual
associated with the topics covered in each chapter.

Chapter 1
• Expanded the formulas and examples.
• Revised the section on the oscilloscope.

Chapter 2
• Revised and expanded the section on binary to decimal conversion.
• Expanded the Bit, Bytes, Nibbles, and Words section.

Chapter 3
• Revised and expanded the section on the universal NAND gate.
• Added a new section on the use of a NOR gate as a universal gate.
• Revised the coverage of DeMorgan’s theorem.
• Revised the Summary section.

Chapter 4
• Added a new section on Boolean algebra.
• Expanded the coverage of Karnaugh maps.
• Revised the Summary section.

Chapter 5
 • Expanded the section on digital IC specifications.
• Added new examples for the calculation of fan-out and power dissipation.

Chapter 6
• Revised the coverage of the ASCII codes.

Chapter 8
• Revised and expanded the section on ripple counters.

Chapter 11
• Revised the coverage of optical storage devices.

Chapter 12
• Introduced a real-time clock IC in the LSI digital clock section.
• Expanded the coverage of distance measurement using ultrasound.

Chapter 13
• Expanded the section on the microcomputer.

Chapter 14
• Revised the coverage of operational amplifiers in D/A conversion.
page 321
Additional Resources
An Experiments Manual for Digital Electronics contains a comprehensive test, a variety of hands-on lab
exercises and experiments, and additional problems for each chapter in the textbook.
McGraw-Hill Connect includes comprehensive Multisim files, keyed to circuits found in the ninth edition,
and a Multisim primer, which provides a tutorial on the software for new users.
Instructors can access instructor resources on McGraw-Hill Connect to find a wide selection of
information including:
• An Instructor’s Manual that includes a list of the parts and equipment needed to perform lab experiments,
learning outcomes for each chapter, answers to chapter review questions and problems, and more.
• PowerPoint presentations that provide comprehensive coverage of the topics in each chapter. A set of
questions at the end of each chapter’s slide deck provides a review of the topics covered.
• An image library that contains all of the figures presented in this textbook.
• A test bank with questions for each chapter.

Remote Proctoring & Browser-Locking Capabilities

New remote proctoring and browser-locking capabilities, hosted by Proctorio within Connect, provide control
of the assessment environment by enabling security options and verifying the identity of the student.
Seamlessly integrated within Connect, these services allow instructors to control students’ assessment
experience by restricting browser activity, recording students’ activity, and verifying students are doing their
own work.
Instant and detailed reporting gives instructors an at-a-glance view of potential academic integrity
concerns, thereby avoiding personal bias and supporting evidence-based claims.
 page x

Acknowledgments

Roger Tokheim thanks family members Marshall, Rachael, Dan, Jack, Ben, and Carrie for their help on this
project.
Patrick Hoppe would like to thank his wife Rose and the team at McGraw-Hill for their invaluable help on
this project: Theresa Collins, Product Development Coordinator; Beth Baugh, Product Developer; Carey
Lange, Copy Editor; Sandy Wille and Jane Mohr, Content Project Managers; David Hash, Designer; and
Lorraine Buczek, Content Licensing Specialist.
page xi
 page xii

Walkthrough

Digital Electronics: Principles and Applications, ninth edition, is designed for a first course in digital
electronics. It provides a concise, modern, and practical approach that’s suitable for a range of electricity and
electronics programs. With its easy-to-read style, numerous full-color illustrations, and accessible math level,
the text is ideal for readers who need to learn the essentials of digital electronics and apply them to on-the-job
situations.

page xiii
 page xii

About the Author

Over several decades, Roger L. Tokheim has published many textbooks and lab manuals in the areas of digital
electronics and microprocessors. His books have been translated into nine languages. He taught technical
subjects including electronics for more than 35 years in public schools.
Patrick Hoppe has been the Division Chair for Engineering Technology and lead electronics instructor at
Gateway Technical College for the past 21 years. He is also the coauthor of Electronic Principles, 9th edition
(McGraw-Hill) and its Experiments Manual. Pat has received state and national awards for his teaching,
including the NISOD Excellence award.
 page xv

Safety

Electric and electronic circuits can be dangerous. Safe practices are necessary to prevent electrical shock, fires,
explosions, mechanical damage, and injuries resulting from the improper use of tools.
Perhaps the greatest hazard is electrical shock. A current through the human body in excess of 10
milliamperes can paralyze the victim and make it impossible to let go of a “live” conductor or component. Ten
milliamperes is a rather small amount of current flow: It is only ten one-thousandths of an ampere. An
ordinary flashlight can provide more than 100 times that amount of current!
Flashlight cells and batteries are safe to handle because the resistance of human skin is normally high
enough to keep the current flow very small. For example, touching an ordinary 1.5-V cell produces a current
flow in the microampere range (a microampere is one-millionth of an ampere). The amount of current is too
small to be noticed.
High voltage, one the other hand, can force enough current through the skin to produce a shock. If the
current approaches 100 milliamperes or more, the shock can be fatal. Thus, the danger of shock increases with
voltage. Those who work with high voltage must be properly trained and equipped.
When human skin is moist or cut, its resistance to the flow of electricity can drop drastically. When this
happens, even moderate voltages may cause a serious shock. Experienced technicians know this, and they also
know that so-called low-voltage equipment may have a high-voltage section or two. In other words, they do
not practice two methods of working with circuits: one for high voltage and one for low voltage. They follow
safe procedures at all times. They do not assume protective devices are working. They do not assume a circuit
is off even though the switch is in the OFF position. They know the switch could be defective.
Even a low-voltage, high-current-capacity system like an automotive electrical system can be quite
d anger ous . Short - circui t ing such a s ystem wi t h a ring or metal wat chband can caus e ve ry s evere bur ns—-
especially when the ring or band welds to the points being shorted.
As your knowledge and experience grow, you will learn many specific safe procedures for dealing with
electricity and electronics. In the meantime:
1. Always follow procedures.
2. Use service manuals as often as possible. They often contain specific safety information. Read, and
comply with, all appropriate material safety data sheets.
3. Investigate before you act.
4. When in doubt, do not act. Ask your instructor or supervisor.

General Safety Rules for Electricity and Electronics

Safe practices will protect you and your fellow workers. Study the following rules. Discuss them with others,
and ask your instructor about any you do not understand.
1. Do not work when you are tired or taking medicine that makes you drowsy.
2. Do not work in poor light.
3. Do not work in damp areas or with wet shoes or clothing.
4. Use approved tools, equipment, and protective devices.
5. Avoid wearing rings, bracelets, and similar metal items when working around exposed electric circuits.
6. Never assume that a circuit is off. Double-check it with an instrument that you are sure is operational.
7. Some situations require a “buddy system” to guarantee that power will not be turned on while a
 technician is still working on a circuit.
8. Never tamper with or try to override safety devices such as an interlock (a type of switch that
automatically removes power when a door is opened or a panel removed).
9. Keep tools and test equipment clean and in good working condition. Replace insulated probes and leads
at the first sign of deterioration.
10.Some devices, such as capacitors, can store a lethal charge. They may store this charge for long periods
of time. You must be certain these devices are discharged before working around them.
11.Do not remove grounds and do not use adapters that defeat the equipment ground. page xvi

12.Use only an approved fire extinguisher for electrical and electronic equipment. Water can conduct
electricity and may severely damage equipment. Carbon dioxide (CO2) or Halotron-type extinguishers
are usually preferred. Foam-type extinguishers may also be desired in some cases. Commercial fire
extinguishers are rated for the type of fires for which they are effective. Use only those rated for the
proper working conditions.
13.Follow directions when using solvents and other chemicals. They may be toxic, flammable, or may
damage certain materials such as plastics. Always read and follow the appropriate material safety data
sheets.
14.A few materials used in electronic equipment are toxic. Examples include tantalum capacitors and
beryllium oxide transistor cases. These devices should not be crushed or abraded, and you should wash
your hands thoroughly after handling them. Other materials (such as heat shrink tubing) may produce
irritating fumes if overheated. Always read and follow the appropriate material safety data sheets.
15.Certain circuit components affect the safe performance of equipment and systems. Use only exact or
approved replacement parts.
16.Use protective clothing and safety glasses when handling high-vacuum devices such as picture tubes and
cathode-ray tubes.
17.Don’t work on equipment before you know proper procedures and are aware of any potential safety
hazards.
18.Many accidents have been caused by people rushing and cutting corners. Take the time required to
protect yourself and others. Running, horseplay, and practical jokes are strictly forbidden in shops and
laboratories.
19.Never look directly into light emitting diodes or fiber- optic cables; some light sources, although
invisible, can cause serious eye damage.

Circuits and equipment must be treated with respect. Learn how they work and the proper way of working
on them. Always practice safety. Your health and life depend on it.
Electronics workers use specialized safety knowledge.
Light Poet/Shutterstock
 page 1

CHAPTER 1 Digital Electronics

Learning Outcomes
This chapter will help you to:
1-1 Identify several characteristics of digital circuits as opposed to analog circuits. Differentiate
between digital and analog signals, and identify the HIGH and LOW portions of a digital
waveform.
1-2 Classify the signals (analog or digital) in several application circuits. Analyze the operation of
several liquid-measuring circuits. Explain why converting analog inputs (currents and voltages)
from sensors to digital form can be useful.
1-3 List several common pieces of electronic gear that contain digital circuitry. Discuss the demand
for computer and electronics technicians, and identify training opportunities.
1-4 List three types of multivibrators, and describe how they generate types of digital signals.
Analyze several multivibrators and switch debouncing circuits.
1-5 Analyze several logic-level indicator circuits. Interpret logic probe readings during testing of a
digital circuit. Understand the definitions of HIGH, LOW, and undefined when observing logic
levels in both TTL and CMOS digital circuitry.
1-6 Demonstrate the use of several lab instruments.

E ngineers generally classify electronic circuits as being either analog or digital in nature. Historically, most
electronic products contained analog circuitry. Most newly designed electronic devices contain digital
circuitry. This chapter introduces you to the world of digital electronics.
What are the clues that an electronic product contains digital circuitry? Signs that a device contains digital
circuitry include:
Identifying digital products
1. Does it have a display that shows numbers, letters, pictures, or video?
2. Does it have a memory or can it store information?
3. Can the device be programmed?
4. Can it be connected to the Internet?
If the answer to any one of the four questions is yes, then the product probably contains digital circuitry.
Digital circuitry is quickly becoming pervasive because of its advantages over analog including:
Advantages of digital
1. Generally, digital circuits are easier to design using modern integrated circuits.
2. Information storage is easier to implement with digital.
3. Devices can be made programmable with digital.
4. More accuracy and precision are possible.
5. Digital circuitry is less affected by unwanted electrical interference called noise.
All persons working in electronics must have knowledge of digital electronic circuits. You will use simple
integrated circuits and displays to demonstrate the principles of digital electronics.
1-1 What Is a Digital Signal? page 2

In your experience with electricity and electronics you have probably used analog circuits. The circuit in Fig. 1-
1(a) puts out an analog signal or voltage. As the wiper on the potentiometer is moved upward, the voltage from
points A to B gradually increases. When the wiper is moved downward, the voltage gradually decreases from 5
to 0 volts (V). The waveform diagram in Fig. 1-1(b) is a graph of the analog output. On the left side the voltage
from A to B is gradually increasing to 5 V; on the right side the voltage is gradually decreasing to 0 V. By
stopping the potentiometer wiper at any midpoint, we can get an output voltage anywhere between 0 and 5 V.
An analog device, then, is one that has a signal which varies continuously in step with the input.

Fig. 1-1 (a) Analog output from a potentiometer. (b) Analog signal waveform.

Analog signal
A digital device operates with a digital signal. Figure 1-2(a) pictures a square-wave generator. The
generator produces a square waveform that is displayed on the oscilloscope. The digital signal is only at +5 V
or at 0 V, as diagrammed in Fig. 1-2(b). The voltage at point A moves from 0 to 5 V. The voltage then stays at
+5 V for a time. At point B the voltage drops immediately from +5 to 0 V. The voltage then stays at 0 V for a
time. Only two voltages are present in a digital electronic circuit. In the waveform diagram in Fig. 1-2(b) these
voltages are labeled HIGH and LOW. The HIGH voltage is +5 V; the LOW voltage is 0 V. Later we shall call
the HIGH voltage (+5 V) a logical 1 and the LOW voltage (0 V) a logical 0. Circuits that handle only HIGH
and LOW signals are called digital circuits.
 Fig. 1-2 (a) Digital signal displayed on scope. (b) Digital signal waveform.

HIGH and LOW signals

Digital circuits
The digital signal in Fig. 1-2(b) could also be generated by a simple on-off switch. A digital signal could
also be generated by a transistor turning on and off. Digital electronic signals are usually generated and
processed by integrated circuits (ICs).
Both analog and digital signals are represented in graph form in Figs. 1-1 and 1-2. A signal can be defined
as useful information transmitted within, to, or from electronic circuits. Signals are commonly represented as a
voltage varying with time, as they are in Figs. 1-1 and 1-2. However, a signal could be an electric current that
either varies continuously (analog) or has an on-off (HIGH-LOW) characteristic (digital). Within most digital
circuits, it is customary to represent signals in the voltage versus time format. When digital circuits are
interfaced with nondigital devices such as lamps and motors, then the signal can be thought of as current
versus time.
The standard volt-ohm-millimeter (VOM) shown in Fig. 1-3(a) is an example of an analog measuring
device. As the voltage, resistance, or current being measured by the VOM increases, the needle gradually and
continuously moves up the scale. A digital multimeter (DMM) is shown in Fig. 1-3(b). This is an example of a
digital measuring device. As the current, resistance, or voltage being measured by the DMM increases, the
display jumps upward in small steps. The DMM is an example of digital circuitry taking over tasks previously
performed only by analog devices. This trend toward digital circuitry is growing. Currently, the modern
technician’s bench probably has both a VOM and a DMM.
page 3
 Fig. 1-3 (a) Analog meter. (b) Digital multimeter (DMM).
(a) DonNichols/iStock/Getty Images; (b) Volodymyr Krasyuk/Rawpixel/Shutterstock

Volt-ohm-millimeter
Digital multimeter
Trend toward digital circuitry

Self-Test

Supply the missing word in each statement.

1. Refer to Fig. 1-2. The +5-V level of the __________ (analog, digital) signal could also be called a logical
1 or a __________ (HIGH, LOW).
2. A(n) __________ (analog, digital) device is one that has a signal which varies continuously in step with
the input.
3. Refer to Fig. 1-4. The input to the electronic block is classified as a(n) __________ (analog, digital)
signal.
4. Refer to Fig. 1-4. The output from the electronic block is classified as a(n) __________ (analog, digital)
signal.
5. An analog circuit is one that processes analog signals while a digital circuit processes __________ signals.
 Fig. 1-4 Block diagram of electronic circuit shaping a sine wave into a square wave.

page 4

ABOUT ELECTRONICS

A Changing Field.
 Electronics is among the most exciting areas of technical study. New developments are reported weekly.
Interestingly, most developments are based on the fundamentals learned in the first classes in electricity,
analog and digital circuits, computer technology and robotics, and communications.

1-2 Why Use Digital Circuits?

Electronics designers and technicians must have a working knowledge of both analog and digital systems. The
designer must decide if the system will use analog or digital techniques or a combination of both. The
technicians must build a prototype or troubleshoot and repair digital, analog, and combined systems.
Analog electronic systems have been popular in the past. Older TVs, telephones, and automobiles page 5
featured analog circuits. Before modern digital computers, analog computers were used in some
military applications such as fire control on ships.
Most real-world information is analog in nature. Natural phenomena, such as time, temperature, humidity,
wind speed, radiation, and sound intensity, are analog in nature. You probably have already measured voltage,
current, resistance, power, capacitance, inductance, and frequency in other electricity and electronics courses.
Other things to be measured include pressure, weight, oxygen (and other gases), ultrasonic sound, acceleration
and tilt, vibration, direction (compass), global positioning, proximity, magnetic fields, linear distance, and
angle of rotation (angular speed). They are all analog in nature. Engineers and technicians commonly use
sensors to measure these things. Many sensors emit an analog signal.
A simple analog electronic system for measuring the amount of liquid in a tank is illustrated in Fig. 1-5.
The input to the system is a varying resistance. The processing proceeds according to the Ohm’s law formula
shown in Eq. 1-1.

(1-1)

The output indicator is an ammeter, which is calibrated as a water tank gauge. In the analog system in Fig.
1-5 as the water rises, the input resistance drops. Decreasing the resistance R causes an increase in current (I).
Increased current causes the ammeter (water tank gauge) to read higher.
The analog system in Fig. 1-5 is simple and efficient. The gauge in Fig. 1-5 gives an indication of the water
level in the tank. If more information is required about the water level, then a digital system such as the one
shown in Fig. 1-6 might be used.

Fig. 1-5 Analog system used to interpret float level in water tank.

Digital systems are required when data must be stored, used for calculations, or displayed as numbers
and/or letters. A somewhat more complex arrangement for measuring the amount of liquid in a water tank is
the digital system shown in Fig. 1-6. The input is still a variable resistance as it was in the analog system. The
resistance is converted into numbers by the analog-to-digital (A/D) converter. The central processing unit
(CPU) of a computer can manipulate the input data, output the information, store the information, calculate
things such as flow rates in and out, calculate the time until the tank is full (or empty) based on flow rates, and
so forth. Digital systems are valuable when calculations, data manipulations, data storage, and alphanumeric or
video outputs are required. Data transfers via the Internet are common.
 Fig. 1-6 Digital system used to interpret float level in water tank.

Analog-to-digital (A/D) converter

Central processing unit (CPU)
page 6
Application: Automobile Fuel Indicators
Older automobile circuitry was analog in nature. Consider the traditional fuel gauge system sketched in Fig. 1-
7(a). The fuel tank sending unit has a float that moves a wiper on a resistive material. Increasing the fuel level
in the tank raises the float, causing the wiper to move left on the resistor. The resistor’s value decreases.
Decreased circuit resistance causes an increase in current in the series circuit (via Ohm’s law I = V⁄R). The
increased current causes the needle on the fuel gauge (an ammeter) to move clockwise toward F on the meter
face. The older-style fuel gauge diagram in Fig. 1-7(a) is an example of an analog circuit.
Newer automobiles may use the information from the fuel tank sending unit for several purposes. Figure 1-
7(b) shows the analog voltage from the fuel tank sending unit entering the instrument panel module. The
computer module converts the analog input to digital information (A⁄D converter). The computer module also
receives signals from the vehicle speed sensor, engine control module (ECM). The input information is
processed by the computer module. The instrument control module will drive a traditional-looking fuel gauge
located on the instrument panel. A tachometer is probably also located on the instrument panel. With the
inputs shown in Fig. 1-7(b), the instrumentation computer module calculates the average-fuel-consumption
and miles-to-empty data. The driver sees this information displayed on an LCD screen.
 Fig. 1-7 (a) Automobile fuel tank sending unit and fuel gauge. (b) Modern automobile fuel indicator system
with computer module.

It will be noted that information from the sensors in Fig. 1-7(b) comes in various forms. The fuel page 7
tank sending unit delivers a variable-voltage signal to the computer module. With higher levels of fuel
in the tank the sending unit generates a higher positive voltage.
The vehicle speed sensor sends a variable-frequency signal. At lower vehicle speeds the sensor emits a
low-frequency signal. At higher speeds a high-frequency signal is sent to the computer module.
The engine control module sends several digital signals to the instrument control module. The engine
control module determines how much fuel is injected into the cylinders of the engine and the timing.

Digital Circuitry: Advantages and Limitations

Some of the advantages of using digital circuitry instead of analog are as follows:
1. Inexpensive ICs can be used with few external components.
2. Information can be stored for short periods or indefinitely.
3. Data can be used for precise calculations.
4. Systems can be designed more easily using compatible digital logic families.
 5. Systems can be programmed and show some manner of “intelligence.”
6. Alphanumeric, picture, and video information can be viewed using a variety of electronic displays.
7. Digital circuits are less affected by unwanted electrical interference called noise.
8. Such circuits are compatible with the Internet and computers.

The limitations of digital circuitry are as follows:

1. Most real-world events are analog in nature.
2. Analog processing is usually simpler and faster.

Digital circuits are appearing in more and more products primarily because of low-cost, reliable digital ICs.
Other reasons for their growing popularity are accuracy, added stability, computer compatibility, memory,
ease of use, simplicity of design, and compatibility with a variety of displays.

Internet Connection
Search the web for LED, LCD, and VFD seven-segment displays.

Self-Test

Answer the following questions.

6. Generally, electronic circuits are classified as either analog or __________.
7. Measurements of time, speed, weight, pressure, light intensity, and position are __________ (analog,
digital) in nature.
8. Refer to Fig. 1-5. As the water level drops, the input resistance increases. This causes the current I to
__________ (decrease, increase) and the water level gauge (ammeter) will read __________ (higher,
lower).
9. Refer to Figs. 1-5 and 1-6. If this water tank were part of the city water system, where rates of water use
are important, the system in Fig. __________ (1-5, 1-6) would be most appropriate.
10. True or false. The most important reason why digital circuitry is becoming more popular is that digital
circuits are usually simpler and faster than analog circuits.
11. Refer to Fig. 1-7(a). This traditional auto fuel tank gauge assembly that senses and indicates the fuel level
is an example of a(n) __________ (analog, digital) circuit.
12. Refer to Fig. 1-7(b). The input voltage from the fuel tank sending unit is a digital signal before it enters the
instrument panel module. (T or F)
13. Refer to Fig. 1-7(b). The input from the ECM having to do with fuel flow and time is __________
(analog, digital) in nature.

page 8
1-3 Where Are Digital Circuits Used?
Digital electronics is a huge and rapidly expanding field. The global system of interconnected computer
networks called the Internet serves billions of users. Digital computers, in all their forms, serve as the backbone
of the Internet. The Internet consists of academic, business, private, and government networks. The Internet
allows users to access huge amounts of information using the World Wide Web (WWW). The Internet also
supports two-way communications with e-mail and social networking sites including Facebook. Huge amounts
of data are transferred via the Internet by banks, manufacturers, the military, medical professions, security
companies, governments, and businesses. The global economy could hardly survive without the capabilities of
digital computers, huge memory banks, and the Internet.
Millions of individual electronic devices must be designed, manufactured, tested, and repaired by
technicians. Electronics technicians and engineers are in great demand. The circuitry inside today’s electronic
devices almost always includes digital electronics as shown in Fig. 1-8.

Fig. 1-8 Integrated circuits are the building blocks of digital electronics.
Raimundas/Shutterstock

Jobs for technicians are available with most high-technology businesses. Many government jobs call for
some skills in computer technology including electronics. Highly skilled technicians work on extremely
sophisticated military electronics. It is reported that half the cost of some military aircraft is electronics in
nature. The military has many outstanding advanced electronics training programs. Ask about these when you
visit a military recruiter.
The driving experience of a modern automobile has been greatly enhanced by electronics. Automobile
engines have more power, run smoother, and use less fuel due to precise electronic engine control. More
automobiles contain entertainment systems that are outstanding. Bluetooth for cell phones, GPS, and touch
screen displays are common. Assisted parking and blind spot detection are standard on many autos. Safety
features like antiskid and traction and stability control systems depend on digital electronics. Ask your school
counselor about opportunities in your area.
To cut down on thefts, the key to your automobile may contain a transmitter whose signal is picked up by a
transponder ECM. The transponder reads the wireless signal from the key, allowing the engine to start. Some
modern automobiles have more than 50 electronic control modules (computers). Auto mechanics must be
trained in modern electricity and electronics. Check with your area technical college to survey training
openings. Auto manufacturers also run outstanding training classes.
Most measuring instruments you may use at work in the lab will contain digital circuitry. These might
include a logic probe, DMM, capacitance meter, frequency counter, function generator (signal generator), and
programmable power supply. Current models of oscilloscopes utilize digital circuitry almost exclusively.
Many hands-on lab activities will be provided. An updated Experiments Manual for Digital Electronics is
available that presents many hands-on lab activities chapter by chapter.
page 9
Self-Test

Answer the following questions.

14. List at least four devices that use digital circuitry.
15. Computer and electronics technicians are in great demand. (T or F)
16. The military has excellent electronics training schools. (T or F)
17. All auto mechanics that are specialists in electronics are self-taught. (T or F)
18. List at least two measuring instruments you will use as a technician and that contain digital circuitry.

1-4 How Do You Generate a Digital Signal?

Di g it a l s i gn a l s a r e c ompo se d of two we l l-def inedvolt age level s. Most of t he vol tage l evels used i nthis cl as s
will be about +3 V to +5 V for HIGH and near 0 V (ground [GND]) for LOW. These are commonly called TTL
voltage levels because they are used with the
tr ansi st or-
transistor logic family of ICs.
TTL voltage levels Transistor-transistor logic

Generating a Digital Signal

A TTL digital signal could be made manually by using a mechanical switch. Consider the simple circuit shown
in Fig. 1-9(a). As the blade of the single-pole, double-throw (SPDT) switch is moved up and down, it produces
the digital waveform shown at the right. At time period t1, the voltage is 0 V, or LOW. At t2 the voltage is +5
V, or HIGH. At t3, the voltage is again 0 V, or LOW, and at t4, it is again +5 V, or HIGH.
The action of the switch causing the LOW, HIGH, LOW, HIGH waveform in Fig. 1-9(a) is called toggling.
By definition, to toggle (the verb) means to switch over to an opposite state. As an example in Fig. 1-9(a), if
the switch moves from LOW to HIGH we say the output has toggled. Again if the switch moves from HIGH
to LOW we say the output has again toggled.
One problem with a mechanical switch is contact bounce. If we could look very carefully at a switch
toggling from LOW to HIGH, it might look like the waveform in Fig. 1-9(b). The waveform first goes directly
from LOW to HIGH (see point A) but then, because of contact bounce, drops to LOW (see point B) and then
back to HIGH again. Although this happens in a very short time, digital circuits are fast enough to see this as a
LOW, HIGH, LOW, HIGH waveform. Note that Fig. 1-9(b) shows that there is a range of voltages that are
defined as HIGH and LOW. The undefined region between HIGH and LOW may cause trouble in digital
circuits and should be avoided.
Contact bounce
To cure the problem illustrated in Fig. 1-9(b), mechanical switches are sometimes debounced. A block
diagram of a debounced logic switch is shown in Fig. 1-9(c). Note the use of the debouncing circuit, or latch.
Some of the mechanical logic switches you will use on laboratory equipment will have been debounced with
latch circuits. Latches are sometimes called flip-flops. Notice in Fig. 1-9(c) that the output of the latch during
time period t1 is LOW but not quite 0 V. During t2 the output of the latch is HIGH even though it is something
less than a full +5 V. Likewise t3 is LOW and t4 is HIGH in Fig. 1-9(c).
 Fig. 1-9 (a) Generating a digital signal with a switch. (b) Waveform of contact bounce caused by a mechanical
switch. (c) Adding a debouncing latch to a simple switch to condition the digital signal.

Debounced logic switch

Digital waveform Latch (flip-flop)
It might be suggested that a push-button switch be used to make a digital signal. If the button is pressed, a
HIGH should be generated. If the push button is released, a LOW should be generated. Consider the simple
circuit in Fig. 1-10(a). When the push button is pressed, a HIGH of about +5 V is generated at the output.
When the push button is released, however, the voltage at the output is undefined. There is an open circuit
between the power supply and the output. This would not work properly as a logic switch.
A normally open push-button switch can be used with a special circuit to generate a digital pulse. Figure 1-
10(b) shows the push button connected to a one-shot multivibrator circuit. Now for each press of the push
button, a single short, positive pulse is output from the one-shot circuit. The pulse width of the output is
determined by the design of the multivibrator and not by how long you hold down the push button.

Fig. 1-10 (a) Push button will not generate a digital signal. (b) Push button used to trigger a one-shot
multivibrator for a single-pulse digital signal.

One-shot multivibrator
page 10
Multivibrator Circuits
Both the latch circuit and the one-shot circuit were used earlier. Both are classified as multivibrator (MV)
circuits. The latch is also called a flip-flop or a bistable multivibrator. The one-shot is also called the
monostable multivibrator. A third type of MV circuit is the astable multivibrator. This is also called a free-
running multivibrator. In many digital circuits it may be referred to simply as the clock.
Multivibrator types: astable, bistable, and monostable
Free-running MV (clock)
The free-running MV oscillates by itself without the need for external switching or an external signal. A
block diagram of a free-running MV is shown in Fig. 1-11. The free-running MV generates a continuous series
of TTL-level pulses. The output in Fig. 1-11 alternately toggles from LOW to HIGH, HIGH to LOW, etc.
In the laboratory, you will need to generate digital signals. The equipment you will use will have slide
switches, push buttons , and f r ee-r unni ng cl ocks that wi l l gene r ate TTL- l evel s ig nals si m
i lar t o t hose sh own i n
Figs. 1-9, 1-10, and 1-11. In the laboratory, you will use logic switches, which will have been debounced using
a latch circuit as in Fig. 1-9(c). You will also use a single-pulse clock triggered by a push-button switch. The
single-pulse clock push button will be connected to a one-shot multivibrator as shown in Fig. 1-10(b). Finally,
your equipment will have a free-running clock. It will generate a continuous series of pulses, as shown in Fig.
1-11.

Fig. 1-11 Free-running multivibrator generates a string of digital pulses.

page 11
Wiring a Multivibrator
Astable, monostable, and bistable MVs can all be wired using discrete components (individual resistors,
capacitors, and transistors) or purchased in IC form. Because of their superior performance, ease of use, and
low cost, the IC forms of these circuits will be used in this course. A schematic diagram for a practical free-
running clock circuit is shown in Fig. 1-12(a). This clock circuit produces a low-frequency (1- to 2-Hz) TTL-
level output. The heart of the free-running clock circuit is a common 555 timer IC. Note that several resistors, a
capacitor, and a power supply must also be used in the circuit.
A t ypical br eadboar d wiri ng of t his free-runni ng clock is s ketche d i n Fig. 1-12(b). Notice the use of a
solderless breadboard. Also note that pin 1 on the IC is immediately counterclockwise from the notch or dot
near the end of the eight-pin IC. The wiring diagram in Fig. 1-12(b) is shown for your convenience. You will
normally have to wire circuits on solderless breadboards directly from the schematic diagram.
 Fig. 1-12 (a) Schematic diagram of a free-running clock using a 555 timer IC.

Fig. 1-12 (b) Wiring the free-running clock circuit on a solderless breadboard.

Wiring a Debounced Switch

Simple mechanical switches introduce problems when used as input devices to digital circuits. The push-button
switch (SW1) shown in Fig. 1-13(a) is being pressed or closed at point A (see output waveform). Because of
switch bounce, the output signal goes HIGH, LOW, and then HIGH again. Likewise when the push-button
switch is released (opened) at point B, more bouncing occurs. Switch bounce from input switches must be
eliminated.
To solve the problem of switch bounce, a debouncing circuit has been added in Fig. 1-13(b). Now when the
push-button switch is closed at point C (see output waveform), no bouncing occurs and the output toggles from
LOW to HIGH. Likewise when SW1 is opened at point D, no bouncing is observed on the waveform and the
output toggles from HIGH to LOW.
 Fig. 1-13 (a) Switch bounce caused by a mechanical switch. (b) Debouncing circuit eliminates switch bounce.

An input switch with a debouncing circuit attached is drawn in Fig. 1-14. Observe that the 555 timer IC is
at the heart of the debouncing circuit. When push-button switch SW1 is closed (see point E on waveform), the
output toggles from LOW to HIGH. Later when SW1 is opened (see point F on waveform), the output page 12
of the 555 timer IC remains HIGH for a delay period. After the delay period (about 1 second (s) for
this circuit) the output toggles from HIGH to LOW. The delay period can be adjusted by changing the
capacitance value of capacitor C2. Decreasing the capacitance value of C2 will decrease the delay time at the
output, while increasing C2 will increase the delay.

Fig. 1-14 Switch debouncing circuit.

Wiring a One-Shot Multivibrator
A one-shot MV is also called a monostable multivibrator. The one-shot circuit responds to an input trigger pulse
with an output pulse of a given width or time duration.
A one-shot MV circuit that can be wired in the lab is drawn in Fig. 1-15. The 74121 one-shot page 13
m pl e push -button s witch to r ai s e the vol t age at i nput B from GND to about
ul t i vi br at or I Cus es a sim
+3 V. This is the trigger voltage. When triggered, the one-shot MV outputs a short pulse at the two outputs.
The normal output Q (pin 6) emits a short positive pulse about 2 to 3 milliseconds (ms) in duration. The
complementary output Q emits the opposite output, or a short negative pulse. On digital devices called flip-
flops the outputs are commonly labeled Q and Q (say not Q), and their outputs are always opposite or
complementary. On complementary outputs, if Q is HIGH then Q is LOW but if Q is LOW then Q is HIGH.
The outputs of the 74121 one-shot multivibrator IC come directly from an internal flip-flop and are therefore
labeled Q and Q.
The pulse width generated by a one-shot multivibrator is dependent on the design of the MV and page 14
not how long the input switch is pressed. The pulse width of the one-shot MV sketched in Fig. 1-15
can be increased by increasing the value of capacitor C1 and/or resistor R3. Decreasing the values of capacitor
C1 and resistor R3 will decrease the pulse width.
As a practical matter, the input switch in Fig. 1-15 may have to be debounced, or the multivibrator IC could
emit more than a single pulse. Using a good-quality “snap-action” push-button switch may also help avoid the
problem of false triggering by the one-shot MV circuit.

Fig. 1-15 One-shot multivibrator circuit using the 74121 TTL IC.

Internet Connection
Search the web for the following terms: fuel tank sending unit, vehicle speed sensor, and engine control module.

Digital Trainer
A typical digital trainer used during lab sessions is featured in Fig. 1-16. The photograph actually shows a pair
of PC boards specifically designed to be used with this textbook’s companion experiments manual. Dynalogic’s
DT-1000 digital trainer board on the left includes a solderless breadboard for hooking up circuits. It also
includes input devices such as 12 logic switches (two are debounced), a keypad, a one-shot MV, and a variable-
frequency clock (astable MV). Output devices mounted on the DT-1000 trainer board include 16 light emitting
diode (LED) output indicators, a piezo buzzer, a relay, and a small direct current (dc) motor. Power connections
are available on the upper left of the DT-1000 digital trainer board. On the right in Fig. 1-16 is a second PC
board that contains sophisticated LED seven-segment displays, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and vacuum
fluorescent displays (VFDs). Dynalogic’s DB-1000 display board is very useful when seven-segment displays
are used as outputs. These boards along with individual ICs and other components could be used during your
lab sessions to enable you to gain practical experience in digital electronics.

Fig. 1-16 Digital trainer and display boards used to set up lab experiments.
Courtesy of Dynalogic Concepts

Self-Test

Supply the missing word in each statement.

19. Refer to Fig. 1-9(c). The digital signal at t2 is __________ (HIGH, LOW), while it is __________ (HIGH,
LOW) at t3.
20. Refer to Fig. 1-10(a). When the push button is released (open), the output is __________.
21. Refer to Fig. 1-9(c). The debouncing latch is also called a flip-flop or __________ multivibrator.
22. Refer to Fig. 1-10(b) . The one -s hot mult ivibrat or usedf or gener ating t he di gi t al s ig nal i s al so call ed page 15
a(n) __________ multivibrator.
23. Refer to Fig. 1-12. A 555 __________ IC and several discrete components are being used to generate a
continuous series of TTL-level pulses. This free-running clock is also called a free-running multivibrator
or __________ multivibrator.
24. Refer to Fig. 1-14. The 555 timer IC is being used along with several discrete components to __________
(debounce, increase the voltage of) push-button switch SW1.
25. Refer to Fig. 1-15. The 74121 IC is being used as a __________ (free-running, one-shot) multivibrator.
26. Refer to Fig. 1-15. The 74121 IC has two outputs (labeled Q and Q) generating __________
(complementary, in-phase) output pulses.
 Refer to Fig. 1-15. The time duration or pulse width of the output of the one-shot MV is determined by the
27. __________.

a. Amount of time switch SW1 is closed

b. Values of components C1 and R3
28. Refer to Fig. 1-16. The one shot at the left on the DT-1000 board emits a single pulse each time the push-
button switch is pressed. The one shot is also called a(n) __________ (astable, monostable) multivibrator.
29. Refer to Fig. 1-16. The clock at the left on the DT-1000 board generates a string of digital pulses. The
clock is also called a(n) __________ (astable, bistable) multivibrator.
30. Refer to Fig. 1-16. The DT-1000 digital trainer board on the left features several output devices. List at
least three of these output devices.
31. Refer to Fig. 1-16. The DB-1000 display board on the right features what three types of seven-segment
displays?

1-5 How Do You Test for a Digital Signal?

In the last section, you generated digital signals using various MV circuits. These are the methods you will use
in the laboratory to generate input signals for the digital circuits constructed. In this section, several simple
methods of testing the outputs of digital circuits will be discussed.
Consider the circuit in Fig. 1-17(a). The input is provided by a simple SPDT switch and power supply. The
output indicator is an LED. The 150-Ω resistor limits the current through the LED to a safe level. When the
switch in Fig. 1-17(a) is in the HIGH (up) position, +5 V is applied to the anode end of the LED. The LED is
forward-biased, current flows upward, and the LED lights. With the switch in the LOW (down) position, both
the anode and cathode ends of the LED are grounded, and it does not light. Using this indicator, a light means
HIGH and no light generally means LOW.

Fig. 1-17 (a) Simple LED output indicator. (b) Logic switch connected to simple LED output indicator.

Output indicators
The simple LED output indicator is shown again in Fig. 1-17(b). This time a simplified diagram of page 16
a logic switch forms the input. The logic switch acts like the switch in Fig. 1-17(a) except it may be
debounced. The output indicator is again the LED with a series-limiting resistor. When the input logic switch
in Fig. 1-17(b) generates a LOW, the LED will not light. However, when the logic switch produces a HIGH,
the LED will light.
Another LED output indicator is illustrated in Fig. 1-18. The LED acts exactly the same as the one shown
previously. It lights to indicate a logical HIGH and does not light to indicate a LOW. The LED in Fig. 1-18 is
driven by a NPN transistor instead of directly by the input. The transistorized circuit in Fig. 1-18 holds an
advantage over the direct-drive circuit in that it draws less current from the switch or an output of the digital
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
and yet it would not be like the truth as the truth appeared to Daniel
Oliphant and the other men who made the growth, nor like their
subsequent memories. For these men saw, not the destruction, but
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that vision and were exultant in the uproar. They shouted as each
new skyscraper rose swimming through the vast drifts of smoke, and
shouted again as the plain, clean, old business streets collapsed and
the magnificent and dirty new ones climbed above the ruins. They
shouted when business went sweeping outward from its centre,
tearing away the houses where people had lived contentedly for so
long; and they shouted again as the new factory suburbs marched
upon the countryside, far and wide, and the colossal black plumes of
new chimneys went undulating off into a perpetual smoke-mist, so
that the distant level plain seemed to be a plain surrounding not a
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Once again, in the interminably cycling repetition of the new
displacing the old, then becoming the old and being displaced in
turn, an old order was perishing. The “New Materialism” that had
begun to grow with the renewed growing of the country after the
Civil War, and staggered under the Panic of ’73, but recovered and
went on growing egregiously, had become an old materialism now.
It had done great things and little things. Amongst the latter, it had
furnished Europe with a caricature type of the American—the
“successful American business man.” On the shelf, beside the figure
of the loud-tweeded Boxing Briton with his “side whiskers,” Europe
set the lank-and-drawling, chin-bearded, palace-buying Boaster of
the Almighty Dollar, the Yankee of the great boom period.
That had been a great railroad-making and railroad-breaking
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went down with their falling houses; a new society, swarming
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golf, communism, the movies, and the turkey trot; it spread the
great American cocktail over the whole world, abolished horses, and
produced buildings fifty stories high.
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the motion was daily more visible to all men, there was no stopping
it. Hard times and prosperity were all one to it;—it marched, and so
did its chief herald and those who went shouting before it with him,
while the “old conservative business men,” the Shelbys and Rowes
and John P. Johnses, sat shaking their heads and muttering
“Gamblers!”
Gamblers, or destroying angels, or prophets, whatever they
were, they went trampling forward in thunder and dust. The great
Sheridan, of the Trust Company and the Pump Works, had joined
them. Unscrupulous and noisiest of the noisy, he was like a war
band drumming and brassily trumpeting with the vanguard. There
was Eugene Morgan who had begun building the “Morgan Car” when
automobiles were a joke, and now puffed forth from his long lanes
of shops black smoke that trailed off unendingly to the horizon that
it dimmed. Pendleton, of the new “Pendleton Tractor,” marched with
these, and old Sam Kohn and Sol Kohn and Sam Kohn, Junior—the
Kohns were tearing down the Amberson Block, the very centre and
business temple of the old town, the corner of National Avenue and
First Street—and there were the Rosenberg Brothers, apartment
builders who would buy and obliterate half a dozen solid old houses
at a time. There were the Schmidts, the Reillys, the younger
Johnsons, third generation of the old firm of Abner Johnson’s Sons,
and there were the Caldinis, the Comiskeys, and the Hensels, as well
as all the never-resting optimists who had come to the town from
farms and villages to blast it into nothingness and build their own
city and build themselves into it.
In the din of all the tearing down and building up, most of the
old family names were not heard, or were heard but obscurely, or
perhaps in connection with misfortunes; for many of the old families
were vanishing. They and their fathers and grandfathers had slowly
made the town; they had always thought of it as their own, and they
had expected to sit looking out upon it complacently forever from
the plate glass of their big houses on National Avenue and the two
other streets parallel to the avenue and nearest it. They had built
thick walls round themselves, these “old families,” not only when
they built the walls of their houses, but when they built the walls
encircling their close association with one another. The growth razed
all these walls; the “sets” had resisted the “climbers,” but the
defences fell now; and those who had sheltered behind them were
dispersed, groping for one another in the smoke.
It was Dan Oliphant who began the destruction of National
Avenue. Among the crumbling families were the Vertreeses;—they
retired to what was left of their country estate, which had already
been overtaken by the expanding town and compressed to half an
acre. Dan bought the old Vertrees Mansion on National Avenue, tore
it down and built upon its site a tremendous square box of concrete
fronted with glass—the “sales building” of the “Ornaby Four, the Car
of Excellent Service.” This was just across the street from where his
grandmother had lived, and Harlan protested long and loudly; but
Dan was too busy to give his brother a complete attention. He said
mildly that his new building seemed at least an improvement upon
the shabby boarding-house, which the Vertrees Mansion had become
when he bought it; and, when Harlan hotly denied the improvement,
Dan sat listening with an expression of indulgence, the while
occupying his mind with computations concerning other matters.
For, as Martha had felt, these were his great days, and he was “in
on” everything. The Earl of Ornaby was earl of more than Ornaby
now; Ornaby and the “Ornaby Four” were but two of the
adventurous fleets he had at sea. He was “in on” a dozen
“promotions” at once; “in on” the stock of new “industrials”;
inventors and exploiters lived at his office doors. And although all of
his fellow-hustlers used the phrase, none could say “my city” with a
greater right than he. When he began one of his boostings with, “I
believe first of all in my own city,” the voice of a religion was heard.
He was his city; he was its spirit, and more than any other he was its
guide, and yet its slave and worshipper. He could not speak of it
except with reverence, nor go on speaking of it long unless he made
the eagle scream.
He had become a juggler of money, which poured streaming into
one hand as fast as he hurled it aloft with the other. He was one of
those men of whom it is said, “Nobody knows what he’s worth. He
couldn’t tell you, himself, to save his life!” He was called “rich,” and
sometimes he was said to be the richest man in town. He juggled
with money, with land, with houses, with skyscrapers, and with
factories, keeping them all in the air at once; and his brother said
that even so, Dan still “danced the tight-rope,” maintaining his
balance dangerously during the juggling. Meanwhile, as he balanced
and tossed the glittering and ponderous things through the air, the
rest of the deafening show went on; the hustling and booming and
boosting moving round and round him in clouds of dust to the sound
of brass bands, while crowds gazed marvelling up at the juggler, and
admired and envied him.
Of all the admirers who now looked up to him, cheering,
probably the most enthusiastic was his brother-in-law, George
McMillan, whom Dan had made “General Manager of the Ornaby
Four.” George had not quite fulfilled his own prediction that at forty
he was to be a “drunken broker”; but he had come, as he said,
“near enough to it”; and he was glad when Dan finally sent for him
and his designer of a new gasoline engine, the prospective “Ornaby
Four.”
“It’s the greatest idea in the world,” George told his sister. “It’s
cheap, but not the cheapest; it doesn’t compete with the commonest
little cars, nor, on the other hand, with even the moderately
expensive ones. It’s got a place of its own in between, where there
are millions of people that can afford a little better car than the
cheapest, but wouldn’t dream of a luxurious one like the ‘Morgan.’ It
was an inspiration of Dan’s to set the price of the ‘Ornaby’ at eight
hundred and eighty-five dollars. I like the sense of adventure you
get in a game like this. I like getting out of my New York, and I like
the way things move in a place so friendly as this. It’s immensely
alive, but somehow it does manage to be friendly, too. I don’t
understand why you’ve always hated it so.”
She explained that she had hated it less when she was in Europe,
where she had at last got her year, having taken young Henry with
her in spite of her husband’s strong protest. The mother and son
had just returned. “I think I could stand the place perfectly well,
George,” she said, “if I were quite sure I’d never have to see it
again!”
“But don’t you begin to understand yet what a husband you’ve
got?” George cried. “Why, he’s a great man, Lena!”
Lena laughed and looked at him pityingly; but contented herself
with that for argument. To her mind Dan was not made great by
becoming the great figure of a city that was merely growing larger,
noisier, and dirtier. She had never cared for anything but Beauty, she
said; and, to her mind, as to that of the fastidious Harlan, Dan was
only helping to increase hideousness; so she joined her brother-in-
law in habitually referring to “Ornaby the Beautiful” as “Ornaby the
Horrible.” Moreover, although she had never manifested any interest
in National Avenue before its destruction began, she became almost
vehement upon the subject of its merit as the razing of its old
houses continued; and Harlan was again in agreement with her
here.
“You and Eugene Morgan and that rascally old Sheridan and your
Jew friends are doing an awful thing,” he said to Dan at a family
dinner. “You’re ruining the one decent thing the city possessed—a
splendid, dignified old street. It’s happening all over the country—
one doesn’t need half an hour in New York to see that Fifth Avenue
is ruined; but I did think we might have escaped here. I doubt if it
would ever have occurred to Morgan to put up his awful sales
building—with a repair shop in it!—on National Avenue, if you hadn’t
done it first. Then the others thought they had to follow; and if
something isn’t done to stop you fellows, the whole avenue will be
nothing but a mile row of motor-car sales buildings and pneumatic
tire warehouses and garages—a market!—and with hundred-foot
smoke-stacks! It may reach even here to our old house and the
Shelbys’; and already you’ve made the peaceful neighbourhood
around my house horrible. I’d like to know what grandma Savage
would have said about the things you people have done to this
town! Why, you’ve made National Avenue begin to look like an old
pipe-smoking hag’s mouth with every other tooth missing and the
rest sticking up all black in the smoke.”
Dan laughed absent-mindedly, but remained impervious. Like the
ardent Sheridan, he loved the smoke, called it “Prosperity,” and drew
his lungs full of it, breathing in it the glory of his city. More and
more, the city became his city, and with all his juggling and tight-
rope dancing he found time to be mayor of it for a year, and to begin
the “Park System” that was afterwards to bring so much beauty to it.
One day he drove his father over the ground he had planned to
include in this chain of groves and meadows; and he was glad
afterwards that they had made the excursion together.
“It’ll be a great thing for the city,” his father said, as Dan’s car
turned homeward with them. “It’s a great thing for you to do and to
be remembered by. You were a good boy, Dan; and you’re a good
man and a good citizen. You serve your fellow-men well, I think.”
Dan laughed, a little embarrassed by this praise; but although Mr.
Oliphant perceived his son’s embarrassment, he had more to say,
and went on with something like timidity, yet with a gentle
persistence: “I’d like to tell you another thing, Dan. It’s something
your mother and I never felt we ought to talk about to you, but I
believe I’ll mention it to you to-day. We—you see your mother and I
have always thought there’s a danger sometimes in letting a person
see that you sympathize with him, because it might make him feel
that he’s unhappy, or in trouble, whereas, if you just leave him to
himself he may go on cheerfully enough and never think about it.
But I would like to tell you—I’d like to say——”
He paused, and Dan asked: “You’d like to say what, sir?”
 “Well—I’d like just to tell you that your mother and I think you’ve
always been as kind as you could to Lena.”
Surprised, Dan stared at him; and Mr. Oliphant gravely and
affectionately returned his look. “Yes, sir,” the son said awkwardly. “I
hope so. Thank you, sir.” And he thought that the handsome, kind
old face seemed whiter and more fragile than usual.
That was natural, Dan told himself; people couldn’t help growing
old, and they grew whiter and thinner as age came upon them; but
age didn’t necessarily mean ill-health. For that matter, his father
hadn’t nearly reached a really venerable old age; he was more than
a decade younger than old-hickory Shelby, who still never missed a
day’s work. Nevertheless, there had been something a little
disquieting in Mr. Oliphant’s manner; it was as if he had thought that
perhaps he might never have another chance to say what he had
said;—and that night, on the train to which he had hurried after
their drive, Dan thought about his father often.
He thought about him often, too, the next day, in New York; and
during the conferences there with the landscape architects who were
designing the new parks, his thoughts went uneasily westward;—not
to the green stretches of grove and sward that were to be, but to
the quiet old man who had walked so slowly between the tall white
gateposts after bidding his son good-bye. Recalling this, it seemed to
Dan that he had never before seen him walk so slowly; and he went
over in his mind, for the fiftieth time, his father’s manner in speaking
of Lena—the slight, timid insistence, as if there might never be
another opportunity to say something he had always wished to say.
It had given what he said the air of a blessing bestowed—and of a
valedictory.
Thus Dan’s vague uneasiness grew, and although he scolded
himself for it, and told himself he was imaginative beyond reason, he
could not be rid of it. That was well for him; since such uneasiness
may be of help when life is like a path whereon tigers leap from
nowhere, as it is, sometimes;—the wayfarer will not avoid wounds,
but may better survive them for having been in some expectance of
them.
 For a year Mr. Oliphant’s heart had been “not just what it ought
to be”; but he told no one that this was his physician’s report to him.
Harlan’s telegram reached New York just as Dan was starting home.
Mr. Oliphant had indeed taken his last opportunity to say what he
had so long wished to say, for now the kind heart beat no longer;—
but he had died proud of his son.
 CHAPTER XXV

N
EITHER Mr. Oliphant’s daughter-in-law nor his grandson was at
home at the time of his death. Lena had gone abroad again,
for a “three-months’ furlough,” as she called it; and again in
spite of Dan’s vehement protest that the boy “ought to see his own
country first,” she had taken Henry with her.
“I wouldn’t mind it so much,” Dan said to her before they went;
—“but you never even stop off and show him Niagara Falls when you
take him to New York to visit your family; and when I want to take
him with me, you always say he’s got a cold or something and has to
stay at home. It seems to me pretty near a disgrace for parents to
carry their children all over Europe and pay no attention to the
greatest natural wonders in the world, right here at home. My father
and mother went to Europe with Harlan and me, but not before
they’d taken us to see Mammoth Cave and Niagara Falls. Why, it’d
take five Europes to give me the thrill I got the first time I ever
looked at the Falls! It’s not fair to Henry, and besides, look what it
does to his school work! He picked up some French, yes, the other
time you had him over there; but he dropped a whole year in his
classes. And how much French is he goin’ to need when I take him
into business with me? Not a thimbleful in a lifetime! He’s the best
boy I ever knew and got the finest nature; and he ought to be given
the opportunity to learn something about his own country instead of
too much Paris!”
This patriotic vehemence went for nothing, since Henry intended
to accompany his mother and announced his intentions with a
firmness that left his father nothing to do but grumble helplessly,
while Lena laughed. At fifteen, Henry had his precocities, and among
them a desire (not mentioned) to revisit the Bal Tabarin, as he
retained a pleasant memory of a quiet excursion to this
entertainment, during his previous travels, when he was twelve and
already influential with Parisian hotel guides. Lena had her way, and,
having placed the ocean between herself and further argument on
the part of her husband, remained twice as long as the “furlough”
she had proposed. She did not return until Dan’s term as mayor was
concluded, four months after Mr. Oliphant’s death.
When she finally did arrive, her appearance was mollifying;—she
had always looked far less than her age, and now, fresh from
amazing cosmetic artists, and brilliantly studied by superb milliners,
she was prettier than she had ever been. Strangers would have
believed a firm declaration that she was twenty-four; she knew this,
and her homecoming mood was lively—but when Dan within the
hour of her arrival wished to drive her out to Ornaby to see the new
house, which he had at last begun to build, after years of planting
and landscaping, she declined. Her look of gayety vanished into the
faraway expression that had always come upon her face when the
new house was mentioned.
“Not to-day,” she said. “I’m not so sure we ought to go ahead
with it at all. I don’t think we ought to leave your mother; she’d be
too lonely in the old house now—living here all alone.”
“But I never dreamed of such a thing,” Dan protested. “She’ll
come with us, of course. This old place is going to be sold before
long; I’ve just about talked her into it, and she can get real money
for it now. Land along here is worth something mighty pretty these
days. Why, Fred Oliphant’s family got seven hundred a front foot for
their place three months ago, and an absolutely magnificent office-
building for doctors is goin’ to be put up there. They’ve got the
foundations all in and the first story’s almost up already. That’s only
two blocks below here; and I can get mother almost any price she
wants. I’d buy it myself and sell it again, only I wouldn’t like to feel
I’d taken advantage of her. Why don’t you come on out now with
Henry and me and take a look at our own doin’s? It’ll surprise you!”
“Oh, some day,” she said, the absent look not disappearing from
her eyes. “I’d rather lie down now, I believe. You run along with
Henry.”
Henry showed no great enthusiasm about accompanying his
father, and when they arrived at the new house seemed indifferent
to the busy work going on there. Dan was loud and jocose with him,
slapping him on the back at intervals, and inquiring in a shout how it
felt to “be back in God’s country again.” Upon each of these
manifestations, Henry smiled with a politeness somewhat
constrained, replying indistinctly; and, as they went over the
building, now in a skeleton stage of structure, Dan would stop
frequently and address a workman with hearty familiarity: “Look
what I got with me, Shorty! Just got him back all the way from
Europe! How’d you like to have a boy as near a man as this? Pretty
fine! Yes, sir; pretty fine, Shorty!” And he would throw his ponderous
arm about his son’s thin shoulders, and Henry would bear the
embrace with a bored patience, but move away as soon as he could
find an excuse to do so.
He was a dark, slender, rather sallow boy, short for the sixteen
years he verged upon, though his face, with its small and shapely
features, like his mother’s, looked older and profoundly reticent. It
was one of those oldish young faces that seem too experienced not
to understand the wisdom of withholding everything; and Henry
appeared to be most of all withholding when he was with his
boisterous, adoring father. Obviously this was not because the boy
had any awe of Dan. On the contrary, as one of the friendly and
admiring carpenters observed, “The Big Fellow, he’s so glad to have
that son of his back he just can’t keep his hands off him; wants to
jest hug him all the time, and it makes the kid tired. Well, I can
remember when I was like that—thought I knew it all, and my old
man didn’t know nothin’! I expect this kid does know a few things
the Big Fellow doesn’t know he knows, mebbe! Looks like that kind
of a kid to me.”
The estimate was not ill-founded, as Henry presently
demonstrated. Escaping from his father’s fond and heavy arm, he
seated himself upon a slab of carved stone, produced a beautiful flat
gold case, the size and shape of a letter envelope, and drew from it
a tiny cigarette of a type made in France for women.
Dan stared at him, frowned, and inquired uncomfortably, but with
some severity: “Don’t you think you’re too young for that, Henry?”
“Young?” Henry seemed to be mildly surprised as he lighted the
cigarette. “No, I shouldn’t think so. I’ve smoked for quite some time
now, you know.”
 “No; I certainly didn’t know.”
“Oh, yes,” Henry returned placidly. “It’s years since I first began
it.”
“Well, but see here——” Dan began; then paused, reddening. “I
don’t believe it’ll be very good for your health,” he concluded feebly.
“My health’s all right,” the youth said, with an air that began to
be slightly annoyed. “Mother’s known I smoked a long while.”
“Well, but——” Dan stopped again, his embarrassment increasing
and his perplexity increasing with it as he remembered that he
himself had smoked at fifteen, surreptitiously. “Well——” he began
again, after a pause, during which Henry blew a beautifully formed
little smoke ring. “Well——”
“Yes, sir?”
“Well——” Dan said. “Well, I’m glad if you do smoke, you do it
openly, anyhow.”
“Yes, sir?” Henry returned, with a slight accent of surprise that
suggested his inability to perceive any reason for not smoking
openly. Then, regarding the incident as closed, he asked: “I suppose
you’ll put up a garage in proportion to the house, won’t you? It’s
about time I had a car of my own, don’t you think, sir?”
“I expect so,” Dan said, still uncomfortable. “I expect we’ll have
to see about it before long. Anyhow, I would rather you did it openly,
Henry. I—I don’t—I——” He stopped, in difficulties with a depth of
feeling that affected his voice. “I—I don’t ever expect to be half as
good a father to you, Henry, as my—as my own father was to me,
but I—well, your uncle Harlan and I were afraid to smoke before him
until we were almost grown up. We used to sneak out to the stable
to smoke—or in alleys—and though my father was so much better a
man than I am, and so much better a father to me than I can ever
hope to be to you, I guess—I guess this is better, Henry. I mean I
guess it’s better to have you open with me, like this. It’s an advance,
I expect. I don’t know why we were afraid to smoke before father;
he never whipped us and he was the kindest man—the best—the
best father that ever——” He was unable to continue; and Henry
glanced up to see him, red-faced and swallowing, struggling with an
emotion that made the boy wonder what in the world was the
matter with him.
“I suppose he was, probably,” Henry said. “How about that car?
Don’t you think I might as well have it pretty soon? How about this
week’s being as good as any other time?”
Dan recovered himself, smiled, and patted his son’s shoulder. “I
expect so, maybe. We’ll drive down to our agents on the avenue
before we go home.”
And at this Henry proved that he could still show some
animation. He sprang up, shouting. “Ya-ay!” he cried. “Vive le sport!”
And he leaped into the big Morgan limousine that stood waiting for
them in the cluttered driveway. “Come on!” he shouted. “I’ll show
you how to shoot a little life into this old town!”
Rising from her nap, an hour later, Lena looked from her window
and saw them returning. Henry was still animated, talking busily,
and, as they came into the house, seemed willing to bear the weight
of his father’s arm across his shoulders. The mother, looking down
upon the pair, smiled thoughtfully to herself;—she was not more
indulgent with the boy than his father was; but she knew that Henry
was more hers than he was his father’s. He had always been so,
because of some chord of subtle understanding struck by her nature
and Henry’s. She had sometimes been in a temper with him when he
was a noisy little boy, but as he grew older she had begun to feel
only amusement over his naughtinesses, because she understood
them so well;—she laughed at him sometimes, but had long since
ceased to chide him. She had no blame for him, and she knew that
he would never find fault with her, no matter what she did. They had
a mysterious comprehension of each other—a comprehension so
complete that they had never needed to speak of it.
She heard him chattering to his grandmother in the hall
downstairs, and knew by his tone that his father had bought him
something, of which the boy would presently tell her;—she remained
standing beside the closed window, waiting for him to come in with
his news. Then, as she stood there, a gust drove down a multitude
of soot flakes from the smokestack of an apartment house that had
been built near by, on the cross street just south of the Oliphants’,
while she was away. After the soot, which flecked the window, the
smoke itself descended, enveloping the house so thickly that the
window became opaque. Sounds were not shut out, however, and
she could still hear all too well the chattering of a steam drill at work
across the street, where a public garage was being built. She
frowned at the noise, for the drill had disturbed her sleep; and so
had the almost unceasing rumble of trucks passing the house; and
so had the constant yelp of automobile signals rasping at one
another for right of way.
The smoke thinned out, revealing the busy street that had been
so different when she had first looked forth upon it from this same
window, a bride. She remembered how quiet it had been then—and
suddenly she spoke aloud.
“Well, I’m still here!”
Then she laughed softly, as her eyes wandered to the north,
crossed the iron picket fence that divided the Oliphants’ yard from
the Shelbys’, and beheld the fountain swan. He was green no longer;
his colour was that of the smoke; and though he still shot a crystal
spray, the flying water was the only clean thing about him, or in
sight.
“Ridiculous old beast!” Lena said; but there was no bitterness in
her tone. It was a long time since she had felt jealous of Martha;
and, although she often told Harlan that Martha would never marry
him, “because she still hopes Dan’ll be a widower some day,” the
warning had come to be merely jocular, without intended sting.
Moreover, she practised the same raillery with her brother after he
had taken up his residence in the town; for George offered himself
as a rival to Harlan in the half-serious manner of a portly bachelor of
forty mildly courting a contemporary.
Lena repeated her opinion of the swan. “Ridiculous old beast!”
This time she did not murmur the words as before; but spoke them
in her mind, and she immediately followed them with others, the
connection being made without any more feeling than she had about
the swan. Her thought was merely speculative, even a little
compassionate: “I suppose she does still hope it, poor old thing! She
thinks maybe, if I leave him——”
 But Henry came in with the news of his father’s munificence, and
interrupted this thought that had been in her mind ever since the
night of Martha’s return from the long absence in Italy. Throughout
all the long time since then, there had always been in Lena’s mind a
conviction, however obscured or half-forgotten, that some day she
would leave her husband.
 CHAPTER XXVI

S
HE was mistaken about Martha, who never had the definite
hope Lena’s imagination attributed to her. Martha was steadfast
because she could not help it, having been born with this
endowment evidently; and her tenderness for the boy she had loved
so heartily was imperishable; but the Dan Oliphant of the middle
years did not seem to her to be that boy. What she felt for the big
middle-aged man, she felt only because he had long ago been the
beloved youth; she was not in love with him, nor with anybody. This
was the explanation she still found it necessary to make to his
brother about once a year—usually on New Year’s Day; for it was
Harlan’s habit to select that hopeful anniversary as a good time to
dwell a little upon his patience.
“You call it your patience, but it became only your habit long
ago,” she told him. “It would really unsettle you badly if I ever said
I’d marry you, Harlan; and it would unsettle you even more if I not
only said I would, but went ahead and did it. You’d find you’d never
forgive me for upsetting your routine. If we were married, where in
the world would you ever go? You haven’t been anywhere for so
long, except to see me, that you’d be left without the destination
you’ve been accustomed to. It’s gallant of you to still mention your
willingness, every now and then, and I own up that I rather expect it
and should miss it if you didn’t; but if you want to marry, you ought
to look about for—well, say a pretty widow of twenty-nine, Harlan.
She’d be better for you than one of the ‘buds,’ though you could
have whichever you chose;—they’d jump at the chance! The trouble
with me is that I’m too old—and I’m horribly afraid I look my age.”
The fear was warranted, though it need not have been a fear.
She had escaped the portliness that seemed to threaten her at thirty,
and had escaped too far, perhaps; but her thinness was not angular;
and if she looked her age, then that age was no more than a
pleasantly responsible age, as Harlan told her, and neither a
careworn nor a gray-haired age. In fact, it must be the perfect age,
he said—and he wondered if it mightn’t be as kind as it looked, and
be the perfect age for him.
At that, she became more serious. “I’m surprised at myself every
year I grow older,” she said. “I’m so much more romantic than I was
at twenty, and it seems I keep growing more so. At twenty how I’d
have laughed if I’d heard of a woman of forty who said she couldn’t
marry because she was in love with no one! I suppose what would
have struck me as funniest would have been the idea of a woman of
forty talking about marrying at all.”
She was “in love with no one,” but she could still be Harlan’s
brother’s champion, if need arose; and after George McMillan took
up his residence in the town, and began his mild rivalry, she had this
amiable bachelor to second her. Moreover, it is to be admitted for her
that she, who in the bloom of youth had never known how to display
the faintest symptoms of coquetry, now sometimes enjoyed tokens
of disturbance unwillingly exhibited by Harlan when the rival
appeared to win an advantage. McMillan, dark and growing a little
bald, counterbalanced what was lacking above by a decoration
below already rare in the land, but not yet a curiosity, a Van Dyke
beard, well suited to his face. In manner, too, he was equal to the
flavour of a fine old portrait, and he had spoken from his childhood
in the accent Harlan had carefully acquired. Thus the latter was
sometimes but too well encountered on his own ground.
He met one of these defeats in an early April twilight when he
had expected to find Martha alone, as he knew a meeting of the
board of directors of the “Ornaby Four” had been called for that
evening, and George McMillan was a member of the board. The air
was warm with one of the misplacements of this season, when
sometimes a midsummer day wanders from its proper moorings and
irrationally ascends almost to the chilly headwaters of spring. Martha
was upon the veranda, occupied with a fan and the conversation of
Mr. McMillan when Harlan arrived; and the newcomer was so
maladroit as to make his disappointed expectations plain.
“I thought you had a directors’ meeting,” he said, almost with his
greeting and before he had seated himself in one of the wicker
chairs brought out upon the veranda by the unseasonable warmth.
“I thought there was——”
George assented placidly. “There was, but it couldn’t be held. Our
president had to go to another one that he’s president of—the
Broadwood Interurban. It’s in difficulties, I’m afraid, because of too
high wages and too much competition by motorcycles and small
cars. I hope Dan can straighten it out.”
“I hope so,” Harlan said. “That is, strictly as his brother I hope
so. As a human being still trying to exist in what was once a
comfortable house, I might take another attitude. I live deep in the
downtown district now, for my worst sins, and those long
Broadwood cars screech every hour, night and day, on a curve not a
hundred yards from my library.” He sighed. “But why should I waste
my breath, still complaining? It all grows steadily worse and worse,
year after year, and if one happens to like living in a city in his own
native land, there’s nowhere to escape to. I suppose National
Avenue—poor thing, look at the wreck of it!—I say I suppose it
couldn’t have hoped to escape the fate of Fifth Avenue; for the same
miserable ruction is going on all over the country. My illustrious
brother and his kind have ruined everything that was peaceful and
everything that was clean—they began by murdering the English
language, and now they’ve murdered all whiteness. Beauty is dead.”
“Isn’t that only a question of your definition?” McMillan inquired.
“Why is it?”
“For one reason, because everything’s a question of definitions.”
“No, it isn’t,” Harlan returned somewhat brusquely; and Martha
sat in silence, amused to perceive that her two callers had
straightway resumed a tilting not infrequent when they met. A lady’s
part was only to preside at the joust. “There’s only one definition of
beauty,” Harlan added to his contradiction.
“What is it?”
“The one Athens believed in.”
“It won’t do for that brother of yours,” his antagonist returned.
“The Greeks are dead, and you can’t tie Dan and his sort down to a
dead definition. The growth isn’t beautiful to you, but it is to them,
or else they wouldn’t make it. Of course you’re sure you’re right
about your own definition, but they’re so busy making what they’re
sure is beautiful they don’t even know that anybody disagrees with
them. It won’t do you the slightest good to disagree with them,
either.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’ve got everything in their hands,” George McMillan
replied cheerfully;—“and they’re too busy to listen to any one who
isn’t making something besides criticisms.”
“And for that reason,” Harlan began, “all of us who care for
what’s quiet and cool and charming in life are to hold our peace and
let——”
He was interrupted, unable to make himself heard because of a
shattering uproar that came from beyond the iron fence to the
south. A long and narrow motor car, enamelled Chinese red, stood in
the Oliphants’ driveway, and an undersized boy of sixteen had just
run out of the house and jumped into the driver’s seat. Dusk had not
fallen darkly; he saw the group upon the neighbouring veranda well
enough, but either thought it too much effort to salute Martha and
his uncles, or was preoccupied with the starting of his car;—he gave
no sign of being aware of them. Evidently the unmuffled machine-
gun firing of his exhaust was delightful to his young ears, for he
increased its violence to the utmost, although the noise was
unlawful, and continued it as he shot the car down the drive, out of
the gates and down the street at a speed also unlawful.
“There, at least,” Harlan said, “is something of which criticism
might possibly be listened to with good effect—even by my busy
brother.”
But George laughed and shook his head. “No. That’s the very last
thing he’d allow you to criticize. He’d only tell you that Henry is ‘the
finest young man God ever made!’ In fact, that’s what he told me
yesterday evening when I dined there; and I had more than a
suspicion I’d caught a whiff of something suggesting a cocktail from
our mutual nephew, as he came in for a hurried dinner between
speedings. But that isn’t Dan’s fault.”
“Yes, it is,” Harlan said. “Giving a sixteen-year-old boy a car like
that!”
 “No, the fault is my sister’s. What’s a boy to do when his mother
keeps him hanging around Paris so long in the autumn that it’s too
late for him to make up his class-work, and he has only a tutor to
cajole? I don’t blame Henry much. In fact, the older I grow the less I
blame anything.”
“No?” Harlan said. “I’m afraid the world won’t get anywhere very
fast unless there are some people to point out its mistakes.”
But the other bachelor jouster was not at all disconcerted by this
reproof, nor by the tone of it, which was incautiously superior. “By
George, Oliphant, I always have believed you were really a true
Westerner under that surface of yours! The way you said ‘the world
won’t get anywhere very fast’ was precisely in the right tone. You’re
reverting to type, and if the reversion doesn’t stop I shan’t be
surprised to hear of your breathing deep of the smoke and calling it
‘Prosperity’ with the best of them!”
Harlan was displeased. “I suppose the smoke comes under your
definition of beauty, too, doesn’t it?”
“It isn’t my definition,” George explained. “I was groping for
Dan’s. Yes, I think the smoke’s beautiful to him because he believes
it means growth and power, and he thinks they’re beautiful.”
“I dare say. Would you consider it a rational view for any even
half-educated man to hold—that soft-coal smoke is beautiful? Do you
think so, Martha, when it makes pneumonia epidemic, ruins
everything white that you have in your house and everything white
that you wear? Do you?”
“It’s pretty trying,” she answered, as a conscientious housewife,
but added hopefully: “We’ll get rid of it some day, though. So many
people are complaining of it I’m sure they’ll do something about it
before long.”
Harlan laughed dryly, for he had hoped she would say that. “I’ve
been re-reading John Evelyn’s diary,” he said. “Evelyn declared the
London smoke was getting so dreadful that a stop would have to be
put to it somehow. The king told him to devise a plan for getting rid
of it, and Evelyn set about it quite hopefully. That was in the latter
part of the seventeenth century. Evelyn is dead, but the smoke’s still
there.”
 “And yet,” George McMillan said coolly, “I’m told they’ve made
quite a place of London, in spite of that!”
Martha laughed aloud, and Harlan was so unfortunate as to be
annoyed. “It seems rather a childish argument in view of the fact
that we sit here in the atmosphere of what might well be a freight
yard,” he said; and, turning to Martha he spoke in a lowered voice,
audible to his opponent, yet carrying the implication that McMillan
was excluded from the conference. “My committee have at last got
the symphony organization completed,” he said. “The orchestra
knows it can depend on a reliable support now, and the first concert
will be two weeks from to-night. I hope you won’t mind going with
me.”
“No; I won’t mind,” she said, and hospitably explained to
McMillan: “We’ve been trying for years to expand our week of the
‘April Festival’ into something more permanent. Mr. Oliphant has
done most of the work, and it’s really a public service. It will be good
news for your sister;—I understand she’s always felt we were a lost
people, in music particularly.”
“We’ll have a start at any rate,” Harlan said, as he rose to go.
“That is, if the smoke doesn’t throttle our singers. Venable is back
from South America and there ought to be some interest to hear
him.”
“Venable?” George repeated. “Did you say Venable?”
“Yes; the baritone. He’s still just in his prime; at least so his
agent says. Have you ever heard him?”
“Long ago,” the other returned. “I——” He stopped abruptly.
“Did you know him?” Martha asked.
“No. That is, I had a short interview with him once, but—no, I
shouldn’t say I know him.” He rose, in courtesy to the departing
Harlan, and extended his hand. “You mustn’t wait behind the next
corner and leap out on me with a bowie-knife, Oliphant,” he said. “I
didn’t mean to be such a disagreeable arguer.”
“Not at all,” Harlan returned, somewhat coldly, though he added
an effect of geniality to his departure by a murmur of laughter, and
got away without any further emphasis upon his disappointment at
finding his rival in possession. The latter gentleman, however, made
little use of the field left open to him. Not long after Harlan had gone
Martha noticed that her remaining guest seemed to be rather
absent-minded, and she rallied him upon it.
“I’m afraid you thrive upon conflict, Mr. McMillan.”
“Why?”
“Peace doesn’t seem to stimulate you—or else I don’t! You’ve
hardly spoken since Mr. Oliphant left. I’m afraid you’re——”
“You’re afraid I’m what?” he said, as she paused; and although
the dusk had fallen now, it was not too dark for her to see that his
preoccupation was serious.
“Are you troubled about anything?” she asked.
“No. Why?”
“I thought you looked——”
“Oh, no,” he said. “It’s nothing. Perhaps I am a little bothered,”
he admitted. “But it’s only about business.”
“Not about the ‘Ornaby Four?’ ” she said, surprised. “I thought it
was established as a tremendous success.”
“Oh, it is,” he assured her promptly. “It is. It’s an extraordinary
little car and nothing can stop it—except temporarily. It’s bound to
climb over any little temporary difficulties. We may have made
mistakes, but they won’t amount to anything in the long run.”
“You say you have made mistakes?”
“Not until this year, and even then nothing we can’t remedy. You
see Dan’s a great fellow for believing in almost anything that’s new,
and an inventor came along last summer with a new type of friction
clutch; and we put it in our car. Then I’m afraid we built a fairly
enormous number of ‘Fours’ during the winter, but you see we were
justified in that, because we knew there’d be a demand for them.”
“And there wasn’t?”
“Oh, yes; there was. But——” he paused; then went on: “Well,
the people haven’t seemed to like the new clutch, and that gives us
rather a black eye for the time being. Of course we’re going to do
our best to straighten things out; we’ll put our old clutch back on all
the new cars, but——”
He paused uncomfortably again, and she inquired: “But won’t
that make everything all right again?”
 “Oh, yes—after a time. The trouble is, I’m afraid it’s stopped our
sales rather flat—for the time being, that is. You see, there’s a lot of
money we expected would be pouring in on us about now—and it
doesn’t pour. I’m not really worried, but I’m a little afraid Dan might
need it, because his inter-urban ventures appear to have been—well,
rather hazardous. You told me once that his brother’s description of
him was ‘dancing on the tight-rope’ and in a way that’s not so far
wrong. Of course he’ll pull through.” George suddenly struck the
stone railing beside him a light blow with his open hand, and jumped
up. “Good gracious! What am I doing but talking business to a lady
on a spring evening? I knew I was in my dotage!” And he went to
the steps.
“Wait,” Martha said hurriedly. “You don’t really think——”
“That Dan Oliphant’s affairs are in any real danger? No; of course
not;—I don’t know what made me run on like that. Men go through
these little disturbances every day; it’s a part of the game they play,
and they don’t think anything about it. You can be sure he isn’t
worrying. Did you ever know him to let such things stop him? He’s
been through a thousand of ’em and walked over ’em. He’s
absolutely all right.”
“You’re sure?” she said, as he went down the steps.
“He’s absolutely all right, and I’d take my oath to it,” George said;
but he added: “That is, he is if the banks don’t call him.”
“If the banks don’t what?”
He laughed reassuringly. “If the banks don’t do something they
have no reason to do and certainly won’t do. Good-night. I’m going
to stop in next door and see my sister a little while before she goes
to bed.”
His figure grew dimmer as he went toward the gate, and Martha,
staring after him, began to be haunted by that mysterious phrase of
his, “if the banks don’t call him.”
 CHAPTER XXVII

T
HE next day, at lunch, she asked her father what it meant,
though she did not mention Dan; and she brought out a
crackling chuckle from that old bit of hickory, now brittle and
almost sapless, but still serviceable.
“Means a bank wants its money back; that’s all,” he said. “There’s
plenty of reasons why a bank wants money—same as anybody else.”
“But suppose I’d borrowed of a bank and was a good customer,
and the bank knew I had plenty of property to cover the loan, would
the First National, for instance, ever worry me to pay it, if they knew
I only needed a little time to get all I owed it?”
“Not unless we thought you mightn’t be as able to pay us as well
later on as when we ask for it,” the old man answered. “You’d be all
right as long as the First stood by you. The First’ll protect a
customer long as anybody; and the others all follow our lead. What
in time’s the matter with you? You plannin’ to borrow money?
Geemunently! I should think you’d be able to put up with what you
get out o’ me!”
His voice cracked into falsetto, as it often did nowadays; but the
vehemence that cracked it was not intended to be serious; he was in
a jocular mood; and the conversation reassured her, for he was one
of the directors of the “First”; and if Dan were really in difficulties
and the bank meant to increase them, she thought her father would
have seized upon the occasion to speak of it triumphantly. Indeed,
he had once angrily instructed her to wait for such an occasion. “You
just wait till the time comes!” he had said. “You sit there crowin’ over
me because I used to prophesy Dan Oliphant was never goin’ to
amount to anything, and you claim all this noise and gas proves he
has! You just wait till the day comes when I get the chance to crow
over you, miss! You’ll hear me!”
She was convinced that he wouldn’t have missed the chance to
crow. Nevertheless a little of her uneasiness remained, and was still
with her, two weeks later, when she went with Harlan to the concert
of the new symphony orchestra, on an evening so drenched with
rain that she inquired with some anxiety if his car was amphibious.
“If it can’t swim I’m afraid we won’t get there,” she said, as they
set off upon the splashing avenue. “Judging by the windows, we
aren’t in an automobile, but in one of those tanks that take pictures
of ocean life for the movies. I’m not sure it’s a tank though; the old
avenue has turned into a river, and perhaps we’re in a side-wheel
steamboat. I’m afraid this’ll be bad for your attendance. You’ll have a
big deficit to make up in reward for your struggle to make us an
artistic people.”
There was to be no deficit, however, she discovered, as they
went to their seats in the theatre Harlan’s committee had taken for
the concert;—interest in the new organization and in the coming of
the renowned Venable had been stronger than the fear of a wetting.
The place was being rapidly filled, and, glancing about her, Martha
saw “almost everybody and a great many others,” she said.
Not far away from where she and Harlan sat, Lena was in a box
with George McMillan. The other seats in the box were vacant; and
Lena, sitting close to the velvet rail, and wearing as a contrast to her
own whiteness a Parisian interpretation of Spanish passion, in black
jet and jet-black, was the most conspicuous figure in the theatre.
She leaned back in her chair, her brilliant eyes upon the stage,
though there was nothing there except a piano and a small forest of
music stands; and Martha thought she looked excited—music was
evidently a lively stimulant for her. Her brother, not quite so much
within the public view, and possibly wishing his sister were less
vividly offered to that view, appeared to the observing Martha as
somewhat depressed and nervous. There was no conversation
between the brother and sister, though he glanced at Lena from
time to time, from the side of his eye.
Martha wondered where Dan was. He would prefer a concert by
Sousa’s Band to the French and Russian programme set for this
evening, she knew; but the opening of “the Symphony” was in its
way a civic occasion; one for which the credit was in some part due
to his brother; and she had expected him to be there. “Isn’t Dan
coming?” she asked Harlan.
 “I think so.”
“Do you think he’s worried about business lately, Harlan?”
“No, I don’t think he ever worries about anything.”
“Oh, but you’re wrong!” she said quickly. “You don’t know him; a
man can’t sacrifice everything to just one object in life, as he has, all
these years, and not worry about it. I know your mother worries
about him. She says he never takes any care of himself, and it’s
beginning to tell on him. But I mean are there any—any rumours
around town that he’s in some sort of business difficulty, or anything
like that?”
“No; I think not. At least I haven’t heard of anything like that
being more prevalent with him than usual. He’s always up and down,
either up to his neck or riding on the crest—that’s his way, and I
don’t believe he’d enjoy himself otherwise. The only thing he could
talk about when I saw him yesterday at home was his new house.
It’s finished at last; and they’re going to move into it. Mother’s sold
our old place, you know, and the wrecking will begin next week.
Pleasant for you!”
“Oh, I’m trying to get father to go, too,” she said. “He’s terribly
obstinate, but with the house on the other side of us rebuilt into an
apartment, and now your mother’s to be torn down, he’ll have to
give in. We’ll have to move out to northern Ornaby like everybody
else. You’ll have to come, too, Harlan.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I’ve been waiting a good many years for
that invitation. May I make an appointment with your father for to-
morrow morning?”
She laughed, blushed, and touched his coat sleeve with her
folded fan of black feathers. “Hush! People will hear you!”
“You fear it may be suspected that I’m still serious in my
intentions?”
“Hush!” she said again. “I mean we’re about to hear some
serious music, and it’s no time for nonsense.”
Harlan was obedient; he said no more, but brightened as he
listened to the serious music;—her tone had been kind and he hoped
that he was not mistaken in thinking he detected something a little
self-conscious in it. He was no eager lover now; his bachelorhood
was pleasant to him; and he could be content with it; but as Martha
leaned forward to listen he looked sidelong at her and felt that he
had been right and wise to wish for no other woman. They had been
companions for so long, and understood each other so well,
marriage would be no disturbing change for either of them. He was
assured of happiness in it, if he could persuade her, and something
in the way she had just spoken to him made him almost sure that he
was about to persuade her at last.
After the first suite by the orchestra the great Venable appeared,
making his way among the seated musicians and coming forward
with an air of affability operatic in its sweeping expressiveness—a
pale, handsome, black-haired man of grand dimensions. He needed
no costume other than his black clothes and shapely ampleness of
white front to make him seem, not an actual man, but a figure from
romantic drama, a dweller in enchanted palaces and the master of
heroic passions.
“I’ve always wanted to see one of those splendid, big, statuesque
opera or concert people at home,” Martha whispered to her escort.
“I’ve never been near them except when they moved on the grand
scale, like this. It would be an experience to see a man like that eat
an egg—I can’t imagine it at all. Do you suppose he could?”
A moment later, when he began to sing, she was sure he
couldn’t; and as the magnificent instrument in his throat continued
in operation, he carried her to such thrilling grandeurs of feeling that
she could not even imagine herself eating an egg, or eating
anything, or ever again doing anything commonplace—for while he
sang she, too, dwelt in enchanted palaces, moved on the grand
scale, and knew only heroic emotions.
But when he had finished the encore he was generous enough to
add to this part of his programme, and had left the stage, she
underwent a reaction not unusual after such stimulations. “It’s a
great voice and he’s a great artist, if I’m equal to knowing either,”
she said. “But there’s something about that man—I don’t know
what, except it all seems to end in being about himself. It’s so
personal, somehow. I’m positive he made every woman in the whole
audience wish that he were singing just for her alone. I don’t think
music ought to be like that, unless perhaps sometimes when it’s a
love-song, and those things he sang weren’t supposed to——” She
broke off suddenly, as her glance wandered. “There’s Dan. He got
here, after all.”
Dan was coming down the outer aisle to the box where Lena sat;
and with him was the younger Sam Kohn, the two having just
entered the theatre after the business conference that had detained
them. Sam was talking hurriedly and earnestly in husky whispers,
which he emphasized with many quick gestures; but he left his tall
companion at the curtains of the latter’s box.
“See you right after the show,” he said, and then went slowly to
the series of boxes occupied by his father and brother and their
families, while Dan, who looked sallow and tired, Martha thought,
stared after him for a moment, then moved forward and seated
himself beside George McMillan. Lena gave her husband the greeting
of a slightly lifted eyebrow, shown to him in profile; but McMillan
leaned toward him and whispered an anxious question.
“It’s all right,” Dan said. “Sam Kohn’s got his father’s promise to
hold out against ’em. They want every inch of Ornaby I’ve got left—
that’s what they’ve really been after a long time. I’d like to see
anybody get Ornaby away from me! They want the Four, too, and
they think they’ve got both; but they won’t get either. The Kohns’ll
play it through on my——”
But Lena stopped this inappropriate talk of mere business. She
made a slight gesture with her lovely little bare arm, her fingers
flashing impatient sparks; and Dan was silent. He remained so
throughout the rest of the concert, listening with an expression not
unamiable, though at times his big face, lately grown flaccid and
heavier, fell into the shapings that indicate drowsiness; and once or
twice his glance was vaguely troubled, happening to rest upon the
white contours of his wife’s shoulders;—her glittering black scarf had
fallen as she leaned forward when the godlike baritone came out
again.
“That fellow looks kind of soft-soapy, but he’s got a crackin’ good
voice,” was Dan’s placid comment, at the conclusion of the last
encore of the final number. Venable was withdrawing from the stage,
and most of the audience were getting on their wraps; but an
admiring and avaricious gallery demanded more of the charmer, and
clapped on. He stopped, shook his head, smilingly; then made his
last bow profoundly and obliquely, with a shift of his large eyes in
the same direction. “Not bowin’ to us, is he?” Dan inquired,
surprised. “I don’t know him.”
“I do,” Lena said, “I told you the other day I used to know him.
I’m going around to speak to him.”
“I can’t wait, I’m afraid. Sam Kohn’s lookin’ for me in the lobby
now, and he and I got to have a talk with his father. You take the
car, Lena—I’ll leave it in front for you, and I’ll get Sam to drive me
home from old man Kohn’s. I’ll have to hurry.”
McMillan was looking at his sister darkly and steadily. “I’ll see to
Lena,” he said. “I’ll go with her wherever she wants to go, and then
I’ll take her home.”
Lena laughed airily. “Why, no; it isn’t necessary. You’d better go
with Dan.”
“No; I believe I’d better go with you, Lena.”
“Can’t wait for you to settle it,” Dan said. “It’s pretty important I
don’t miss Sam. I may be out fairly late, Lena. Good-night.” And,
leaving the brother and sister confronting each other, before they
moved toward the stage door behind the boxes, he hurried out to
the lobby, where Sam Kohn seized his arm.
“I’ll take you over to papa’s in my car, Dan,” he said. “I been
talkin’ some more to the old man durin’ the show. He’ll stick, all
right, as a favour to me, because I put it to him pretty stiff that
you’re my old friend, and what you’ve done for this town has made
money for Kohn & Sons, and’s bound to make more in the future,
besides; and I told him anyhow, by golly, he just had to! Well, he
says he’ll stick, and he’ll do it, Dan; but he ain’t none too sure he
can carry them old shellbacks with him. He ain’t never been any
pessimist about anything, Dan, but he thinks they see a chance to
clean up if they call you. He’s afraid he can’t stop ’em from doin’ it,
Dan.”
Dan frowned angrily. “Well—let ’em call! They can’t break me! I’ll
make it, all right, Sam—I’ve been through these things before.”
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