The Vision Splendid | Page 5

him thin,
but he was like a lath for toughness.
Seven weeks after he was graduated from the high school his mother
died. The day of the funeral a real estate dealer called to offer three,
hundred dollars for the lots in the river bottom bought some years
earlier by Mrs. Farnum.
Jeff put the man off. It was too late now to do his mother any good. She
had had to struggle to the last for the bread she ate. He wondered why
the good things in life were so unevenly distributed.
Twice during the next week Jeff was approached with offers for his lots.
The boy was no fool.
He found out that the land was wanted by a new railroad pushing into
Verden. Within three days he had sold direct to the agent of the
company for nine hundred dollars. With what he could earn on the side
and in his summers he thought that sum would take him through
college.
CHAPTER 2

I wonder if Morgan, the Pirate, When plunder had glutted his heart,
Gave part of the junk from the ships he had sunk To help some
Museum of Art; If he gave up the role of "collector of toll" And
became a Collector of Art?
I wonder if Genghis, the Butcher, When he'd trampled down nations
like grass, Retired with his share when he'd lost all his hair And started
a Sunday-school class; If he turned his past under and used half his
plunder In running a Sunday-school class?
I wonder if Roger, the Rover, When millions in looting he'd made,
Built libraries grand on the jolly mainland To honor success and "free
trade"; If he founded a college of nautical knowledge Where Pirates
could study their trade?
I wonder, I wonder, I wonder, If Pirates were ever the same, Ever
trying to lend a respectable trend To the jaunty old buccaneer game Or
is it because of our Piracy Laws That philanthropists enter the game?
--Wallace Irwin, in Life.
THE REBEL IS INSTRUCTED IN THE WORSHIP OF THE
GOD-OF-THINGS-AS- THEY-ARE
Part 1
Jeff was digging out a passage in the "Apology" when there came a
knock at the door of his room. The visitor was his cousin, James, and
he radiated such an air of prosperity that the plain little bedroom shrank
to shabbiness.
James nodded in offhand fashion as he took off his overcoat. "Hello,
Jeff! Thought I'd look you up. Got settled in your diggings, eh?" Before
his host could answer he rattled on: "Just ran in for a moment. Had the
devil of a time to find you. What's the object in getting clear off the
earth?"
"Cheaper," Jeff explained.

"Should think it would be," James agreed after he had let his eyes
wander critically around the room. "But you can't afford to save that
way. Get a good suite. And for heaven's sake see a tailor, my boy. In
college a man is judged by the company he keeps."
"What have my room and my clothes to do with that?" Jeff wanted to
know, with a smile.
"Everything. You've got to put up a good front. The best fellows won't
go around with a longhaired guy who doesn't know how to dress. No
offense, Jeff."
His cousin laughed. "I'll see a barber to-morrow."
"And you must have a room where the fellows can come to see you."
"What's the matter with this one?"
A hint of friendly patronage crept into the manner of the junior. "My
dear chap, college isn't worth doing at all unless you do it right. You're
here to get in with the best fellows and to make connections that will
help you later. That sort of thing, you know."
Into Jeff's face came the light that always transfigured its plainness
when he was in the grip of an idea. "Hold on, J. K. Let's get at this right.
Is that what I'm here for? I didn't know it. There's a hazy notion in my
noodle that I'm here to develop myself."
"That's what I'm telling you. Go in for the things that count. Make a
good frat. Win out at football or debating. I don't give a hang what you
go after, but follow the ball and keep on the jump. I'm strong with the
crowd that runs things and I'll see they take you in and make you a cog
of the machine. But you'll have to measure up to specifications."
"But, hang it, I don't want to be a cog in any machine. I'm here to give
myself a chance to grow--sit out in the sun and hatch an
individuality--give myself lots of free play."

"Then you've come to the wrong shop," James informed him dryly. "If
you want to succeed at college you've got to