The Vision Splendid | Page 9

He throws a
chest and makes you feel he's a big man, but what he says won't stand
analysis--just a lot of platitudes."
"Don't forget he's young yet. James K. hasn't found himself."
"Sure there's anything to find?"
"There's a lot in him. He's the biggest man in the university to-day."
"You practically wrote the oration that won the interstate contest. Think
I don't know that?" Miller snorted.

Jeff's mouth took on a humorous twist. "I gave him some suggestions.
How did you know?"
"Knew he wasn't hanging around last term for nothing. He's selfish as
the devil."
"You're all wrong about him, Sam. He isn't selfish at all at bottom."
"Shoot the brains out of that oration and what's left would be the part
he supplied. The fellow's got a gift of absorbing new ideas superficially
and dressing them up smartly."
"Then he's got us beat there," Jeff laughed goodnaturedly. He had not
in his make-up a grain of envy. Even his laughter was generally genial,
though often irreverent to the God-of-things- as-they-are.
"When he won the interstate he lapped up flattery like a thirsty pup, but
his bluff was that it was only for the college he cared to win."
"Most of us have mixed motives."
"Not J. K. Reminds me of old Johnson's 'Patriotism is the last refuge of
a scoundrel.'"
Jeff straightened. "That won't do, Sam. I believe in J. K. You've got
nothing against him except that you don't like him."
"Forgot you were his cousin, Jeff," Miller grumbled. "But it's a fact that
he works everybody to shove him along."
"He's only a kid. Give him time. He'll be a big help to any community."
"James K.'s biggest achievement will always be James K."
Jeff chuckled at the apothegm even while he protested. Sam capped it
with another.
"He's always sitting to himself for his own portrait."

"He'll get over that when he brushes up against the world." Jeff added
his own criticism thoughtfully. "The weak spot in him is a sort of
flatness of mind. This makes him afraid of new ideas. He wants to be
respectable, and respectability is the most damning thing on earth."
After Miller had left Jeff buckled down to Ely's "Political Economy."
He had not been at it long when James surprised him by dropping in.
His host offered the easiest chair and shoved tobacco toward him.
"Been pretty busy with the team, I suppose?" Jeff suggested.
"It's taken a lot of my time, but I think I've put the athletic association
on a paying basis at last."
"I see by your report in the 'Verdenian' that you made good."
"A fellow ought to do well whatever he undertakes to do."
Jeff grinned across at him from where he lay on the bed with his fingers
laced beneath his head. "That's what the copybooks used to say."
"I want to have a serious talk with you, Jeff."
"Aren't you having it? What can be more important than the successes
of James K. Farnum?"
The senior looked at him suspiciously. He was not strongly fortified
with a sense of humor. "Just now I want to talk about the failures of
Jefferson D. Farnum," he answered gravely.
Jeff's eyes twinkled. "Is it worth while? I am unworthy of this boon, O
great Cesar."
"Now that's the sort of thing that stands in your way," James told him
impatiently. "People never know when you're laughing at them. There
is no reason why you shouldn't succeed. Your abilities are up to the
average, but you fritter them away."
"Thank you." Jeff wore an air of being immensely pleased.

"The truth is that you're your own worst enemy. Now that you have
taken to dressing better you are not bad looking. I find a good many of
the fellows like you--or they would if you'd let them."
"Because I'm so well connected," Jeff laughed.
"I suppose it does help, your being my cousin. But the thing depends on
you. Unless you make a decided change you'll never get on."
"What change do you suggest? Item one, please?"
James looked straight at him. "You lack bedrock principles, Jeff."
"Do I?"
"Take your habits. Two or three times you've been seen coming out of
saloons."
"Expect I went in to get a drink."
"It's not generally known, of course, but if it reached Prexy he'd fire
you so quick your head would swim."
"I dare say."
The senior looked at him significantly. "You're the last man that ought
to go to such places. There's such a thing as an inherited tendency."
The jaw muscles stood out like ropes under the flesh of Jeff's lean face.
"We'll not discuss that."
"Very well. Cut it out. A drinking man is handicapped too heavily to
win."
"Much obliged. Second count in