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Page 48
"Thank you," replied Will respectfully, and he then departed from the
house. He was divided between a feeling of keen disappointment and a
desire to laugh as he walked up the street toward his dormitory. And
this was the man who was to stimulate his intellectual processes! In his
thoughts he contrasted him with his professor in Latin, and the man as
well as the language sank lower and lower in his estimation. And yet he
must meet it. The problem might be solved but could not be evaded. He
would see Franklin at once, he decided.
CHAPTER XV
A REVERSED DECISION
In the days that immediately followed, Will Phelps found himself so busy
that there was but little time afforded for the pleasures of comradeship
or for the lighter side of college life. Acting upon the one good point
in the advice of his professor of Greek he secured a tutor, and though
he found but little pleasure in the study, still he gave himself to it
so unreservedly that when a few weeks had elapsed, a new light, dim
somewhat, it was true, and by no means altogether cheering, began to
appear upon his pathway. It was so much more difficult to catch up than
to keep up, and perhaps this was the very lesson which Will Phelps
needed most of all to learn. There was not much time given to recreation
now, and Will acting upon the advice of the instructor in athletics had
abandoned his projected practice in running though his determination to
try to secure a place on the track team was as strong as ever. But he
had substituted for the running a line of work in the gymnasium which
tended to develop the muscles in his legs and keep his general bodily
condition in good form. He was informed that success in running was
based upon nerve force as well as upon muscular power, and that "early
to bed" was almost as much a requisite here as it was in making a man
"healthy and wealthy and wise." This condition however he found it
exceedingly difficult to fulfill, for the additional work he was doing
in Greek made a severe draught upon his time as well as upon his
energies.
"I hate the stuff!" he declared one night to his room-mate after he had
spent several hours in an almost vain effort to fasten certain rules in
his mind. "You don't catch me taking it after this year."
"You don't have to look ahead, Will," suggested Foster kindly.
"No, the look behind is bad enough. If I had worked in the early part of
the high-school course as I ought to I'd not be having all this bother
now."
"And if you work now you won't have the trouble ahead," laughed Foster.
"I suppose that's the way of it."
"Of course it is. A fellow reaps what he sows."
"I'd rather _rip_ what I sewed," said Will ruefully. "Do you know,
Foster, sometimes I think the game isn't worth the candle. I'd give it
all up, even if I had to leave college, if it wasn't for my father."
"You wouldn't do anything of the kind and you know it, Will Phelps!
You're not the fellow to run when the pinch comes."
"I'd like to, though," said Will thoughtfully. "My fit in Greek was so
poor I'll never get much of the good from studying it."
"You'll be all the stronger for not giving up, anyway."
"That's the only thing that keeps me at it. I'm so busy I don't even
have time to be homesick."
"Well, that's one good thing."
"Perhaps it is, but if I flunk out at the mid-year's--"
"You won't if you only keep it up and keep at it."
"I'd feel better if I thought I wouldn't."
"You'll be all right," said Foster soothingly, for he understood his
friend so well that he knew he was in one of his periods of mental
reaction, and that what he needed was encouragement more than anything
else.
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