"Work for Yale! Work for Princeton! Work for Harvard! Bah! Sublime poppycock!" exclaimed Brockhurst, in a sort of fury. "Of all drivel preached to young Americans, that is the worst. I came to Yale for an education. I pay for it--good pay. I ask, first and last, what is Yale going to do for me? Work for Yale, go out and slave, give up my leisure and my independence--to do what for Yale? To keep turning the wheels of some purely inconsequential machine, or strive like a gladiator. Is that doing anything for Yale, a seat of learning? If I'm true to myself, make the most of myself, go out and be something, stand for something _after_ college, then ask the question if you want. Ridiculous! Hocus-pocus and flap-doodle! Lord! I don't know anything that enrages me more. Good night; I'm going. Heaven knows what I'll say if I stay!" He clapped his hat on his head and broke out of the door. The chorus of exclamations in the room died down. Ricketts, still shifting his victorious pile, began to whistle softly to himself. Regan, languidly stretched out, with a twinkle in his eyes kept watching Stover, staring red and concentrated into the fire. "Well?" he said at last. Stover turned. "Well?" said Regan, smiling. Dink rapped the ashes from his pipe, scratched his head, and said frankly: "Of course I shouldn't have said what I did. I got well spanked for it, and I deserve it." "What do you think of his ideas?" said Regan, nodding appreciatively at Stover's fair acknowledgment. "I don't know," said Stover, puzzled. "I guess I haven't used my old thinker enough lately to be worth anything in a discussion. Still--" "Still what?" said Regan, as Dink hesitated. "Still, he has made me think," he admitted grudgingly. "I wish he didn't quite--quite get on my nerves so." "There's a great deal in what he said to-night," said Pike meditatively; "a great deal. Of course, he is always looking at things from the standpoint of the individual; still, just the same--" "Brocky always states only one side of the proposition," said Brown, who rarely measured swords when Brockhurst was present in the flesh. "He takes for granted his premise, and argues for a conclusion that must follow." "Well, what's your premise, Brown?" said Stover hopefully, for he wanted to be convinced. "This is my premise," said Brown fluently. "The country has changed, the function of a college has changed. It is now the problem of educating masses and not individuals. To-day it is a question of perfecting a high average. That's what happens everywhere in college: we all tend toward the average; what some lose others gain. We go out, not as individuals, but as a type--a Yale type, Harvard type, Princeton type, five hundred strong, proportionately more powerful in our influence on the country." "Just what does our type take from here to the nation?" said Stover; and then he was surprised that he had asked the question that was vital.