“Yes, I know it. But I’ve got to face hard facts. Don’t think I’m squealing. Honest, I’m glad to do it, even if it is disappointing.” He squared his shoulders. “Well,” he said reluctantly, “I’d better go by-by now; my train leaves at six-thirty. I’ll stick my head in your rooms on my way off. So long!” An hour later, sitting by his open window, David listened to the strains of the band over in the gymnasium and watched the stars. He had the feeling that he was swinging in a void. Every task and duty connected with the school was finished. He had just jumped on his trunk and locked it. It was ready to be dragged out into the hall for the expressman to take at dawn. Another boy was filling his place in the band. Football, basketball, tennis—they were all dreams, never to touch reality again, even when he should look at the team photographs cherished between stiff cardboards in his trunk. A small apologetic rap sounded on his door. No one ever knocked in the natural course of events. Surprised, David opened it, snapping on the light as he did so. The three boys stood there, leaning heavily on one another’s shoulders. “Hello!” said the foremost. “’Fraid you would be in bed.” “No, just picking up loose ends,” said David. “Glad you happened along. Take an end of this trunk, will you, and let’s heave it into the hall.” “What’s in it, bricks?” asked one, as they placed the trunk in the corridor. They came in, and shut the door. “I suppose you want to go to bed,” said the tall boy, “but we have a plan to put up to you, and we were afraid that there would be so much confusion in the morning that you might not see it straight. And I’m doing the talking now, so you’ll kindly shut up until I am all through. And be reasonable! Fact is, old man, we want you to borrow the cost of your college course from us. Now wait!” he demanded, as David shook his head. “Try to listen, you blithering idiot! We all have plenty of money, and we want to stake you; just as if you were our own brother, Dave. Listen! It’s like this: take the money, and keep the jobs you have planned on. They will float you, and you can send the cash home, and the girls can go to college, and everything will be jake. See?” “I can’t take it,” said David, touched and amused at the same time. “If that is what brought you, just save your breath. You are the best friends a fellow ever had, and it is worth giving up more than I have given up to find it out. But I don’t want your money. I can’t take anybody’s money. I haven’t a cent of my own beside my car fare and ten dollars for meals, and I am going to start square with myself and the whole world. “Get this, fellows; I am just as grateful as I can be, and I’ll never forget it. But I’m not going to be carried along by my friends. I won’t be a sap, or a sucker, or a leech. I’ll work my own way up, and boy! just watch my dust!” He shook each one by the hand and somehow, before they knew it, they were in the hall.