The man pointed across the street to an entrance between two gray stone pillars with pyramidal tops, and Jason trotted back, and trotted on through them, and up the smooth curve of the road. Not a soul was in sight, and on the empty steps of the first building he came to Jason dropped, panting. XVIII The campus was thick with grass and full of trees, there were buildings of red brick everywhere, and all were deserted. He began to feel that the constable had made game of him, and he was indignant. Nobody in the mountains would treat a stranger that way; but he had reached his goal, and, no matter when "school took up," he was there. Still, he couldn't help rising restlessly once, and then with a deep breath he patiently sat down again and waited, looking eagerly around meanwhile. The trees about him were low and young--they looked like maples--and multitudinous little gray birds were flitting and chattering around him, and these he did not know, for the English sparrow has not yet captured the mountains. Above the closed doors of the long brick building opposite the stone-guarded gateway he could see the word "Tobacco" printed in huge letters, and farther away he could see another similar sign, and somehow he began wondering why Steve Hawn had talked so much about the troubles that were coming over tobacco, and seemed to care so little about the election troubles that had put the whole State on the wire edge of quivering suspense. Half an hour passed and Jason was getting restless again, when he saw an old negro shuffling down the stone walk with a bucket in one hand, a mop in the other, and trailing one leg like a bird with a broken wing. "Good-mornin', son." "Do you know whar John Burnham is?" "Whut's dat--whut's dat?" "I'm a-lookin' fer John Burnham." "Look hyeh, chile, is you referrin' to Perfesser Burnham?" "I reckon that's him." "Well, if you is, you better axe fer him jes' that-a-way--PerFESser PERfesser--Burnham. Well, PERFESSER Burnham won't sanctify dis hall wid his presence fer quite a long while--quite a long while. May I inquire, son, if yo' purpose is to attend dis place o' learnin'?" "I come to go to college." "Yassuh, yassuh," said the old negro, and with no insolence whatever he guffawed loudly. "Well, suh, looks lak you come a long way, an' you sutinly got hyeh on time--you sho did. Well, son, you jes' set hyeh as long as you please an', walk aroun' an' come back an' den ef you set hyeh long enough agin, you'se a-gwine to see Perfesser Burnham come right up dese steps."