“Sure! And you must use our room like it was your own, Barry. Hal said I was to tell you that. Lots of times you won’t want to go back to Lyles’ between recitations, and you can come up to Forty-two and make yourself at home.... That’s the Town Hall over there. Looks like a relic, doesn’t it? And that’s the Methodist church.” “Sort of a pretty town,” said Barry. “Well, yes, but it’s a dead old hole. Only one movie, and that’s upstairs over the post-office! But the school’s all right. Corking lot of fellows. I’ll take you around to-morrow and show you the ropes. It’s a bit late to-day. Say, why didn’t your folks bring you over in the car? I was sure surprised when you ’phoned me yesterday that you were going by train.” “Dad had to go to Hudson on some business and needed the car. He wanted me to take it, but I didn’t see any sense in that. Besides, the train was pretty good fun. I hadn’t been on one for a couple of years.” “I haven’t, either. I’ve got no use for them. Give me an auto every time. Say, I shouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t any railroad trains pretty soon! Almost every one has some sort of a car. Oh, well, for long trips, like out to Chicago, or to San Francisco, maybe. But I guess we’ll be doing that by airships before long.... You can see Croft Hall now, if you look past the end of that barn. Dawson’s this side of it, but it’s behind the trees. The Lyles’ house is beyond this one. This is Stimson’s. He’s our math instructor.” Barry wasn’t following Clyde’s chatter very closely. For one thing, the lightest suit-case will become a burden toward the end of three quarters of a mile, and an overcoat on a warm day is no comfort, even if hung over the arm. Besides, Barry found more interest in the scene than in his friend’s remarks. There were times when he thought Clyde’s talk a trifle vapid, and this was one of them. He always tried to banish that thought, however, for he liked Clyde, and, too, owed him a debt of gratitude. They had left the town well behind and were going southward on a well-paved road beside which, at intervals, modest houses, usually flanked by barn and stable, stood back of neat shaded lawns. On the right stretched a wide meadow. Now and then Barry caught the glint of sunlight on the surface of a little river that wound through it, and, far ahead, a cluster of farm buildings well away from the road dozed in the shade of four giant elms. What interested him more, though, was the white dwelling that presently emerged to view beyond the end of an old red barn.