with a name shared by more than one member of the class and with J 

 as his first initial, was invariably nicknamed Ji and remains so to this 

 day. For instance, the man who sat on my right was John Scott and 

 Dr. McCosh always called us "Mr. Ji Scott, Mr. W. Scott." Sometimes, 

 a student would inherit the name of Ji from an older brother. Hugh 

 Stuart, in my class, was always "Ji Stuart," because of his brother James 

 in the class above us; they were distinguished as big "Ji and Httle Ji." 

 All these little episodes were but bubbles on the surface of the admira- 

 tion which we all felt for him and the interest with which we listened 

 to his lectures. 



Though I was but seventeen years old, I think I may date my attain- 

 ment of manhood from the fall of 1875. I have already explained how 

 it happened that I had practically no youth and how prematurely I 

 acquired the grown-up point of view. My trip to Europe had been a 

 great factor in hastening maturity, not only because of what I had 

 learned of geography and history, art and architecture, but also on 

 account of the way in which I had acted as courier for my Mother. I 

 made all the arrangements, bought the tickets, paid the hotel bills, 

 carried the passport and letter of credit. Everything had to be done at 

 the lowest possible cost, for the gold premium, 17 per cent, took a 

 terrible bite out of our slender funds. The passport we took because 

 we had been strongly advised to do so, but it was not of the smallest 

 use to us; in fact, I never could induce any one in Europe to look at it. 



Another very important factor in my development was in becoming 

 an upperclassman. We ceased to be schoolboys and acquired an entirely 

 new point of view through entering a new world of thought. Also I was 

 beginning to find myself in the work of Whig Hall, to hold my own in 

 the swift give and take of debate, to think rapidly, coherently and sys- 

 tematically on my feet, gaining a respect and consideration from my 

 fellows that I had never had before. This consideration was increased 

 by the results of the first term's examination, when, greatly to my 

 surprise, I came out at the head of the class, a position which I held 

 through the remainder of the course. No doubt, it was this distinction 

 which relieved me of the necessity of "making up" the Sophomore 

 examinations. 



All these things contributed to make a man of me, but gave me no 

 increase of popularity among my classmates, who, with one insignifi- 

 cant exception, never elected me to any office either in the class or in 

 Whig Hall, or took any official, or collective notice of me. I may seem 

 to have been unduly sensitive about so small a matter as student popu- 



n45] 



