T*he World and the University 



smoke did not rise from the stovepipe. Sure 

 enough, on the minute, he saw a tall column 

 curling gracefully up through the frosty air, 

 but instead of congratulating me on my success 

 he solemnly shook his head and said in a hollow, 

 lugubrious voice, "Young man, you will be 

 setting fire to the schoolhouse." All winter 

 long that faithful clock fire never failed, and 

 by the time I got to the schoolhouse the stove 

 was usually red-hot. 



At the beginning of the long summer vaca- 

 tions I returned to the Hickory Hill farm to 







earn the means in the harvest-fields to continue 

 my University course, walking all the way to 

 save railroad fares. And although I cradled 

 four acres of wheat a day, I made the long, 

 hard, sweaty day's work still longer and harder 

 by keeping up my study of plants. At the 

 noon hour I collected a large handful, put them 

 in water to keep them fresh, and after supper 

 got to work on them and sat up till after mid- 

 night, analyzing and classifying, thus leaving 

 only four hours for sleep ; and by the end of the 

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