THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
33 
opinion of the wit or wisdom of one of them. 
If going to college does not enable young men 
to talk with more sense and form better concep¬ 
tions of the purposes of life than Mr. Davidson 
exhibited to-night, I think the expense of main¬ 
taining such institutions quite a useless waste of 
time and. money.” 
“ Then, sister mine, you must have been guilty 
of a little coquetry, for you seemed much to en¬ 
joy your tete-a-tHey 
“ Oh yes,” was the answer; “ in the way of 
small talk Mr. Davidson was entertaining 
enough; but when anything serious or sen¬ 
sible was brought forward, he was excruciat¬ 
ingly dull or quite offensively wanting in rever¬ 
ence. He did not know what he was made for, 
nor what he was going to do. On the whole, 
he thought the world a huge mistake, and man 
as the climax of the failure. As sister Ella is 
so anxious to engage in missionary work, I 
think, instead of going to enlighten the heathen 
on the other side of the globe, it would be bet¬ 
ter to begin with those much nearer home; and, 
as a point of beginning, I recommend a certain 
Senior class in a neighboring college.” 
“Ah, Min,” said the brother, “Charley was 
c 
