“I’d like it myself, Mr. York. Only I wouldn’t want to go unless I could do it fairly.”
“You’re right, old man. The end doesn’t always justify the means. Well, I’m going to put my thinking cap on and see if between us we can’t find a way. I’ll write to the secretary at Warner and see if there’s a scholarship you could try for. I’ll write to the other colleges around here, too. Look here, if you could get a real job next summer that would pay you, say, eighteen or twenty dollars a week, would you take it?”
“I’d jump at it!” said Sam. “But I don’t believe I know enough to make that much, Mr. York. There isn’t much I can do, I guess.”
“Seems to me you can do a good many things. You told me you’d canvassed for books, sold newspapers, and worked in a mill. And now you’re being councillor in a boys’ camp.”
“None of those jobs paid eighteen dollars a week, though, sir.”
“No, but what I’m getting at is that if you can do those things you can do other things. The only problem is to find something that will bring you real money. With, say, a couple of hundred dollars I dare say you wouldn’t be afraid to start college.”
“N-no, sir. Two hundred wouldn’t go very far, though, would it? Even at a state university?”
“It would pay your tuition, maybe. Tell you what I want you to do, Sam, when you get home. You go and see John Holden. I’m going to write to him about you. He’s a fine fellow. You can’t help liking him. And he is going to be a good man to know before very long. He’s only just making his start now, but he’s the sort you can’t stop, and in five years he will be Somebody in your town. You go and see him and tell him who you are. Get to know him. John and I are pretty good friends; have been ever since we were freshmen in college; they used to call us the Pair of Jacks. In that way you and I’ll be able to keep in touch. I’m a fairly busy man when I get back to work and I’m not much of a letter-writer, but if you’ll let me hear from you now and then I’ll see that your letters don’t go unanswered. And I’ll keep my eyes open and see if I can’t find some job that will put some money in your pocket when next summer comes.”
“I’d like that,” responded Sam gratefully. “I’d be willing to do ’most anything, I guess. Only--only I wouldn’t want you to--to just _make up_ a job for me, Mr. York.”