"I'm not going," he replied quietly but resolutely.
"Not going?" echoed his visitors quite taken aback. They had been so sure of him. They needed him, a student who stood in so well with the professors.
"Not going," said Rex and continued with a sneering laugh, "I suppose you prefer Reydal?"
"Yes," was the rejoinder, "I prefer—Reydal."
Then moved by a sudden impulse Joe called out: "Come in fellows I want to tell you why I can not go."
He took the picture from the mantle and handed it to them.
"Here is a little girl who believes in me with all her heart, and here is a boy who wants to be just like myself. He doesn't believe that Smith would do anything that was not square. It makes a lot of difference when anyone believes in you like that."
Feeling the force of Joe's argument and realizing the futility of attempting to change his decision, his disappointed visitors left. But many times that evening, in the midst of their hilarious fun, thoughts of those who believed in them as the boy and girl believed in Joe persisted in rising uncalled in their minds.
Some minutes after the four had left, a tall broad form, whose neck encased in an enormous collar rendered him especially conspicuous, entered the room without the ceremony of knocking.
"I've come to discuss with you a rather abstruse statement which I have found in Bersey's 'The Human Mind,'" boomed forth a voice from the depths of the said collar.