“But Dr. Mills,” said Ghevont, “do you not know that no other college will receive us? We shall be accused of misconduct, and this stigma of bad character will follow us all through our student life.”
“If that is all,” replied the president, “I will give each of you a certificate of good character.”
He sat down at his desk, and quickly wrote a few lines; then he gave to each boy an excellent testimonial. The boys were so astonished that they did not know what to say. Dr. Mills had to help them out with a gentle push, after shaking hands once more.
[1] Baronian: a satirical writer, born at Adrianople, in 1840. [↑]
CHAPTER XIII
THE HOLIDAYS
The holidays were at hand. The boys were so absorbed in their preparations for departure and their farewell visits to town, that the affair of the Juniors’ expulsion was to some extent forgotten. Each morning small groups of students left the college, to attach themselves to some caravan of merchants. They scattered to the four points of the compass; some journeyed toward the high table-lands of Asia Minor, others set out for the Euphrates or the Tigris, in order to go down stream on rafts as far as Mosul or Bagdad. As they separated, they made great protestations of friendship, which were speedily forgotten in the happiness of returning home.
Dikran and Nejib were among the first to leave, their home being at Aleppo, a city easily reached from Aintab. Next, came the turn of Garabed, Soghomon and Samouīl. The Juniors who had been expelled went to Syria, for the president of the American college at Beyrout, a man of broad views, had promised to admit them at the next term.