"What would you do, Lucky?"
"I'd let you lend me some dough—naturally."
Young hesitated. "Lucky," he said, "I am hard up—don't tell anybody, but I'm mighty hard up. I'd rather leave college, though, than borrow money to stay here with."
But Young spent Christmas holidays with Lucky Lee in New York, and it turned out to be a very good thing that he did—not only on account of the temporary rest from worry.
CHAPTER X
HOW HE STAYED IN COLLEGE
"Business is the systematic supplying of wants. When all visible wants are supplied, you must simply create new wants to satisfy. Patient willingness to do whatever turns up will only bring success when things turn up. Under the conditions of modern competition things seldom turn up of themselves."
Mr. Lee, Lucky's father, had said this one evening after dinner during the happy holidays; and Will remembered every word of it, not only because he had great respect for successful Mr. Lee's opinions, but because what he said seemed to apply to his own quandary. Mr. Lee seemed to have taken a fancy to Young, and talked to him frequently. Mrs. Lee liked him, too. She seemed to consider his preferring to eat his peas with a spoon a very small matter (though Will himself blushed scarlet when he discovered his mistake). She said she was glad her son had chosen for one of his intimate friends a young man with so much maturity and character—this she said to Young himself—"And I know you will look after him," she said; "he's such an impressionable boy, but he admires you so much that you can influence him any way you desire."
The Deacon blushed and said he would try, but what Lucky's father said made more impression upon him at the time.