“Find it more interesting than our old friend Homer, eh? You know we haven’t had a Greek lesson for a long time, Will.”
“No, sir, and I—I guess there isn’t any use having any more.”
“Why, how’s that? Think you know enough to get by those exams, do you?”
“I’m not going to take them, sir. I—I’m not going to college, after all.”
Mr. Chase looked up in surprise. “Not going!” he exclaimed. “Why, Will, I thought that was all settled. What’s changed your mind?”
Willard very nearly replied that Grandma Pierson had changed his mind, but he didn’t. Instead, “Father can’t afford it, sir,” he answered.
“Dear, dear, I’m sorry! Is it—quite settled? Isn’t there any hope, Will?”
“No, sir, I don’t think so. Not unless I earn the money somehow, and I guess I couldn’t do that!”
“It would take some time,” Mr. Chase agreed dubiously. “You’d need pretty nearly three hundred a year, Will, although you might scale that down a little. I’m sorry, awfully sorry.”
“Yes, sir, so’m I.”