Mr. Carleton assented, in a way that seemed to imply, "Oh, yes, I knew all about it before;" then he continued:
"Well, do you remember Mr. Swinburne, the old, white-haired gentleman whom you met and talked with at the university grounds, when you were in the city?"
"Yes, sir," replied Ray, almost breathlessly now.
"I got a letter from him," Mr. Carleton explained, "only a few days after you met him, making inquiries about you. I thought it best not only to tell him your history, but also to give him an account of your manly resistance to a great temptation there that day. I soon received a letter in answer to mine. In it he stated that a number of years ago he established several scholarships at Clinton Academy, and had reserved the right so long as he should live to name the young men who should receive the income from them. This income is sufficient to pay the tuition and the room rent at the academy, and leaves only the board and incidentals to be met by the student himself. He closed his letter by saying one of the scholarships became vacant at the close of the last academic year, and has not as yet been assigned to any one, and he should be glad to name you for it. I took the liberty to request him to do so. Your entire expenses outside of what this scholarship provides for cannot amount to over one hundred and fifty dollars for the year. There will be many ways for you to help yourself during the school term, as well as in the vacations. Friends here in Afton stand ready to help where your own exertions fail to supply the necessary funds; so really I think you may begin your academic course there immediately after Thanksgiving."
"But you know I have lost one term; could I enter now and go on with the class?" asked Ray, anxiously.
"We thought of all that," replied Mr. Carleton, "and that is why we have not spoken to you about this before. We waited until Mr. Greenough wrote to Mr. Phillips as to the outlook for you to enter the winter term. He gave Mr. Phillips a list of the studies you had completed, and he replied that you could very readily enter and go on with the present freshman class, some of your studies being even in advance of the first term there at the academy, while none are behind it. There is then no objection on that score. The main question is, are you ready to undertake it?"
"Just one thing more, Mr. Carleton," Ray said, with evident embarrassment; "there is nothing unmanly in my accepting this aid?"
"I had expected that question, foolish as it is," replied Mr. Carleton, with a laugh. "If it is unmanly, then I was unmanly, for I went through Clinton Academy on one of those very scholarships. But, seriously, where is it unmanly? You can go through the academy working your own way without doubt. But you will have to stay out some in order to earn the necessary funds. This interrupts your studies, and compels you, we will say, to be six years in getting what otherwise you would have gotten in four. Which is wiser, to lose those two years, or accept the slight aid that will bring you along two years sooner to your life's work? The town or State, one or both, must maintain our common schools; our colleges and academies exist only because some friends have liberally endowed them. There is no part of the education that comes to us that has not been secured at less cost because of the help others have afforded. It is simply a question of the amount of help we will permit ourselves to receive. Thousands of our most useful men would never have received an education at all had it not been for accepting just the same kind of help that is now offered you."
"I guess the question was a foolish one," admitted Ray; "but I shall feel all the better for your explanation, and I am very grateful to all of you who have taken interest enough in me to arrange this thing. I had scarcely thought it possible for me to go to Clinton Academy, even while I was saving up my money to go to some school. It was a hard struggle, too, for me to give up that money to George; but I knew it was right, and I did it, believing that God would open the way for me to get an education, and he has, even better than I planned." He was silent a moment or two, as though in deep thought, then he added: "Who would have supposed that just that meeting with Mr. Swinburne that day would have led to this."
"Remember, too," said Mr. Carleton, with emphasis, "that it was after you refused to accept the money those men offered you for your education, and not before. When you had refused to accept an education by dishonest means, God led you in his way, and opened for you this door. So far as I can see, the education is within your reach, and in an honest, manly way also."