should have chosen 'The Advantages of a College Education' as the subject of your essay and, moreover, betrayed in the effective manner in which you presented your thesis that you are quite convinced of the benefits to be derived from colleges. You have evidently given the matter considerable thought."
Harold thought that through the barrage of sonorously mouthed big words he gleaned Gaines' meaning. He replied, "If you mean that I want to go to college, I do, you bet I do."
Gaines hesitated. Then he asked, "If you will permit me, may I ask if the obstacle thwarting your desire is of a financial character? For lack of pecuniary means is not necessarily a bar to a college education, you know. I, myself, for instance, worked my way through all four years at Tate University and was neither hampered in my educational pursuits nor looked down upon by my fellows."
"Money is one reason I can't go," Harold said frankly. "Another reason is that my father doesn't believe in colleges. He has arranged with my Uncle Peter Thatcher to have me go to work at the Thatcher Steel Works in Cleveland in the fall. Dad says the best education is gotten in the hard school of experience That's where he got his."
Professor Gaines said, "H'mm," with the
