Part 18 (2/2)

inquired the professor. The voice seemed to be as impersonal as that of a phonograph, and every letter in every word was so distinctly p.r.o.nounced that the effect was almost electric.

”Yes, sir.”

Again silence intervened. The professor's lips moved slightly as if, as Will afterwards declared, ”he was tasting his Greek roots,” but he did not speak. The freshman s.h.i.+fted his position, toyed with his gloves and at last, unable to endure the suspense any longer, he broke forth:

”Yes, sir, there is, professor. I have not been doing very well in my Greek.”

”Ah. Let me see.” The professor opened a drawer and drew forth a little notebook which he consulted for a brief time. ”Yes, you are correct.

Your work is below the required standard.”

”But what am I to do about it?” demanded Will.

”Yes, ah, yes. I fancy it will be necessary for you to spend a somewhat longer period of study in preparation.”

”But _how_ shall I study?”

”Yes. Yes. Ah, yes. Exactly so. So you refer to the method to be employed in the preparation for the cla.s.sroom?”

”Yes, sir. That's it. I'm willing enough to work, but I don't know how.”

”Well, I should say that the proper method would be to employ a tutor for a time. There are several very excellent young gentlemen who are accustomed to give their services to deserving youth--”

”I don't want them to give it. I'll pay for it!” interrupted Will.

”I was about to say that these young gentlemen give their services for a consideration--a proper consideration--of course.”

The professor's thin lips seemed to be reluctant to permit the escape of a word, so firmly were they pressed together during the intervals between his slowly spoken words. His slight figure, ”too thin to cast a shadow,” in the vigorous terms of the young freshman, was irritating in the extreme, and if Will had followed his own inclinations he would at once have ended the interview.

”I knew I could get a tutor, and if it is necessary I'll do it. But I did not know but that you might be able to make a suggestion to me. I know I'm not very well prepared, but if you'll give me a show and tell me a little how to go to work at the detestable stuff I'll do my best. I don't like it. I wouldn't keep at it a minute if my father was not so anxious for me to keep it up and I'd do anything in the world for him.

That's why I'm in the Greek cla.s.s.”

”You are, I fancy (fawncy was the word in the dialect of the professor) doing better work in the various other departments than in your Greek?”

”Yes, sir. I think so.”

”You are not positive?”

”Yes, sir. I know I'm doing fairly well in my Latin and mathematics. Why the recitation in Latin never seems to be more than a quarter of an hour, while the Greek seems as if it would never come to an end. I think Professor Baxter is the best teacher I ever saw and he doesn't make the Latin seem a bit like a dead language. But the Greek seems as if it had never been alive.”

”Ahem-m!” piped up the thin voice of the professor of Greek.

Will Phelps, however, was in earnest now and his embarra.s.sment was all forgotten. He was expressing his own inward feelings and without any intention or even thought of how the words would sound he was describing his own att.i.tude of mind. He certainly had no thought of how his words would be received.

”Ahem-m!” repeated the professor shrilly and s.h.i.+fting a trifle uneasily in his seat. ”I fawncy that a student always does better work in a subject which he enjoys.”

”Yes, but doesn't he enjoy what he can do better work in too? Now I don't know how to study Greek, can't seem to make anything out of it. As you told me one day in the cla.s.s 'I make Greek of it all.' Perhaps not exactly the kind of Greek you want, though,” Will added with a smile.

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