"I shall miss him dreadfully. O, dear, my darling!" Esther suddenly
yielded to a good cry that somewhat upset Paul. Only once in a while in
their married life had Esther given way to such a display of feeling.
But before Paul went down to the office that morning she had dried her
tears and with a hopeful smile prepared to make out a list of Walter's
school necessities for the eight months he would be away from home.

Walter was twenty years old, tall and slim, with his father's features
and his mother's voice, and a very strong liking for all scientific and
mechanical work. He had within the year graduated from the Milton high
school with honors in the physics department, and had at once set his
ambition on going to Burrton Electrical and Engineering School, the best
school of its kind in the East. His father had made him a tempting offer
to come into the _News_ office, but the boy had frankly told his father
that if there was anything in the world he disliked it was a newspaper.
So Paul, with a sigh of disappointment, had yielded to the inevitable
and agreed to the Burrton plan, simply stipulating that Walter, who was
disposed to be luxurious in his tastes, should make up his mind to a
school course stripped of unnecessary expenses and devoted to the main
thing.

"I am willing, of course, to help you with your education," he said, in
a very plain, frank talk with Walter when the decision was finally made.
"But I expect you to do something for yourself. The Burrton catalogue
mentions stewardships which students are allowed to choose in part
payment of tuition. Isn't that so?"

Walter looked annoyed and answered his father sullenly.

"Yes, but the stewards at Burrton have to wash dishes and mess around
the clubhouses doing odd jobs for the other fellows. It cuts them out of
pretty much all the best social life of the school."

Paul looked at his oldest boy indignantly. If there was anything he ever
feared it was that his children would grow up to despise manual labor
and shrink from it.

"Do you mean to say you are not willing to do your honest part at honest
work to get through school? Or do you mean to say, Walter, that the
social part of the school is so important that you are going to make it
count in your program for an education?"

"No." Walter looked anxious and his tone was changed. "I--well--I
naturally don't want to be rated in a class below the rest--I------"

"Do you mean that the stewards at Burrto