r."

* * * * *

The usual thing took place. Most of the worst criminals were
mysteriously given ample time to make their get-away ... probably aided
in it. The humorous side of the resulting investigation and trials of
various minor malefactors were played up almost exclusively.

Little by little the town dropped back to its outward observance of not
seeing in its civic life what it did not care to see, and which no one
could radically remedy till human nature is itself different.

* * * * *

The school year was drawing to a close, my last year at Laurel.

Professor Black, of the English department, had assured me that, if I
would tone down a bit, I could easily win a scholarship in his
department, and, later, an assistant professorship.

But I preferred my rambling, haphazard course of life, which was less
comfortable, but better for the freedom of mind and spirit that poets
must preserve....

Dr. Hammond, when I had given him that luncheon on the borrowed money,
had taken me aside and informed me that one of the professors--an
influential man on the Hill (beyond that, he refused to identify him
further) had advised him, Hammond, not to accept the luncheon in his
honour....

"We don't approve generally of Gregory, on the Hill, you know...."

And Hammond had, he told me, replied--

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Gregory is my friend, and Dr. Ward, our literary
editor, looks on him as a distinguished contributor to the
_Independent_, and a young writer of great and growing promise" ... so
the luncheon was given ... I wonder if the protesting professor was one
of those invited, and if so, if he attended?...

I saw clearly that I could never fit into the formal, academic life of
the college--where professors were ashamed to be seen carrying packages
and bags home from the stores, but must have them delivered ... for fear
of losing their social status!

* * * * *

There was a park on the outskirts of town where I loved to loaf, when
the weather was sunny,--a place where the blue jays fought with the
squirrels and the leaves flickered in the sun ... sometimes I lay on the
grass, reading ... sometimes I lounged on a bench ... I read my Greek
and Latin poets there ... and my English and German poets ... and, when
hungry, I sauntered home to my bread and cheese, or, now that I was in
receipt of Derek's weekly stipend, to a frugal