strike with the editors and lifted the loan.

The other place to which I came in trouble was the saloon. This
saloon-keeper I had known by sight for a couple of years. I had never
spent my money in his saloon, and even when I borrowed from him I didn't
spend any money. Yet never did he refuse me any sum I asked of him.
Unfortunately, before I became prosperous, he moved away to another city.
And to this day I regret that he is gone. It is the code I have learned.
The right thing to do, and the thing I'd do right now did I know where he
is, would be to drop in on occasion and spend a few dollars across his
bar for old sake's sake and gratitude.

This is not to exalt saloon-keepers. I have written it to exalt the
power of John Barleycorn and to illustrate one more of the myriad ways by
which a man is brought in contact with John Barleycorn until in the end
he finds he cannot get along without him.

But to return to the run of my narrative. Away from the adventure-path,
up to my ears in study, every moment occupied, I lived oblivious to John
Barleycorn's existence. Nobody about me drank. If any had drunk, and
had they offered it to me, I surely would have drunk. As it was, when I
had spare moments I spent them playing chess, or going with nice girls
who were themselves students, or in riding a bicycle whenever I was
fortunate enough to have it out of the pawnbroker's possession.

What I am insisting upon all the time is this: in me was not the
slightest trace of alcoholic desire, and this despite the long and severe
apprenticeship I had served under John Barleycorn. I had come back from
the other side of life to be delighted with this Arcadian simplicity of
student youths and student maidens. Also, I had found my way into the
realm of the mind, and I was intellectually intoxicated. (Alas! as I was
to learn at a later period, intellectual intoxication too, has its
katzenjammer.)

CHAPTER XXII

Three years was the time required to go through the high school. I grew
impatient. Also, my schooling was becoming financially impossible. At
such rate I could not last out, and I did greatly want to go to the state
university. When I had done a year of high school, I decided to attempt
a short cut. I borrowed the money and paid to enter the senior class of
a "cramming joint" or academy. I was scheduled to graduate right into
the university at the end of four months, thus saving two years.

And how I