ward work
if I get the Wallace appointment. I have almost no time for anything now
but digging. I don't care to be known just as 'dig,' but that is all I
am so far. The scholarship will pay me twice as much as the work I'm
doing and give me leisure for something besides digging. I haven't had
time to be homesick, but I would give a lot to see you all.

"With much love from the constant 'digger.'
"WALTER DOUGLAS."

Paul's reply to this was brief, and characteristic of his insight where
Walter was concerned. After assuring him that he had no objections to
his leaving the stewardship in case the scholarship was open to him, he
wrote:

"I notice you speak several times with more or less disparagement of the
fact that you are getting to be a 'dig.'

"I understand by this word is meant that the student is actually
applying himself with unusual enthusiasm or persistence in his studies.
I also understand that it is in some schools a term of reproach and that
a 'dig' is regarded as a slow fellow who has made the mistake of
supposing a college is a place where scholarships may be acquired.

"Now, I don't want you to miss the social side of college life and all
the jolly things that rightly belong to it. But if it comes to a choice
between being a 'dig' and being a 'jolly fellow' in college, you need
never hesitate concerning which one of these two we want you to be. The
main object of a college course is an all-around manhood and a fitting
of yourself for the best possible service in the world. The world does
not need jolly good fellows so much as it needs persons who know how to
do things, and do them right, and do them when they are most needed.
Wine suppers don't add anything to the happiness or well-being of the
world. And I hope you will live to see the time, if I don't, when the
American college will cease to be a soft retreat for rich men's sons and
be a real training school for service. Service is the great word, my
boy. No man is truly educated who does not have that word at the center
of both his heart and his head.

"I inclose a check for a hundred dollars and leave it to your judgment
as to its use. I want you to have all that rightfully goes with the
college course, and I hope you can get the scholarship if that will mean
for you more leisure for all-around development. But I don't think the
work you have done so far has hurt you any.

"All send love; your father,