it," he finished lamely.

"I know," Hugh said. "I know how it is. I feel that way sometimes, too,
but not as much as you, I guess. I don't cry. I never really cry, but I
want to once in a while. I--I write poetry sometimes," he confessed
awkwardly, "but I guess it's not very good. Jimmie Henley says it isn't
so bad for a sophomore, but I'm afraid that he's just stringing me
along, trying to encourage me, you know. But there are times when I've
said a little bit right, just a little bit, but I've known that it was
right--and then I feel the way you do."

"I've written lots of poetry," Norry said simply, "but it's no good;
it's never any good." He paused between two big trees and pointed
upward. "Look, look up there. See those black branches and that patch of
sky between them and those stars. I want to picture that--and I can't;
and I want to picture the trees the way they look now so fluffy with
tiny new leaves, but I miss it a million miles.... But I can get it in
music," he added more brightly. "Grieg says it. Music is the most
wonderful thing in the world. I wish I could be a great violinist. I
can't, though. I'm not a genius, and I'm not strong enough. I can't
practice very long."

They continued walking in silence for a few minutes, and then Norry
said: "I'm awfully happy here at college, and I didn't expect to be,
either. I knew that I was kinda different from other fellows, not so
strong; and I don't like ugly things or smutty stories or anything like
that. I think women are lovely, and I hate to hear fellows tell dirty
stories about them. I'm no fool, Hugh; I know about the things that
happen, but I don't want to hear about them. Things that are dirty and
ugly make me feel sick."

"Well, I was afraid the fellows would razz me. But they don't. They
don't at all. The fellows over at the Delta Sig house are wonderful to
me. They don't think I'm wet. They don't razz me for not going on wild
parties, though I know that some of the fellows are pretty gay
themselves. They ask me to fiddle for them nearly every evening, and
they sit and listen very, very quietly just as long as I'll play. I'm
glad you told me to go Delta Sig."

Norry made Hugh feel very old and a little crude and hard. He realized
that there was something rare, almost exquisite, about the boy, and that
he lived largely in a beautiful world of his own imagination. It would
have surprised Norry if any one had told him that his fraternity
brothers st