r nothing. He's selfish as
the devil."

"You're all wrong about him, Sam. He isn't selfish at all at bottom."

"Shoot the brains out of that oration and what's left would be the
part he supplied. The fellow's got a gift of absorbing new ideas
superficially and dressing them up smartly."

"Then he's got us beat there," Jeff laughed goodnaturedly. He had not
in his make-up a grain of envy. Even his laughter was generally genial,
though often irreverent to the God-of-things-as-they-are.

"When he won the interstate he lapped up flattery like a thirsty pup,
but his bluff was that it was only for the college he cared to win."

"Most of us have mixed motives."

"Not J. K. Reminds me of old Johnson's 'Patriotism is the last refuge of
a scoundrel.'"

Jeff straightened. "That won't do, Sam. I believe in J. K. You've got
nothing against him except that you don't like him."

"Forgot you were his cousin, Jeff," Miller grumbled. "But it's a fact
that he works everybody to shove him along."

"He's only a kid. Give him time. He'll be a big help to any community."

"James K.'s biggest achievement will always be James K."

Jeff chuckled at the apothegm even while he protested. Sam capped it
with another.

"He's always sitting to himself for his own portrait."

"He'll get over that when he brushes up against the world." Jeff added
his own criticism thoughtfully. "The weak spot in him is a sort of
flatness of mind. This makes him afraid of new ideas. He wants to be
respectable, and respectability is the most damning thing on earth."

After Miller had left Jeff buckled down to Ely's "Political Economy."
He had not been at it long when James surprised him by dropping in. His
host offered the easiest chair and shoved tobacco toward him.

"Been pretty busy with the team, I suppose?" Jeff suggested.

"It's taken a lot of my time, but I think I've put the athletic
association on a paying basis at last."

"I see by your report in the 'Verdenian' that you made good."

"A fellow ought to do well whatever he undertakes to do."

Jeff grinned across at him from where he lay on the bed with his fingers
laced beneath his head. "That's what the copybooks used to say."

"I want to have a serious talk with you, Jeff."

"Aren't you having it? What can be more important than the successes of
James K. Farnum?"

The senior looked at him suspiciously. He was not strongly fortified
with a sense of humor. "Just now I want to talk about