going far. You've no cause to worry."

So Roger was not nagged at home. Somehow his father raised the money to
pay a hired man so that except in the long summer vacations Roger was
relieved from farm work. Until well into his junior year, he merely
carried the required work in college and devoted all his excess energy
to football and girls. He was notably successful in both fields. He was
six feet tall, lean and muscular and a splendid half back. He was eager
and chivalrous and had a charming smile and was a famous schemer of
things to do, and places to go. The University was co-educational and
Roger had no rival with the girls except perhaps Ernest. Ernest was
whimsical and sweet and very musical, and he took the girls seriously,
which Roger refused to do.

But all the playing came to an end in Roger's junior winter. A venomous
epidemic of La Grippe swept over the world that year and Roger's mother
succumbed to it. A month after her death, John Moore gave in to
pneumonia and early in February Roger found himself alone in the world.

Roger escaped with only a mild attack of the disease, but the shock of
his loss left him for a time, it seemed, spiritually and physically
bankrupt. There was nothing left. The worn out farm was eaten up by
mortgages. The stock and implements would only just pay food bills, the
doctor, the funeral expenses.

One cold gray afternoon Roger closed the gate for the last time and,
suitcase in hand, started down the road to town. He had not covered half
the distance when he met Ernest.

"Hey, Rog, old man, I was just coming up. Where are you going?"

"To Mrs. Winkler's. Got my room there for taking care of the furnace,
walks, and any old thing."

"Forget it!" exclaimed Ernest. "You're coming home with me until you get
braced up. Mother and Dad said so."

"That'll make it harder when I do get back. Besides, old lady Winkler
might not hold the place for me." Roger spoke firmly. Nevertheless he
allowed Ernest to help him with the suitcase and made no objection when
his chum turned off Main Street toward the Wolf home.

Mrs. Wolf kissed him and put him to bed, while Elsa brought a hot water
bottle and a cup of hot milk. He hung about the house for several days,
dreading the return to college and Mrs. Winkler. But Mrs. Wolf knew
Roger almost as well as his own mother had known him. She left him alone
until one snowy afternoon, after a prolonged absence in his room, he
came into the kitchen w