t was really true
that he had been called upon to speak in meeting. Then with the old
nonchalance that nothing ever quite daunted he rose to his feet.

"Why, I," he began, looking around with a frank smile, "I never was in
a Christian Endeavor meeting before in my life, and I don't know the
first thing about it. My sister and I only came to-night because
somebody wanted us to; so I can't very well tell about any other
society. But I belong to a college frat, and I suppose it's a good
deal the same thing in the long run. I've been reading that pledge up
there on the wall. I suppose that's your line. You've got good dope
all right. If you live up to that, you're going some.

"I remember when I first went to college the fellows began to rush me.
I had bids from two or three different frats, and they had me going so
hard I got bewildered. I didn't know which I wanted to join. Then one
day one of the older fellows got hold of me, and he saw how it was
with me; and he said: 'You want to look around and analyze things.
Just you look the fellows over, and see how they size up in the
different frats. Then you see what they stand for, and how they live
up to it; and lastly you look up their alumni.' So I began to size
things up, and I found that one frat was all for the social doings,
dances, and dinners, and always having a good time; and another was
pretty wild, had the name of always getting in bad with the faculty,
and had the lowest marks in college; three fellows had been expelled
the year before for drunkenness and disorderliness. Then another one
was known as ranking highest in scholarship and having the most
athletes in it. I looked over their alumni, too, for they used to come
around a good bit and get in with us boys; and you could see just
which were making good out in the world, and which were just in life
for what they could get out of it; and I made my decision one day just
because of one big man who had been out of college for ten years; but
he had made good in the world, and was known all over as being a
successful man and a wonderful man, and he used to come back to every
game and everything that went on at the college, and sit around and
talk with the fellows, and encourage them; and, if anybody was falling
down on his job, he would show him where he was wrong and how to get
into line again, and even help him financially if he got in a tight
place. And so I thought with men like that back of it that frat was a