a fortnight Hamlen
accepted his leadership from one experience to another with wonderment
and devotion. The fact that the boy was his namesake formed the first
bond, and with confidence once established intimacy developed rapidly.
Boys to Hamlen had been unknown quantities, creatures to be endured if
necessary but avoided if possible, and Philip did much to raise the
standard of his genus in the older man's mind. Billy's explosive
outbursts startled him for a time, but he learned to understand even
these, and accepted them at their true value.

The responsibility came to young Thatcher at just the time when he was
best prepared to accept it. During the Easter recess his father suddenly
discovered that the boy had become a man, and it was with real
gratification that he took him into his confidence. To Philip, the
statement of present conditions made impending disaster seem conclusive,
and it was with difficulty that Thatcher persuaded him that many things
might happen to ease the situation before calamity really overtook him.
The boy wanted to leave college at once, and to throw himself into some
sphere of business activity so that his income might be added to the
family exchequer to keep the wolf from the door! His father,
strengthened by the youthful loyalty and enthusiasm, pointed out the
value, as a personal asset to himself, of actually possessing a college
degree, now so nearly secured, and sent the boy back to Cambridge with a
determination to make the most of the few remaining months in preparing
himself to rush into the breach and save his family from the threatening
malignant specters.

The whole experience was a sobering one to Philip, and resulted in
putting him nearer on a plane with Hamlen. To the one, the world had
already proved its unreliability; to the other, it was now on trial with
every presumption of speedy conviction. Each event in the day took on a
new significance in the boy's mind, and Hamlen's dependence made him
feel that he was already man-grown, taking his place in the front rank
of the battle of life.

Huntington watched these developments with a curious sensation of
interest and surprise. The most he had hoped was that Philip might take
the man far enough into undergraduate activities to give him by
assimilation a fresh viewpoint, but he found his guest largely taken off
his hands by one who was accomplishing the desired results far better
than he himself could do. Day by day he saw P