od
afternoon, sir."

And this was all from a professor whose name was known on more than one
continent and who was counted one of the greatest of educators. Such
was his test of what of English literature was required in a freshman.
A lesser man than this great teacher would have taken an hour for the
task and learned less, for, after all, did not the examination cover
the whole ground? The droll range of the inquiry was such that the
questioner had gauged, far better than by some more ponderous and
detailed system, the quality of the young man's knowledge in one field.
One of the strong teachers this, one not afraid of a departure, and one
of those who, within the last quarter of a century, have laid the
foundations of new American universities deep and wide, and given to
the youth facilities for a learning not creed-bound, nor school-bound,
but both liberal and of all utility.

It was well for the particular freshman whose examination is here
described that his first experience with a professor was with such a
man. It gave confidence, and set him thinking. With others of the
examiners he did not, in each instance, fare so happily. What
thousands of men of the world there are to-day who remember with
something like a shudder still the inquisition of Prof. ----, whose
works on Greek are text-books in many a college; or the ferocity of
Prof. ----, to whom calculus was grander than Homer! But the woes of
freshmen are passing things.

What Grant Harlson did in college need not be told at any length. He
but plucked the fruit within his reach, not over-wisely in some
instances, yet with some industry. He had, at least, the intelligence
to feel that it is better to know all of some things than a little of
all things, and so surpassed, in such branches as were his by gift and
inclination, and but barely passed in those which went against the
mental grain.

It may be the professor of English literature had something to do with
this. Between Grant and him there grew up a friendship somewhat
unusual under all the circumstances. One day the professor was
overtaken by the student upon a by-way of the campus, and asked some
questions regarding certain changed hours of certain recitations, and,
having answered, detained the questioner carelessly in general
conversation. The elder became interested--perhaps because it was a
relief to him to talk with such a healthy animal--and, at the
termination of the interview, inv