“It’s funny,” said Marty, as the four of them, the other three being Joe, Marcia, and J.W., sat under a tree in the afternoon, “but I believe that man could make even trigonometry interesting.  I thought I’d heard all that could be said about the devotional meeting; but did you get that scheme for leaders he sprung this morning?  Watch me when we get back home, that’s all.”

“You needn’t suppose you are the only one who got it,” said Marcia.  “Everybody was trying to watch the General Secretary and to take notes at the same time, and I don’t believe you are any quicker at that than the rest of us.  Of course all of us will use as many of his ideas as we can remember, when we get home again.”

Joe Carbrook, with a new seriousness which sat awkwardly on him, confessed that he could not understand just what was happening.  It was evident that he was ill at ease; Marcia had noticed it every time she had seen him since that encounter with Alma Wetherell.

“I guess you folks know I am not easily caught; but I’m ready to admit that man has hold of something.  Yes, and I’m half convinced that this Institute has hold of something.  I wish I knew what it is.  If I could really believe that all I hear and see at this place is part of being young and part of being a Christian, I might be thinking before long about getting into the game myself.  The trouble is you three and the other Leaguers I’ve watched at home are just you three and the others, and that’s all.  I know, and you know, what you can do.  You’ll take all these ideas of League work and use them, maybe; but what I can’t see is how you will pick up the Big Idea of this place and get back home without losing it.”

“We can’t,” said Marcia, “not without all sorts of help, visible and invisible.  You, for instance; if you would really get into the game, as you say, nobody could guess how much it would mean to our League.  And it might mean more to you.”

“Marcia’s right about that,” said J.W.  “The Big Idea of this place, that you speak of, is a lot too big for us to take home alone.  Maybe you’ll think I’m preaching, but I don’t care, if I say that for God to handle alone, it is not big enough.  He makes the stars, and gives us his Son, without any help from us.  Nobody else can do that.  But he won’t make our League at home a success without us; and all of us together can’t do it without Him.  I’m not saying I know how to do it, even then, but that’s the way it looks to me.  Why, Joe,” he said with sudden intensity as he faced Joe Carbrook, “if you ever get hold of the Big Idea, and the Big Idea gets hold of you, something is sure to happen, something bigger than any of us can figure out now.  I know you have it in you.”

All four showed a surprised self-consciousness over J.W.’s unexpected venture into these rather deeper conversational waters than usual, and there was more surprise when Joe Carbrook began to talk about himself.