After some moments’ chat about other things, as they were separating, Celia said, “I want to thank you, Dr. Hollingsworth, for my share of your sermon yesterday.”  Her face made it evident that this was no merely conventional speech, and the president looked down upon her benignly through his glasses.

“I thank you for being willing to take any of my thoughts to yourself,” he said.

Celia now noticed for the first time that he wore an oak leaf, and she remembered with what delight Rosalind and Belle had told her of his wish to be an Arden Forester.  “I believe,” she added, laughing a little, “that I have the Kingdom of Heaven and the Forest somewhat mixed.”

“You will find when you have lived as long as I have that there are often many names for the same thing,” the president answered, smiling.

“And do you believe that things always come right in the Forest?” The wistful note in Celia’s voice told something of her struggle.

“It has been my experience so far on the journey.  But, my dear young lady, the one way to test it is to live there.”

“I mean to,” she said earnestly.

Whatever the opinion in Friendship of Dr. Hollingsworth’s ability as a preacher, he left behind him a most agreeable impression as a mere man, to quote Mrs. Parton.

The Arden Foresters would not soon forget a tramp with him over Red Hill.  They found him interested in everything, in a light-hearted, boyish way that made them overlook the fact that he was the president of a great university.  When they stopped on the hilltop to rest and enjoy the view, he sat on the fence with them and talked foot-ball and cricket, and told stories of college pranks without deducing a single useful lesson therefrom.  This was a surprise to Jack, for Dr. Pierce, who lived next door to the Partons, was fond of morals, and went about with his pockets full, so to speak.

Before they knew it, they found themselves confiding to him their plans for the future.

“You must all come to our university,” Rosalind said, with decision, “mustn’t they, Dr. Hollingsworth?  Jack can study forestry, and Maurice can study law; and Belle and Katherine—­”

“I mean to study medicine if father will let me,” Belle put in.

Dr. Hollingsworth smiled upon the bright-eyed little girl, in whose every movement self-reliance and energy were written.  “Don’t be in haste to decide,” he said.  “There is sure to be something for you to do, and Rosalind and I shall be glad if, whatever it is, it brings you to our university.”

As they watched the president sign his name in the Arden Foresters’ book that afternoon, there was stirred in each young heart an impulse to be and to do something worth while in the world.

Meantime, the report spread that in returning to Friendship, Dr. Hollingsworth had had another object than merely to preach for Dr. Pierce.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH.