Will Phelps found himself even wondering how it was that the “old grads” when they returned always spoke in such enthusiastic terms of their own college days.  How they laughed and slapped one another on the back as they recalled and recounted their exploits.  It was Will’s conviction that those days must have been markedly different from those through which he was passing, for he was finding only hard work and much trouble, he dolefully assured himself.  He was too inexperienced to understand that one is never able to see clearly the exact condition of present experiences.  There is then no perspective, and the good and evil, the large and small, are strangely confused.  It is like the figures in a Chinese picture wherein the background and foreground, the little and the big, are much the same in their proportions.  Only when a man looks back and beholds the events of the bygone days in their true perspective is he able to form a correct estimate of the relative values.  Even Will Phelps would not have believed that there might come a day when the very struggle he was having in mastering his Greek would be looked upon by him as not unpleasant in the larger light in which all his college days would be viewed.

Mr. Schenck still remained in Winthrop, and his face every morning when Will went to inquire about Peter John was a sure indication of the report which was to be made even before a word had been spoken.  Steadily lower and lower sank the freshman, who was desperately ill, until at last the crisis came, and with the passing of the day the issue of life or death would be determined.

In the interval between his recitations Will ran to see the suffering man and learn how the issue was going, and when at last the word was received that Peter John, if no relapse occurred, was likely to recover, he felt as if a great load had been lifted from his mind.  It was his first experience with the deep tragedy that, like a cloud, rests over all mankind, and in the glimmer of hope that now appeared it seemed to him that all things appeared in a new light.  Even his detested Greek was not quite so bad as it previously had been, and in the reaction that came Will bent to his distasteful task with a renewed determination.

When several weeks had elapsed, and the time of the Christmas vacation was near, for the first time Will was permitted to enter the room where Peter John was sitting up in bed.  It was difficult for Will to hide the shock that came when he first saw his classmate, his face wasted till it almost seemed as if the bones must protrude, his head shaved, and his general weakness so apparent as to be pathetic.

Striving to conceal his real feelings and to appear bright and cheery, Will extended his hand and said nervously:  “I’m mighty glad to see you, Peter John, and so will all the fellows be.  I don’t think you’ve taken the best way of getting a vacation.”

Peter John smiled in a way that almost brought the tears to Will’s eyes, and said, “I’m much obliged to you, Will.”