It was difficult at home, by this time, to do more than make ends meet.  They hardly did that.  The borrowed hundreds were of necessity yet unpaid; there was interest on them that must be kept down; and the failure of Rufus and Winthrop from the farm duty told severely upon the profits of the farm; and that after it had told upon the energies and strength of the whole little family that were left behind to do all that was done.  There was never a complaint nor a regret, even to each other; much less to those for whom they toiled; but often there was a shadowed look, a breath of weariness and care, that spoke from husband to wife, from parent to child, and nerved —­ or unnerved them.  Still, Rufus had graduated; he was a splendid young man; all, as well as the parents’ hearts, knew that; and Winthrop, —­ he was never thought of, their minds and speech never went out to him, but the brows unbent, the lips relaxed, and their eyes said that their hearts sat down to rest.  Winthrop?  He never could do anything but well; he never had since he was a child.  He would take his degree now in a few months and he would take it honourably; and then he would be off to the great city —­ that was said with a throe of pain and joy! —­ and there he would certainly rise to be the greatest of all.  To their eyes could he ever be anything else?  But they were as certain of it as Winthrop himself; and Winthrop was not without his share of that quality which Dr. Johnson declared to be the first requisite to great undertakings; though to do him justice the matter always lay in his mind without the use of comparatives or superlatives.  And while they sat round the fire talking of him, and of Rufus, the images of their coming success quite displaced the images of weary days and careful nights with which that success had been bought.

It was not however to be quite so speedily attained as they had looked for.

The time of examination came, and Winthrop passed through it, as President Tuttle told his father, “as well as a man could;” and took honours and distinctions with a calm matter-of-fact manner, that somehow rather damped the ardour of congratulation.

“He takes everything as if he had a right to it,” observed a gentleman of the company who had been making some flattering speeches which seemed to hit no particular mark.

“I don’t know who has a better right,” said the President.

“He’s not so brilliant as his brother,” the gentleman went on.

“Do you think so?  That can only have been because you did not understand him,” said the President equivocally.  “He will never flash in the pan, I promise you.”

“But dang it, sir!” cried the other, “it is a little extraordinary to see two brothers, out of the same family, for two years running, take the first honours over the head of the whole College.  What is a man to think, sir?”

“That the College has not graduated two young men with more honour to herself and them in any two years of my Presidency, sir.  Allow me to introduce you to the fortunate father of these young gentlemen —­ Mr. Landholm.”