It was his turn to be met with derision. It could hardly be wondered at,
for as he stood before them, John Lansing looked the personification of
fastidiousness, and his face, although it surmounted a strongly
proportioned and well developed body, suggested the mental
characteristics not only of his father, but of certain
great-grandfathers and uncles, who had won their distinction in
intellectual arenas. Even his father seemed a little daunted at this
proposal.

"That's it--laugh!" urged Lanse. "If I'd proposed to try to get on the
'reportorial staff' of a city newspaper you'd all smile approval, as at
a thing suited to my genius. I'd have to live in town to do that, and
what little I earned would go to fill my own hungry mouth. Now at the
shops--you needn't look so top-lofty! Dozens of fellows who are taking
engineering courses put on the overalls, shoulder a lunch-pail and go to
work every morning during vacation at seven o'clock. They come grinning
home at night, their faces black as tar, their spirits up in Q, jump
into a bath-tub, put on clean togs, and come down to dinner looking like
gentlemen--but _not_ gentlemen any more thoroughly than they have been
all day."

Jeff looked at his brother seriously. "Lanse," he said, "if you go into
one of the locomotive shops won't you get a place for me?"

But Celia interposed. "Whatever the rest of us do," she said, "Jeff and
Just must keep on with school."

Jeff rebelled with a grimace. "Not much!" he shouted. "I guess one
six-footer is as good as another in a boiler-shop. You don't catch me
swallowing algebra and German when I might be developing muscle. If