New York's the only place in this country worth living in."

Such were the relations between the two at graduation time. Watts, who
had always prepared his lessons in a tenth part of the time it had taken
Peter, buckled down in the last few weeks, and easily won an honorable
mention. Peter had tried hard to win honors, but failed.

"You did too much outside work, old man," said Watts, who would
cheerfully have given his own triumph to his friend. "If you want
success in anything, you've got to sacrifice other things and
concentrate on the object. The Mention's really not worth the ink it's
written with, in my case, but I knew it would please mammy and pappy, so
I put on steam, and got it. If I'd hitched on a lot of freight cars
loaded with stuff that wouldn't have told in Exams, I never could have
been in on time."

Peter shook his head rather sadly. "You outclass me in brains, Watts, as
much as you do in other things"

"Nonsense," said Watts. "I haven't one quarter of your head. But my
ancestors--here's to the old coves--have been brain-culturing for three
hundred years, while yours have been land-culturing; and of course my
brain moves quicker and easier than yours. I take to a book, by
hereditary instinct, as a duck to water, while you are like a yacht,
which needs a heap of building and fitting before she can do the same.
But you'll beat me in the long run, as easily as the boat does the duck.
And the Honor's nothing."

"Except, as you said, to one's"--Peter hesitated for a moment, divided
in mind by his wish to quote accurately, and his dislike of anything