"warning" sent home to his father? To the inexperienced young student it
seemed for a moment as if he was disgraced in the eyes of all his
friends. He knew that his work had been of a low grade, but never for a
moment had he considered it as being at all serious. So many of his
newly formed friends in the college had been speaking of their
conditions and low grades as a matter of course and had referred to them
laughingly, much as if they were good jokes to be enjoyed that Will too
had come almost to feel that his own trouble was not a serious one. And
Splinter was the one to be blamed for the most of it, he was convinced.
The words of his father, however, had presented the matter in an
entirely different light, and his trouble was vastly increased by its
evident effect upon him. Will's face was drawn and there was an
expression of suffering upon it as he glanced again at his father and
said:

"What shall I do? Will it drop me out of college?"

"I think not necessarily. You must pass off more than half your hours to
enable you to keep on with your class; but failure in one study will not
bring that of itself, for your Greek is a four-hour course. But the
matter is, of course, somewhat serious and in more ways than one."

"Yes, I know it," replied Will despondently.

"Well, if you know it, that's half the battle won already. The greatest
trouble with most unsuccessful men is that they have never learned what
their own weaknesses and limitations are. But you say you know, and I
wish you'd tell me what you think the chief difficulty is."

"My Greek," said Will, trying to smile.