by a nose, would gain him his degree, he did not cheat. He
may have been too honest, too confident, too lazy, but Peter
did not cheat. It was the professors who cheated.

At Stillwater College, on each subject on which you are
examined you can score a possible hundred. That means
perfection, and in, the brief history of Stillwater, which
is a very, new college, only one man has attained it. After
graduating he "accepted a position" in an asylum for the
insane, from which he was, promoted later to the poor-house,
where he died. Many Stillwater undergraduates studied his
career and, lest they also should attain perfection, were
afraid to study anything else. Among these Peter was by far
the most afraid.

The marking system at Stillwater is as follows: If in all the
subjects in which you have been examined your marks added
together give you an average of ninety, you are passed "with
honors"; if of seventy-five, you pass "with distinction"; if
Of fifty, You just "pass." It is not unlike the grocer's
nice adjustment of fresh eggs, good eggs, and eggs. The
whole college knew that if Peter got in among the eggs he
would be lucky, but the professors and instructors of
Stillwater 'were determined that, no matter what young
Hallowell might do to prevent it, they would see that he
passed his examinations. And they constituted the jury of
awards. Their interest in Peter was not because they loved
him so much, but because each loved his own vine-covered
cottage, his salary, and his dignified title the more. And
each knew that that one of the faculty who dared to flunk