Day of Judgment like--I had nearly said a Christian! His notes were
full: Three hundred pages about Zeno and Parmenides and the rest, almost
every word as it had come from the professor's lips. And his memory was
full, too, flowing like a player's lines. With the right cue he could
recite instantly: "An important application of this principle, with
obvious reference to Heracleitos, occurs in Aristotle, who says--" He
could do this with the notes anywhere. I am sure you appreciate Oscar
and his great power of acquiring facts. So he was ready, like the wise
virgins of parable. Bertie and Billy did not put one in mind of virgins:
although they had burned considerable midnight oil, it had not been to
throw light upon Philosophy 4. In them the mere word Heracleitos had
raised a chill no later than yesterday,--the chill of the unknown. They
had not attended the lectures on the "Greek bucks." Indeed, profiting
by their privilege of voluntary recitations, they had dropped in but
seldom on Philosophy 4. These blithe grasshoppers had danced and sung
away the precious storing season, and now that the bleak hour of
examinations was upon them, their waked-up hearts had felt aghast at the
sudden vision of their ignorance. It was on a Monday noon that this
feeling came fully upon them, as they read over the names of the
philosophers. Thursday was the day of the examination. "Who's
Anaxagoras?" Billy had inquired of Bertie. "I'll tell you," said
Bertie, "if you'll tell me who Epicharmos of Kos was." And upon this
they embraced with helpless laughter. Then they reckoned up the hours
left for them to learn Epicharmos of Kos in,--between Monday noon and
Thursday morning at nine,--and their quailing chill increased. A tutor
must be called in at once. So the grasshoppers, having money, sought
out and quickly purchased the ant.

Closeted with Oscar and his notes, they had, as Bertie put it, salted
down the early Greek bucks by seven on Monday evening. By the same