Bressant

"He was a poor man in college, and an orphan. The property of his family

had been lost in the War of 1812; from then till he was twenty-one, he

had followed a dozen trades, and saved a couple of hundred dollars; and

he'd picked up book-learning enough to enter the sophomore class. The

first thing he did was to make a friend; he loved him with his whole

heart; thought nothing was too good for him, and so on. He and his

friend led the class for three years; and up to the time of the last

examination, he was first and his friend second. In the examination they

sat side by side; one question the friend couldn't answer; the other

wrote it out for him; after the examination the two papers were found to

be alike in the answer to that question, and the friend was summoned

before the faculty, and asked if he had copied it. He denied it--said it

had been copied from him; so he took the first rank in graduating, and

the other was dropped several places."

"What became of their friendship after that?" inquired Bressant.

"He I'm telling you of never knew any thing of what his friend had done

till long afterward. Well, the faculty and some of the wealthy patrons

of the university determined to send the first scholar abroad, to finish

his education: he accepted the offer eagerly, and sailed for Europe,

without bidding his friend good-by. Afterward, the faculty made the same

offer to him, on the consideration that he had stood so well, during his

course, until the examination. But he declined it: it was contrary to

his principle of never leaving his country."

"What sort of a man was the friend?" asked Bressant, who was paying

close attention, with his hand at his ear.

"Clever, with a winning manner, and fine-looking; had a pleasant, easy

voice; never lost his temper that I know of." The professor paused,

perhaps to arrange his ideas, ere he went on. "The man I'm telling you

of left the college-yard with as much of the world before him as lies

between the fifteenth and twenty-fifth parallels of latitude, and the

Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He'd made up his mind to be a physician;

and in a year he was qualified to enter the hospital; worked there four

years, and, by the time he was twenty-nine, he had an office of his own

and a good practice.

"At last, he fell in love with a beautiful woman; she was the daughter

of one of his patients--a Southerner with a little Spanish blood in him.

The young doctor had--under Providence--saved the man's life; and, since

he himself came of a good family--none better--and had a respectable

income, there wasn't much difficulty in arranging the match. The only

condition was, that the father should never be out of reach of his

daughter, as long as he lived."