"You certainly have the darnedest luck in backing the right horse," exclaimed a rival pork-packer enviously."Now if Ipay a hundred thousand for a Velasquez it turns out to be a bad copy worth thirty dollars, but you pay a professor three thousand and he brings you in half a million dollars' worth of free advertising.Why, this Doctor Gilman's doing as much for your college as Doctor Osler did for Johns Hopkins or as Walter Camp does for Yale."Mr.Hallowell received these Congratulations as gracefully as he was able, and in secret raged at Chancellor Black.Each day his rage increased.It seemed as though there would never be an end to Doctor Gilman.The stone he had rejected had become the corner-stone of Stillwater.Whenever he opened a newspaper he felt like exclaiming: "Will no one rid me of this pestilent fellow?" For the "Rise and Fall," in an edition deluxe limited to two hundred copies, was being bought up by all his book-collecting millionaire friends; a popular edition was on view in the windows of every book-shop; It was offered as a prize to subscribers to all the more sedate magazines, and the name and features of the distinguished author had become famous and familiar.Not a day passed but that some new honor, at least so the newspapers stated, was thrust upon him.Paragraphs announced that he was to be the next exchange professor to Berlin; that in May he was to lecture at the Sorbonne; that in June he was to receive a degree from Oxford.
A fresh-water college on one of the Great Lakes leaped to the front by offering him the chair of history at that seat of learning at a salary of five thousand dollars a year.Some of the honors that had been thrust upon Doctor Gilman existed only in the imagination of Peter and Stetson, but this offer happened to be genuine.
"Doctor Gilman rejected it without consideration.He read the letter from the trustees to his wife and shook his head.
"We could not be happy away from Stillwater," he said." We have only a month more in the cottage, but after that we still can walk past it; we can look into the garden and see the flowers she planted.We can visit the place where she lies.But if we went away we should be lonely and miserable for her, and she would be lonely for us."Mr.Hallowell could not know why Doctor Gilman had refused to leave Stillwater; but when he read that the small Eastern college at which Doctor Gilman had graduated had offered to make him its president, his jealousy knew no bounds.
He telegraphed to Black: "Reinstate Gilman at once; offer him six thousand--offer him whatever he wants, but make him promise for no consideration to leave Stillwater he is only member faculty ever brought any credit to the college if we lose him I'll hold you responsible."The next morning, hat in hand, smiling ingratiatingly, the Chancellor called upon Doctor Gilman and ate so much humble pie that for a week he suffered acute mental indigestion.But little did Hallowell senior care for that.He had got what he wanted.Doctor Gilman, the distinguished, was back in the faculty, and had made only one condition--that he might live until he died in the ivy-covered cottage.
Two weeks later, when Peter arrived at Stillwater to take the history examination, which, should he pass it, would give him his degree, he found on every side evidences of the "worldwide fame" he himself had created.The newsstand at the depot, the book-stores, the drugstores, the picture-shops, all spoke of Doctor Gilman; and postcards showing the ivy-covered cottage, photographs and enlargements of Doctor Gilman, advertisements of the different.editions of "the"history proclaimed his fame.Peter, fascinated by the success of his own handiwork, approached the ivy-covered cottage in a spirit almost of awe.But Mrs.Gilman welcomed him with the same kindly, sympathetic smile with which she always gave courage to the unhappy ones coming up for examinations, and Doctor Gilman's high honors in no way had spoiled his gentle courtesy.
The examination was in writing, and when Peter had handed in his papers Doctor Gilman asked him if he would prefer at once to know the result.
"I should indeed!" Peter assured him.
"Then I regret to tell you, Hallowell," said the professor, "that you have not passed.I cannot possibly give you a mark higher than five." In real sympathy the sage of Stillwater raised his eyes, but to his great astonishment he found that Peter, so far from being cast down or taking offense, was smiling delightedly, much as a fond parent might smile upon the precocious act of a beloved child.
"I am afraid," said Doctor Gilman gently, "that this summer you did not work very hard for your degree!"Peter Laughed and picked up his hat.
"To tell you the truth, Professor," he said, "you're right Igot working for something worth while--and I forgot about the degree."
