Page:The plastic age, (IA plasticage00mark).pdf/334

308 feel that college does what it should for us. We are told that we are taught to think, but the minute we bump up against a problem in living we are stumped just as badly as we were when we are freshmen.”

“Oh, no, not at all. You solve problems every day that would have stumped you hopelessly as a freshman. You think better than you did four years ago, but no college, however perfect, can teach you all the solutions of life. There are no nostrums or cure-alls that the colleges can give for all the ills and sicknesses of life. You, I am afraid, will have to doctor those yourself.”

“I see.” Hugh did n’t altogether see. Both college and life seemed more complicated than he had thought them. “I am curious to know,” he added, “just whom you consider the cream of the earth. That expression has stuck in my mind. I don’t know why—but it has.”

Henley smiled. “Probably because it is such a very badly mixed metaphor. Well, I consider the college man the cream of the earth.”

“What?” four of the men exclaimed, and all of them sat suddenly upright.

“Yes—but let me explain. If I remember rightly, I said that if you were the cream of the earth, I hoped that God would pity the skimmed milk. Well, everything taken into consideration, I do think that you are the cream of the earth; and I have no