It would have been a successful afternoon in any case, but three incidents helped the speaker.  When she asked those to declare themselves who had decided for definite Christian work, young people in all parts of the room arose, and one after another they spoke, for the most part simply and modestly, of their hope and purpose.  And Joe Carbrook was among them!

He said very little, the nub of it being that he had always thought of being a doctor, but not until a chance remark made by John Wesley, Jr., last night had the idea appeared to him important.  Just to make one more among the thousands of doctors in America was one thing, he said.  It was quite another to think of being the only physician among a great, helpless population.  But to be a missionary doctor a man had to be first a missionary.  And how could he be a missionary if he were not a Christian?  Well, as he had confessed at the love feast, that was settled last night, and as soon as it had been attended to be knew there was nothing else in the way.  So he must work now toward being a medical missionary.

Joe’s declaration stirred the whole assembly.  And while the influence of it was still on them, J.W. saw Martin Luther Shenk, his classmate and doubly his chum since a memorable day of the preceding October, get up and quietly announce his purpose of becoming a minister.  “And I hope,” said Marty, “that I may find my lifework in some of the new home mission fields we have been learning about this week.”

At that point the leader felt more than a little anxious.  These two decisions, with all their restraint, had in them something infectious, and she feared lest some young people, not holding themselves perfectly in hand, might be moved to sentimental and unreflecting declaration.

If there had been any such danger, Marcia Dayne dispelled it.  She was all aglow with a new joy of her own, whose secret none knew but herself, though one other had almost dared to hope he could guess.

“May I speak?” she asked.  “I have no decision to make for myself.  Last year I took the ‘Whatever, whenever, wherever’ pledge, and I intend to keep it, though I am not yet sure what it will mean.  But I know a boy here who will not talk unless somebody asks him, and there’s a reason why I think he should be asked.  Please, mayn’t we hear from John Wesley Farwell, Jr., about his kind of a call?”

J.W., taken unawares at the mention of his name, was still at a loss when the leader seconded Marcia’s invitation; and the knowledge that he was expected to say something unusual did not make for self-control.  But he understood Marcia’s purpose, and tried to pull himself together.

“Miss Dayne is president of our home Chapter, and she had a lot to do with my coming to the Institute,” he began.  “She has heard me talk since I found out a little about the Institute, and I told her this morning something of what Joe Carbrook and I had discussed last night after the camp fire.”