But the young student must be left to fight out his battle alone.  To save him from the struggle would be to save him from the strength.  If it were only possible for a father to save his boy by assuming his burden, how thankful he would be, was Mr. Phelps’ reflection, but he was too wise a man and too good a father to flinch or falter now, and, though his heart was heavy, he resolutely kept on his way leaving Will to fight his own battle, and hoping that the issue would be as he most fervently desired.

Left to himself, for a moment Will was almost despondent.  The departure of his father seemed to leave the loneliness intensified, but he was recalled as he heard some one run up the stairway and rush into the room.  His visitor was Mott, and perhaps the sophomore almost instinctively felt that his presence was not welcome, for he said: 

“Governor gone, Phelps?  Hope he left a good-sized check with you!  I’ve come over to be the first to help you get rid of it.”

“What’s the trouble?” inquired Will quietly, glancing up as he spoke.  “Your money all gone?  Want to borrow some?”

“I’m always ready for that,” laughed Mott, “though I’ll have to own up that I’ve got a few cents on hand yet.  No, I don’t know that I want to borrow any; but I thought you might want a little help in getting rid of that check, and I’d just run over to oblige you.  Just pure missionary work, you see.”  Mott seated himself in the large easy-chair and endeavored to appear at his ease, though to Will it still seemed as if there was something which still troubled his visitor.

“I haven’t any special check.”

“That’s all right.  My ‘old man’ never has been up to see me since I entered Winthrop, but as I look around at the fellows whose fathers and mothers have been up, I’ve noticed that they’re usually pretty flush right after the old gentleman departs.”

“Hasn’t your mother ever been up?” inquired Will in surprise.

“No.  Why should she?  She hasn’t any time to bother with me.  She’s on more than forty boards, and is on the ‘go’ all the time.  She has to attend all sorts of ‘mothers’ meetings’ too, and I believe she has a lecture also, which she gives.”

“A lecture?”

“Yes.  She has a lecture on ‘The proper method of bringing up boys.’  How do you suppose she ever has any time to visit me?” Mott laughed as if the matter was one of supreme indifference to him, but Will fancied that he could detect a feeling of bitterness beneath it all.  For himself, the condition described by the sophomore seemed to him to be incredible.  His own relations with his father had been of the frankest and most friendly nature.  Indeed, it never occurred to him in a time of trouble or perplexity that there was any one else to whom he so naturally could go as to his own father.  Since he had entered Winthrop, however, he had discovered several who were not unlike Mott in their feelings toward their own families; and as Mott spoke he almost unconsciously found a feeling of sympathy arising in his heart for him.  Some of his apparently reckless deeds could be explained now.