Before the close of my high school course I faced two proposals, acceptance of one of which would cause me to go to college; the other would set me to work. The first was this: provided I would live at home in Bangor and go back and forth daily to the University of Maine in Orono (a ride of about fifty minutes on the electric car) I was offered about half of the expenses of my entire college course. The second was—work.

Thanks to my mother’s influence and the fact that I wanted a college education, I had no hesitation in accepting the first proposal. Thus I came to belong, not to a class of “college men with no money,” but rather to that of “college men with little money.” The essential difference is one of degree only, provided there is present a true determination to secure a college education.

Why did I go to college? To a great extent because of my mother’s influence; because of her who could not conceive of her sons as non-college men. She thus constantly encouraged us to go to college 2 regardless of whether we had to earn all or part of our way. In addition to this ever-present influence I was a somewhat imaginative and philosophical lad. It seemed to me that just as a hill was made not merely for climbing, but that the climber should be rewarded for his attempt by the beautiful view of broader countries seen from the summit; even so a college education was designed, not to be a stumbling block to the youth of our country, but rather to serve as a means of intellectual elevation from which should open up visions of greater things in life. These two things made me become a “college man with little money,” who was ready to do any honest work to make up the financial deficiency.

How did I earn my way through college? In an account book, which I have preserved for many years, I find this statement, written when I was a sophomore in high school: “School closed (for the summer vacation) Friday. On Saturday I helped Roy cut grass and received twenty-five cents. From that regular employment followed and I earned and spent money as follows:”

There follows, then, a record of fifteen cents from someone for cutting grass, or fifty cents from another for a bit of carpenter work such as a boy could do. Very consistently during the remainder of my high school course I worked, caring for lawns and gardens in the summer, and running one furnace and sometimes two and shoveling snow in the winter. I also pumped a church organ. By these 3 means I earned and saved $200.00 in the two years before I was ready to go to college. This sum I placed in the bank