at himself bitterly the while in that he was driven
to such straits to live. His poem won the first prize of ten dollars, his
campaign song the second prize of five dollars, his essay on the principles of
the Republican Party the first prize of twenty-five dollars. Which was very
gratifying to him until he tried to collect. Something had gone wrong in the
County Committee, and, though a rich banker and a state senator were members of
it, the money was not forthcoming. While this affair was hanging fire, he proved
that he understood the principles of the Democratic Party by winning the first
prize for his essay in a similar contest. And, moreover, he received the money,
twenty-five dollars. But the forty dollars won in the first contest he never
received.
    Driven to shifts in order to see Ruth, and deciding that the long walk from
north Oakland to her house and back again consumed too much time, he kept his
black suit in pawn in place of his bicycle. The latter gave him exercise, saved
him hours of time for work, and enabled him to see Ruth just the same. A pair of
knee duck trousers and an old sweater made him a presentable wheel costume, so
that he could go with Ruth on afternoon rides. Besides, he no longer had
opportunity to see much of her in her own home, where Mrs. Morse was thoroughly
prosecuting her campaign of entertainment. The exalted beings he met there, and
to whom he had looked up but a short time before, now bored him. They were no
longer exalted. He was nervous and irritable, what of his hard times,
disappointments, and close application to work, and the conversation of such
people was maddening. He was not unduly egotistic. He measured the narrowness of
their minds by the minds of the thinkers in the books he read. At Ruth's home he
never met a large mind, with the exception of Professor Caldwell, and Caldwell
he had met there only once. As for the rest, they were numskulls, ninnies,
superficial, dogmatic, and ignorant. It was their ignorance that astounded him.
What was the matter with them? What had they done with their educations? They
had had access to the same books he had. How did it happen that they had drawn
nothing from them?
    He knew that the great minds, the deep and rational thinkers, existed. He
had his proofs from the books, the books that had educated him beyond the Morse
standard. And he knew that higher intellects than those of the Morse circle were