I sailed just a little too close to the wind--that's all." "What does that mean ?" inquired the father.

College was a mystery to him, a deeply respected mystery.

He had been the youngest of four sons.
Their mother's dream was the dream of all the mothers of those pioneer and frontier days--to send her sons to college.

Each son in turn had, with her assistance, tried to get together the sum--so small, yet so hugely large--necessary to make the start.

But fate, now as sickness, now as crop failure, now as flood, and again as war, had been too strong for them.