I matriculated in a well-known college and went to work with a will. I did not have to be persuaded to apply myself, but literally buried every thought and free moment in study. Unlike my father, I was not naturally brilliant or intellectual, but I loved books, and it was easy to study. There was one thing I believe I should say was in my favor—I had very high ideals—the result of strict early training and wonderful parental influence. Also I had a deep unselfish desire to be of service to others. I did not know how or where, but I firmly intended to give my life to some good cause; not to service for Christ, necessarily, or for His glory, but simply to alleviate the sufferings of others. Toward this goal I worked, studied, trained, and sacrificed. I had much to encourage me to start with, for I had many advantages—advantages of home-teaching and study, for my father owned an enormous library containing hundreds and hundreds of books. Before I was fifteen years of age I had had a fairly good education; advantages of travel—before I was eighteen I had not only crossed and recrossed this continent numbers of times, but had traveled all over Europe. Advantages of association—I had had not only the privilege of meeting, but of knowing personally some very great and noble people whom I had met at resort places, abroad, or in my father’s home; a number of such I had met in a period in which I traveled with my father in Chautauqua work. I mention this, because knowing these lives had much to do with shaping ideals and ambitions of later years.

College days passed very rapidly. I took some work at two different universities, but it is only with one of these that my story deals.