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Show -159- Also? the room was more open and a i r y ? and if anyone came to the front door? he was right there to answer. The manuscript belonged to one of his better students, the story of a young boy's f i r s t hunting experience; on a t r ip he had taken with his father into the Sierras. It details were authentic; admirably so, even when the spelling? the grammar, and the sytax were uncertain, not so much x^rong as awkward. He read with a soft-leaded pencil in his hand, with which he almost automatically marked the errors, even as he concentrated on the narrative, the r i t u a l i s t i c setting up of the camp, and the preparation of the weapons? He sensed the boy's mixture of fear and wonder, doubt and anticipation? in an action that was more of the f a t h e r ' s choosing than his own. Once? when the boy? holding the assembled r i f l e in his hands for the f i r s t time, seemed to see in it? not a collection of wood and steel? but something magical, with a l i f e of i t s own apart from him, the Professor scribbled in the margin: "Very good!" When he had finished the eighty-odd pages, the Professor was disappointed that he couldn't read on? At the same time, he f e l t cheered about his conference tomorrox-r with the author. I t was so much easier to confer over something admirable and that one wanted to see completed than over something that you didn't think deserved completion. He glanced a t his watch. It was about time he heard from his wife? It was forty-five minutes before nex^s time. If i t were summer? t h i s was about the time he and his wife |