"'The youth new-taught of longing, The widow curbed and wan-- The good wife proud at season, And the maid aware of man; All souls, unslaked, consuming, Defrauded in delays, Desire not more than quittance Than I those forfeit days!'
"Oh, get him, get him, you three oldsters, as I've got him! Get what he saws next: "'I dreamed to wait my pleasure, Unchanged my spring would bide: Wherefore, to wait my pleasure, I put my spring aside, Till, first in face of Fortune, And last in mazed disdain, I made Diego Valdez High Admiral of Spain!'
"Listen to me, guardians!" Dick cried on, his face a flame of passion. "Don't forget for one moment that I am anything but unslaked, consuming. I am. I burn. But I hold myself. Don't think I am a dead one because I am a darn nice, meritorious boy at college. I am young. I am alive. I am all lusty and husky. But I make no mistake. I hold myself. I don't start out now to blow up on the first lap. I am just getting ready. I am going to have my time. I am not going to spill my cup in haste. And in the end I am not going to lament as Diego Valdez did: "'There walks no wind 'neath heaven Nor wave that shall restore The old careening riot And the clamorous, crowded shore-- The fountain in the desert, The cistern in the waste, The bread we ate in secret, The cup we spilled in haste.'
"Listen, guardians! Do you know what it is to hit your man, to hit him in hot blood--square to the jaw--and drop him cold? I want that. And I want to love, and kiss, and risk, and play the lusty, husky fool. I want to take my chance. I want my careening riot, and I want it while I am young, but not while I am too young. And I'm going to have it. And in the meantime I play the game at college, I hold myself, I equip myself, so that when I turn loose I am going to have the best chance of my best. Oh, believe me, I do not always sleep well of nights."
"You mean?" queried Mr. Crockett.
"Sure. That's just what I mean. I haven't gone wild yet, but just watch me when I start."
"And you will start when you graduate?"
The remarkable youngster shook his head.
"After I graduate I'm going to take at least a year of post-graduate courses in the College of Agriculture. You see, I'm developing a hobby--farming. I want to do something ... something constructive. My father wasn't constructive to amount to anything. Neither were you fellows. You struck a new land in pioneer days, and you picked up money like a lot of sailors shaking out nuggets from the grass roots in a virgin placer--"