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I would like to tell you a story about my uncle Theo．He is my oldest uncle, a tall, thin, grey-haired man whose thoughts are always on learning and nothing else．He is quiet, gentle and absent-minded and with about as much sense as a child where money is concerned．Well, he applied a post in Camford University．It was a very good post and there were hundreds of candidates who applied for it, and about fifteen, including Theo, were asked to be interviewed．
Camford is a very small town; there is only one hotel in it, and it was so full that they had to put many of the candidates two in a room．Theo was one of these, and the man who shared the room with him was a self-confident fellow called Adams, about twenty years younger than Theo, with a loud voice, and a laugh that you could hear all over the hotel．But he was a clever fellow all the same and had a good post in Iscaiot College, Narkover．Well, the Dean, who was the head of the department of the University, and the committee interviewed all the candidates; and as a result of this interview, the number of the candidates was reduced to two, Uncle Theo and Adams．The committee couldn’t decide which of the two to take, so they decided to make their final choice after each of the candidates had given a public lecture in the college lecture-hall．The subject they had to speak on was “The Civilization of the Ancient Summerians”; and the lecture had to be given in three days’ time．
Well, for these three days Uncle Theo never left his room．He worked day and night at that lecture, writing it out and memorizing it, almost without eating or sleeping．Adams didn’t seem to do any preparation at all．You could hear his voice and his laughter where he had a crowd of people around him．He came to his room late at night, asked Uncle Theo how he was getting on with his lecture, and then told him how he had spent the evening playing bridge, or at the music hall．He ate like a horse and slept like a log; and Uncle Theo sat up working at his lecture．
The day of the lecture arrived．They all went into the lecture hall and Theo and Adams took their seats on the platform．And then, Theo discovered, to his horror, that typewritten copy of his speech had disappeared! The Dean said they would call on the candidates on the alphabetical order, Adams first; and the despair in his heart, Theo watched Adams calmly take the stolen speech out of pocket and read it to the professors who were gathered to hear it．And how well he read it! Even Uncle Theo had to admit he couldn’t have read it nearly so eloquently himself, and when Adams finished there was a great burst of applause．Adams bowed and smiled, and sat down．
Now, it was Theo’s turn．But what could he do? He had put everything he knew into the lecture．His mind was too much upset to put the same thoughts in another way．With a burning face he could only repeat, word for word, in a low, dull voice, the lecture that Adams had spoken so eloquently．There was hardly any applause when he sat down．
The Dean and the committee went out to decide who the successful candidate was, but everyone was sure what their decision would be．Adams leaned across to Theo and patted him on the back and said, smilingly, “Hard luck, old fellow, but after all, only one of us could win”
Then the Dean and the committee came back, “Gentlemen”, the Dean said, “the candidate we have chosen is Mr．Hob dell．” Uncle Theo had won! The audience were completely taken by surprise, and the Dean continued, “I think I ought to tell you how we arrived at the decision．We were all filled with admiration at the learning and eloquence of Mr．Adams．I was greatly impressed．But, you will remember, Mr．Adams read his lecture to us．When Mr．Hob dell’s turn came, he repeated that speech, word by word from memory, though, of course, he couldn’t have seen a line of it before．Now a fine memory is absolutely necessary for this post; and what a memory Mr．Hob dell must have! This is why we decided that Mr．Hob dell was exactly the man we wanted! ”
As they walked out of the room, the Dean came up to Uncle Theo, who was so confused but so happy that he hardly knew whether he was standing on his head or heels; and as he shook Theo’s hand he said, “Congratulations, Mr．Hob dell! But, my fellow, when you are on our staff, you must be more careful and not leave valuable papers lying about!”
