Buchanan Bartlett, shiftless son of Hiram Bartlett, farmer retired, is sent to college to learn things. Father becomes peeved when he receives a bill of expenditures a month later from his son, amounting to two hundred and fifty dollars. The old man decides to investigate things, and the following day finds him at the university. Hazing compared to the rough treatment father received at the hands of the college boys was like a social four o'clock tea. What they didn't do to father wasn't worth doing, so the elderly gentleman decides to take his son back to the farm. The story ends with Buchanan hoeing the corn field in the blistering sun.