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+Project Gutenberg's The Jester of St. Timothy's, by Arthur Stanwood Pier
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Jester of St. Timothy's
+
+Author: Arthur Stanwood Pier
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2006 [EBook #17535]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE JESTER OF ST. TIMOTHY'S ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Niehof, Suzanne Shell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL.
+
+Honorary President, THE HON. WOODROW WILSON
+Honorary Vice-President, HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT
+Honorary Vice-President, COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT
+President, COLIN H. LIVINGSTONE, Washington, D. C.
+Vice-President, B. L. DULANEY, Bristol, Tenn.
+
+Vice-President, MILTON A. McRAE, Detroit, Mich.
+Vice-President, DAVID STARK JORDAN, Stanford University, Cal.
+Vice-President, F. L. SEELY, Asheville, N. C.
+Vice-President, A. STAMFORD WHITE, Chicago, Ill.
+Chief Scout, ERNEST THOMPSON SETON, Greenwich, Connecticut
+National Scout Commissioner, DANIEL CARTER BEARD, Flushing, N. Y.
+
+
+NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
+BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
+
+THE FIFTH AVENUE BUILDING, 200 FIFTH AVENUE
+TELEPHONE GRAMERCY 546
+NEW YORK CITY
+
+
+FINANCE COMMITTEE
+John Sherman Hoyt,
+            Chairman
+August Belmont
+George D. Pratt
+Mortimer L. Schiff
+H. Rogers Winthrop
+
+
+GEORGE D. PRATT,
+         Treasurer
+JAMES E. WEST,
+         Chief Scout Executive
+
+
+ADDITIONAL MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD
+
+Ernest P. Bidwell
+Robert Garrett
+Lee F. Hanmer
+John Sherman Hoyt
+Charles C. Jackson
+
+Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks
+William D. Murray
+Dr. Charles P. Neill
+George D. Porter
+Frank Presbrey
+
+Edgar M. Robinson
+Mortimer L. Schiff
+Lorillard Spencer
+Seth Sprague Terry
+
+July 31st, 1913.
+
+TO THE PUBLIC:--
+
+In the execution of its purpose to give educational value and moral
+worth to the recreational activities of the boyhood of America, the
+leaders of the Boy Scout Movement quickly learned that to effectively
+carry out its program, the boy must be influenced not only in his
+out-of-door life but also in the diversions of his other leisure
+moments. It is at such times that the boy is captured by the tales of
+daring enterprises and adventurous good times. What now is needful is
+not that his taste should be thwarted but trained. There should
+constantly be presented to him the books the boy likes best, yet always
+the books that will be best for the boy. As a matter of fact, however,
+the boy's taste is being constantly vitiated and exploited by the great
+mass of cheap juvenile literature.
+
+[Footer: "DO A GOOD TURN DAILY." "over"]
+
+To help anxiously concerned parents and educators to meet this grave
+peril, the Library Commission of the Boy Scouts of America has been
+organised. EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY is the result of their labors. All the
+books chosen have been approved by them. The Commission is composed of
+the following members: George F. Bowerman, Librarian, Public Library of
+the District of Columbia, Washington, D. C.; Harrison W. Graver,
+Librarian, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Claude G. Leland,
+Superintendent, Bureau of Libraries, Board of Education, New York City;
+Edward F. Stevens, Librarian, Pratt Institute Free Library, Brooklyn,
+New York; together with the Editorial Board of our Movement, William D.
+Murray, George D. Pratt and Frank Presbrey, with Franklin K. Mathiews,
+Chief Scout Librarian, as Secretary.
+
+In selecting the books, the Commission has chosen only such as are of
+interest to boys, the first twenty-five being either works of fiction or
+stirring stories of adventurous experiences. In later lists, books of a
+more serious sort will be included. It is hoped that as many as
+twenty-five may be added to the Library each year.
+
+Thanks are due the several publishers who have helped to inaugurate this
+new department of our work. Without their co-operation in making
+available for popular priced editions some of the best books ever
+published for boys, the promotion of EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY would have been
+impossible.
+
+We wish, too, to express our heartiest gratitude to the Library
+Commission, who, without compensation, have placed their vast experience
+and immense resources at the service of our Movement.
+
+The Commission invites suggestions as to future books to be included in
+the Library. Librarians, teachers, parents, and all others interested in
+welfare work for boys, can render a unique service by forwarding to
+National Headquarters lists of such books as in their judgment would be
+suitable for EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY.
+
+Signed
+
+[Signature: James E. West]
+
+Chief Scout Executive.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: LAWRENCE LAUNCHED HIMSELF AND HURLED THE RUNNER BACKWARD
+(p. 194)]
+
+
+
+EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY--BOY SCOUT EDITION
+
+THE JESTER OF
+ST. TIMOTHY'S
+
+By
+ARTHUR STANWOOD PIER
+
+AUTHOR OF
+BOYS OF ST. TIMOTHY'S,
+HARDING OF ST. TIMOTHY'S. ETC.
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+NEW YORK
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS
+COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY ARTHUR STANWOOD PIER
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+_Published September 1911_
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+   I. Irving sets forth on his Adventure       1
+
+  II. He achieves a Name for Himself          26
+
+ III. Westby's Amusements                     53
+
+  IV. The Baiting of a Master                 75
+
+   V. Master turns Pupil                      96
+
+  VI. The Penalty for a Foul                 120
+
+ VII. The Worm begins to turn                142
+
+VIII. The Harvard Freshman                   166
+
+  IX. Westby in the Game                     183
+
+   X. Master and Boy                         205
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+Lawrence launched himself and hurled the
+runner backward (p. 194)                        _Frontispiece_
+
+The canoes swung about and made for Each Other             52
+
+As to who had won, Irving had not the Slightest Idea      140
+
+A Shadow crossed Westby's Face                            220
+
+_From drawings by B. L. Bates_
+
+
+
+
+THE JESTER OF ST. TIMOTHY'S
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+IRVING SETS FORTH ON HIS ADVENTURE
+
+
+In the post-office of Beasley's general store Irving Upton was eagerly
+sorting the mail. His eagerness at that task had not been abated by the
+repeated, the daily disappointments which it had caused him. During the
+whole summer month for which he had now been in attendance as Mr.
+Beasley's clerk, the arrival of the mail had constituted his chief
+interest. And because that for which he had been hoping had failed to
+come, his thin face had grown more worried, and the brooding look was
+more constantly in his eyes.
+
+This afternoon his hand paused; he looked at the superscription on an
+envelope unbelievingly. The letter came from St. Timothy's School and
+was addressed to him. He finished distributing the other letters among
+the boxes, for people were waiting outside the partition; then he opened
+the envelope and read the type-written enclosure. A flush crept up over
+his cheeks, over his forehead; when he raised his eyes, the brooding
+look was no longer in them, but a quiet happiness instead, and his lips,
+which had so long been troubled, were smoothed out in a faint, contented
+smile. He read the letter a second time, then put it in his pocket, and
+stepped round behind the counter to sell five cents' worth of pink
+gumdrops to little Abby Lawson.
+
+When she had gone and the callers after mail had been satisfied, Irving
+sat down at the table in the back of the store. He read the letter again
+and mused over it for a few moments contentedly; then, with it lying
+open before him, he proceeded to write an answer.
+
+After finishing that, he drew from his pocket some papers--French
+exercises, done in a scrawling, unformed hand.
+
+It was the noon hour, when the people of the village were all eating
+their dinners; Mr. Beasley had gone home, and Irving was undisturbed.
+He helped himself to the crackers and dried beef which were his luncheon
+perquisites, and with these at his elbow and nibbling them from time to
+time he set about correcting his brother's French.
+
+He sighed in spite of the happiness which was pervading him; would
+Lawrence always go on confusing some of the forms of _etre_ and _avoir_?
+Would he never learn to know the difference between _ils ont_ and _ils
+sont_?
+
+Irving made his corrections in a neat, pretty little hand, which of
+itself seemed to reprove the student's awkward scrawl. He turned then to
+his own studies, which he was pursuing in a tattered volume of
+Blackstone's Commentaries on the English Common Law. He did not get on
+very fast with this book, and sometimes he wondered what bearing it
+could have on the practice of the law in Ohio at the present time. But
+he had been advised to familiarize himself with the work in the interval
+before he should enter a law school--an interval of such doubtful
+length!
+
+Mr. Beasley's entrance caused him to look up.
+
+"I shall be leaving you in less than a month now, Mr. Beasley," he said.
+
+"Got a job to teach, have you?" asked the storekeeper.
+
+"Yes--at St. Timothy's School."
+
+"Where may that be?"
+
+"Up in New Hampshire."
+
+"Quite a ways off. But I suppose you don't mind that much--having been
+away to college."
+
+"No, I think I'll like it. Besides,--now Lawrence will be able to go to
+college this fall, and he and I will be pretty near each other. We'll be
+able to spend our holidays together. I think it's fine."
+
+"It does sound so," agreed Mr. Beasley. "Well, I'll be sorry to lose
+you, Irving. The folks all like to have you wait on 'em; you're so
+polite and tidy. But I know clerking in a country store ain't much of a
+job for a college graduate, and I'm glad you've found something better."
+
+"I'm glad if I've been of any use to you," replied Irving. "I know you
+didn't expect I would be when you took me in. And your giving me this
+chance has meant that I could stay on here and tutor Lawrence this
+summer and at the same time pay all my living expenses. It's been more
+of a help than you know--to Lawrence as well as to me."
+
+"You're both good boys," said Mr. Beasley. "But it seems like you're too
+shy and quiet ever to make much of a lawyer, Irving--or a teacher," he
+added, in candid criticism.
+
+Irving blushed. "Maybe I'll get over that in time, Mr. Beasley."
+
+"You had better," observed the storekeeper. "It's of no manner of use to
+anybody--not a particle. Lawrence, now, is different."
+
+Yes, Lawrence was different; the fact impressed itself that evening on
+Irving when his brother came home from the haying field with his uncle.
+Lawrence was big and ruddy and laughing; Irving was slight and delicate
+and grave. The two boys went together to their room to make themselves
+ready for supper.
+
+"We finished the north meadow to-day," said Lawrence,--"the whole of it.
+So don't blame me if I go to sleep over French verbs this evening."
+
+"I'll tell you something that will wake you up," Irving replied. "I'm
+going to teach at St. Timothy's School--in New Hampshire. So your going
+to college is sure, and we'll be only a couple of hours apart."
+
+"Oh, Irv!" In Lawrence's exclamation there was more expressiveness, more
+joy, than in all his brother's carefully restrained statement. "Oh, Irv!
+Isn't it splendid! I think you're the finest thing--!" Lawrence grasped
+Irving's hand and at the same time began thumping him on the back. Then
+he opened the door and shouted down the stairs.
+
+"Uncle Bob! Aunt Ann! Irv has some great news to-night."
+
+Mrs. Upton put her head out into the hall; she was setting the table and
+held a plate of bread.
+
+"What is it, Irv? Have you--have you had a letter?"
+
+There was an anxious, almost a regretful note in her voice.
+
+"Yes," said Irving. "I'll tell you about it when I come down."
+
+At the supper table he expounded all the details. Like Mr. Beasley, his
+uncle and his aunt had never heard of St. Timothy's School. Irving was
+able to enlighten them. At college he had become familiar with its
+reputation; it was one of the big preparatory schools in which the
+position of teacher had seemed to him desirable almost beyond the hope
+of attainment.
+
+He recited the terms which had been offered and which he had accepted:
+nine hundred dollars salary the first year, with lodging, board, washing
+all provided--so that really it was the equivalent of fourteen or fifteen
+hundred dollars a year. And then there would be the three months'
+vacation, in which he could prosecute his law studies and earn
+additional money.
+
+"Sounds good," said Mr. Upton.
+
+"Of course I'm very glad," said Mrs. Upton. "But how we shall miss you
+boys! I've got used to having Irving away,--but to be without Lawrence,
+too--"
+
+"Yes," said her husband with a twinkle in his eyes, "we certainly shall
+miss Lawrence--especially in haying time. I'm glad you didn't get this
+news till most of the hay crop was in. No more farming for you this
+year, Lawrence."
+
+"Why, but there's all the south meadow uncut--"
+
+"I'll handle that. As long as there was so much doubt as to whether
+you'd be able to go to college or not, I felt that you might be making
+yourself useful first of all and studying only in the odd moments. Now
+it's different; you've got to settle down to hard study and nothing
+else. And Irving had better devote himself entirely to you, and leave
+Mr. Beasley to struggle along without any college help."
+
+"I don't believe he'll miss me very much," Irving admitted. "And you're
+right, Uncle Bob; I can accomplish a great deal more working with
+Lawrence this next month. I ought to be able to get him entered in
+regular standing."
+
+"If I can do that," cried Lawrence, "perhaps I'll be able to earn my way
+as Irv did--tutoring and so on--and not have to call on you or him for any
+help."
+
+"What on earth should I do with nine hundred a year?" Irving exclaimed.
+
+"Save it for your law school fund," said Lawrence.
+
+Irving shrugged his shoulders grandly. "Oh, I can earn money."
+
+Lawrence gave him an affectionate push. "Tut!" he said. "Be good to
+yourself once in a while."
+
+It was a happy family that evening. The uncle and the aunt rejoiced in
+the good news, even while regretting the separation.
+
+Mr. Upton, the younger brother of the boys' father, who had been the
+village clergyman, shared his brother's tastes; he read good books, he
+would travel to hear a celebrated man speak, he had ideas which were not
+bounded by his farm. He had encouraged Irving as well as Lawrence to
+seek a university education. The two boys were proud, eager to free
+themselves from dependence on the uncle and aunt who, after their
+father's death, had given them a home. Irving had worked his way through
+college, hardly ever asking for help; he had been a capable scholar and
+the faculty had found for him backward students in need of tutoring.
+
+Meanwhile, Mr. Upton had been busily engaged in developing and
+increasing his farm; that he was beginning to be prosperous Irving was
+aware; that he did not more earnestly insist upon helping his nephews
+stimulated their spirit of independence. They knew that they had been
+left penniless; Irving sometimes suspected his uncle of parsimony, yet
+this was a trait so incongruous with Mr. Upton's genial nature that
+Irving never communicated the suspicion to his brother. Irving felt,
+too, that his uncle cared less for him than for Lawrence. Well, that
+was natural; Irving was humble there.
+
+When the dean of the college had said that it would be inadvisable for
+Lawrence to make a start unless he had at least three hundred dollars at
+command, it had seemed to Irving a little narrow on his uncle's part not
+to have come forward at once with that sum. Instead he had merely given
+Lawrence the opportunity to work harder in the hay-field and so increase
+his small bank account. And it had soon become apparent to Irving that
+unless he and Lawrence could between them raise the money, they need not
+look to their uncle for help beyond that which he was already giving.
+Therefore Irving went into Mr. Beasley's store, and hoped daily for the
+letter which at last had come.
+
+Day after day the two brothers worked together. Irving, quick,
+impatient, sometimes losing his temper; Lawrence, slow, calm, turning
+the edge of the teacher's sarcasm sometimes with a laugh, sometimes with
+a quiet appeal. Irving always felt ashamed after these outbreaks and
+uneasily conscious that Lawrence conducted himself with greater
+dignity. And Lawrence forgot Irving's irritations in gratitude to him
+for his help. "It must be a trial to teach such a numskull," Lawrence
+thought; and at the end of one particularly hard day he undertook to
+console his brother by saying, "Never mind, Irv; it won't be long now
+before you have pupils who aren't country bumpkins and don't need to
+have things pounded into their heads with an axe."
+
+It had been a rather savage remark that had called this out; Irving
+threw down his book and perching on the arm of his brother's chair, put
+his arm around his neck and begged his forgiveness.
+
+"As if I could ever like to teach anybody else as much as I like to
+teach you!" he exclaimed. "I'm sorry, Lawrence; I'll try to keep a
+little better grip on myself."
+
+Sometimes it seemed to Irving odd that Lawrence should be so slow at his
+books; Irving did not fail to realize that with the neighbors or with
+strangers, in any gathering whatsoever, Lawrence was always quick,
+sympathetic, interested; he himself was the one who seemed dull and
+immature.
+
+It had been so with him at college; he had been merely the student of
+books. Social life he had had none, and only now, with the difference
+between his brother and himself enforcing a clearer vision, had he
+become aware of some deficiency in his education. In silence he envied
+Lawrence and wished that he too possessed such winning and engaging
+traits.
+
+He realized the contrast with especial keenness on the afternoon when he
+and Lawrence began their eastward journey. There was a party assembled
+at the station to see them off,--to see Lawrence off, as Irving
+reflected, for never on his own previous departures had he occasioned
+any such demonstration.
+
+Lawrence was presented on the platform with various farewell gifts--a
+pair of knit slippers from Sally Buxton, who was the prettiest girl in
+the valley and who tried to slip them into his hand when no one else was
+looking, and blushed when Nora Carson unfeelingly called attention to
+her shy attempt; a pair of mittens from old Mrs. Fitch; a pocket comb
+and mirror from the Uptons' hired man; a paper bag of doughnuts from
+Mrs. Brumby.
+
+There were no gifts for Irving; indeed, he had never cared or thought
+much, one way or the other, about any of these people clustered on the
+platform. Only this summer, seeing them so frequently in Mr. Beasley's
+store, he had felt the first stirrings of interest in them; now for the
+first time he was aware of a wistfulness because they did not care for
+him as they did for Lawrence.
+
+Mr. Beasley came up to him. "So you're off--both of you. Funny thing--I
+guess from the looks of you two, if a stranger was to come along, he'd
+pick Lawrence out for the teacher and you for the schoolboy. Lawrence
+looks as old as you, and handles himself more grown up, somehow."
+
+"He's bigger," Irving sighed.
+
+"Yes, 't ain't only that," drawled Mr. Beasley. "Though 't is a pity
+you're so spindling; good thing for a teacher to be able to lay on the
+switch good and hard when needed."
+
+"I don't believe they punish with the switch at St. Timothy's."
+
+"Then I guess they don't learn the boys much. How you going to keep
+order among boys if you don't use the switch?"
+
+At that moment the train came whistling round the bend. Irving caught up
+his bag, turned and grasped Mr. Beasley's hand, then plunged into the
+crowd which had closed about his brother. His aunt turned and flung her
+arms about him and kissed him; his uncle gave him a good-natured pat on
+the back and then stooped and said in his ear, "Irv, if you ever get
+into trouble,--go to Lawrence."
+
+There was the merry, kindly twinkle in his eyes, the quizzical, humorous
+smile on his lips that made Irving know his uncle meant always, deep in
+his heart, to do the right thing.
+
+In the train he pondered for a few moments that last word of advice,
+wondering if it had been sincere. It rather hurt his dignity, to be
+referred to his younger brother in that way--and yet it pleased him too;
+he was glad to have Lawrence appreciated.
+
+Irving spent a day in Cambridge, helping his brother to get settled in
+the rooms which he himself had occupied for four years. Then he bade
+Lawrence good-by and resumed his journey to New Hampshire.
+
+It was a pleasant September morning when he presented himself, a sallow,
+thin-cheeked, narrow-shouldered, bespectacled youth, before Dr.
+Davenport, the rector of St. Timothy's School. The sunlight streamed in
+through the southern windows of the spacious library, throwing mellow
+tints on the bindings of the books which lined the opposite wall from
+floor to ceiling. It was all so bright that Irving, who was troubled
+with weak eyes, advanced into it blinking; and perhaps that was one
+reason for the disappointment which flitted across the rector's face--and
+which Irving, who was acutely sensitive, perceived in his blinking
+glance. He flushed, aware that somehow his appearance was too timorous.
+
+But Dr. Davenport chatted with him pleasantly, told him how highly the
+college authorities had recommended him, and only laughingly intimated
+a surprise at finding him so young-looking.
+
+"I hope that teaching won't age you prematurely," he added. "You will
+probably have some trying times with the boys--we all do. But it oughtn't
+to be hard for you--especially as you will be thrown most of all with the
+older boys. Mr. Williams, who has had charge of the Sixth Form dormitory
+at the Upper School, is ill with typhoid fever and will probably not
+come back this term. So I'm going to put you in charge there. You will
+have under you twenty fellows, some of them the best in the school. But
+just because they are in some ways pretty mature, don't be--don't be
+self-effacing."
+
+"I understand," said Irving. He sat on the edge of his chair, and
+crumpled his handkerchief nervously in his hands. And all the time--with
+his singular clearness of intuition--he was aware of the doubt and
+distrust passing through Dr. Davenport's mind.
+
+"Don't be afraid of the boys or show embarrassment or discomfort before
+them," continued Dr. Davenport, "and on the other hand don't try to
+cultivate dignity by being cold and austere. Be natural with them--but
+always be the master.--There!" he broke off, smiling, for he saw that
+Irving looked worried and seemed to be taking all this as personal
+criticism--"that's the talk that I always give to a new master; and now
+I'm done. Here is a printed copy of the rules and regulations which I
+advise you to study; you must try to familiarize yourself with our
+customs before any of the boys arrive. To-morrow the new boys will come,
+and you will report for duty at the Gymnasium, where the entrance
+examinations will be held. You will find your room in the Sixth Form
+dormitory, at the Upper School. I hope you will like the life here, Mr.
+Upton--and I wish you every possible success in it."
+
+The rector gave him an encouraging handshake and another friendly smile.
+But Irving departed feeling depressed and afraid. He had seen that the
+rector was disappointed in him--in his appearance, in his manner. And
+the rector's little speech had given him the clue. Until now, he had not
+much considered how large a part of his work would be in the management
+and the discipline of the boys; the mere teaching of them was what had
+been in his mind, and for that he felt perfectly competent. In college,
+that was all that the tutoring, in which he had been so successful,
+meant. But, confronted by the necessity of establishing and maintaining
+friendly human relations with a lot of strange boys, Irving for the
+first time questioned his qualifications, realizing that the rector too
+was questioning them.
+
+He became more cheerful the next day, when the new boys began to arrive
+and he found himself at once with work to do. He had mastered pretty
+thoroughly the names of the buildings and the geography of the place,
+and it was rather pleasant to be able to give information and directions
+to those younger and more ignorant than himself.
+
+It was pleasant, too, to have one mother who was wandering round vaguely
+with her small son and to whom he shyly proffered assistance, show such
+appreciation of his courtesy and end by appealing to him to keep always
+a friendly eye on her little forlorn Walter. As it turned out, Irving
+never afterwards came much into contact with the boy, who lived in a
+different building and was not in any of his classes; he asked about him
+from time to time, and discovered that Walter was a mischievous person,
+not troubled by homesickness.
+
+But most agreeable and reassuring was it to take charge of the
+examination-room, where the new boys were undergoing the tests of their
+scholarship. Most of them were candidates for the Second, Third, and
+Fourth Forms, and their ages ranged from twelve to fifteen; Irving sat
+at a desk on the platform and surveyed them while they worked, or
+tiptoed down the aisle in response to an appeal from some uplifted hand.
+
+He had come so recently from examination-rooms where he had been one of
+the pupils that this experience exhilarated him; it conferred upon him
+an authority that he enjoyed. He liked to be addressed by these
+nice-mannered young boys as "sir," and to be recognized by them so
+unquestioningly as a person to whom deference must be shown. Altogether
+this first day with the new boys inspired him with confidence, and at
+the end of it he attacked the pile of examination books
+enthusiastically.
+
+Mr. Barclay aided him in that task; Mr. Barclay was a young master also,
+comparatively, though he had had several years' experience. Irving was
+attracted to him at once, and was grateful for the way in which he made
+suggestions when there was some uncertainty as to how a boy should be
+graded.
+
+Irving liked, too, the genial chuckle which preceded an invitation to
+inspect some candidate's egregious blunder; Irving would read and smile
+quietly, unaware that Barclay was watching him and wondering how
+appreciative he might be of the ludicrous.
+
+Two nights Irving spent all alone in the Sixth Form dormitory; it amused
+him to walk up and down the corridors with the list of those to whom
+rooms there had been assigned. "Collingwood, Westby, Scarborough,
+Morrill, Anderson, Baldersnaith, Hill"--some of them had occupied these
+rooms as Fifth Formers, and Irving had asked Mr. Barclay about them.
+
+Louis Collingwood was captain of the school football team; Scarborough
+was captain of the school crew.
+
+"Neither of them will give you any trouble," said Barclay. "Scarborough
+used to be a cub, but he has developed very much in the last year or
+two, and now he and Collingwood are the best-liked fellows in the
+school. They have a proper sense of their responsibility as leaders of
+the school, and are more likely to help you than to make trouble.
+Morrill is their faithful follower, though a little harum-scarum at
+times. Westby--" the master hesitated over that name and looked at Irving
+with a measuring glance--"Westby is what you might call the school
+jester. He's very popular with the boys--not equally so with all the
+masters. Personally I'm rather fond of him. He's almost too quick-witted
+sometimes."
+
+That evening Barclay took the new master home to dine with him. Mrs.
+Barclay was as cordial and as kind as her husband; Irving began to feel
+more than satisfied with his surroundings.
+
+"Pity you're not married, Upton," Barclay said, half jokingly. "You'd
+escape keeping dormitory if you were--which you'll find the meanest of
+all possible jobs. And then if your wife's the right kind--the boys have
+to be pretty decent to you in order to keep on her good side."
+
+Mrs. Barclay laughed. "I suppose that's the only reason they're pretty
+decent to you, William!--You'll find it easy, Mr. Upton,--for the reason
+that they're a pretty decent lot of boys."
+
+The next day at noon the old boys began to arrive. Irving was coming out
+of the auditorium, where he had been correcting the last set of
+examination papers, when a barge drew up before the study building and
+boys clutching hand-bags tumbled out and hurried into the building to
+greet the rector.
+
+Irving stood for a few moments looking on with interest: other barges
+kept coming over the hill, interspersed with carriages, in which a few
+arrived more magnificently.
+
+It occurred to Irving that perhaps he had better hasten to his dormitory
+in order to be on hand when his charges should begin to appear; he was
+just starting away when three boys arm in arm rushed out of the study
+building. They came prancing up to him, all smiles and twinkles; they
+were boys of seventeen or eighteen. They confronted him, blocking his
+path; and the one in the middle, a slim, straight fellow in a blue suit,
+said,--
+
+"Hello, new kid! What name?"
+
+A blush of embarrassment mounted in Irving's cheeks; feeling it, he
+conceived it all the more advisable to assert his dignity. So he said
+without a smile, in a constrained voice,--
+
+"I am not a new kid. I am a master."
+
+The three boys who had been beaming on him with good humor in their
+eyes stared blankly. Then the one in the middle, with a sudden whoop of
+laughter, swung the two others round and led them off at a run; and as
+they went, their delighted laughter floated back to Irving's ears.
+
+His cheeks were tingling, almost as if they had been slapped. He
+followed the boys at a distance; they moved towards the Upper School.
+His heart sank; what if they were in his dormitory?
+
+He entered the building just as the last of the three was going up the
+Sixth Form dormitory stairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+HE ACHIEVES A NAME FOR HIMSELF
+
+
+At the foot of the staircase Irving hesitated until the sound of the
+voices and footsteps had ceased. The three boys had not seen him when he
+had entered; he was wondering whether he had better be courageous, go
+right up after them, and introduce himself,--just as if they had not
+caught him off his guard and put him into a ridiculous position,--or
+delay a little while in the hope that their memory of it would be less
+keen.
+
+He decided that he had better be courageous. When he reached the top
+floor, he went into his room; he was feeling nervous over the prospect
+of confronting his charges, and he wished to be sure that his hair and
+his necktie looked right. While he was examining himself in the mirror,
+he heard a door open on the corridor and a boy call, "Lou! Did you know
+that Mr. Williams won't be back this term?"
+
+Farther down the corridor a voice answered, "No! What's the matter?"
+
+"Typhoid. Mr. Randolph told me."
+
+"Who's taken his place?" It was another voice that asked this question.
+
+"A new man--named Upton. I haven't laid eyes on him yet."
+
+"Wouldn't it be a joke--!" The speaker paused to laugh. "Suppose it
+should turn out to be the new kid!"
+
+"'I am not a new kid; I am a master.'"
+
+The mimicry was so accurate that Irving winced and then flushed to the
+temples. In the laughter that it produced he closed his door quietly and
+sat down to think. He couldn't be courageous now; he felt that he could
+not step out and face those fellows who were laughing at him. Of course
+they were the ones who ought to be embarrassed by his appearance, not
+he; but Irving felt they would lend one another support and brazen it
+through, and that he would be the one to exhibit weakness. He decided
+that he must wait and try to make himself known to each one of them
+separately--that only by such a beginning would he be likely to engage
+their respect.
+
+It was the first time that he had been brought face to face with his
+pitiable diffidence. He was ashamed; he thought of how differently
+Lawrence would have met the situation--how much more directly he would
+have dealt with it. Irving resolved that hereafter he would not be
+afraid of any multitude of boys. But he refrained from making his
+presence known in the dormitory that afternoon.
+
+At half past five o'clock he went downstairs to the rooms of Mr.
+Randolph, who had charge of the Upper School. Mr. Marcy, the Fifth Form
+dormitory master, and Mr. Wythe, the Fourth Form dormitory master, were
+also there. They were veterans, comparatively, and it was to meet them
+and benefit by what they could tell him that Irving had been invited.
+All three congratulated him on his good fortune in obtaining the Sixth
+Form dormitory.
+
+"The older they are, the less trouble they are," said Wythe. "My first
+year I was over at the Lower School, looking after the little kids. Half
+the time they're sick and whimpering and have to be coddled, and the
+rest of the time they have to be spanked."
+
+"It hardly matters what age they are," lamented Marcy, pessimistically.
+"There's bound to be a dormitory disorder once in so often."
+
+"What do you do in that case?" asked Irving.
+
+"Jump hard on some one," answered Wythe. "Try to get the leader of it,
+but if you can't get him, get somebody. Report him,--give him three
+sheets."
+
+"That means writing Latin lines for three hours on half-holidays?"
+
+"Yes, and six marks off in Decorum for the week. Of course they'll come
+wheedling round you, wanting to be excused; you have to use your own
+discretion about that."
+
+"Do you have any Sixth Form classes?" asked Marcy.
+
+"Yes," Irving answered. "In Geometry."
+
+"That means you'll have to take the upper hand and hold it, right from
+the start. If you have one crowd in dormitory to look after and another
+crowd in class, you can afford to relax a little now and then; but when
+it's the same boys in both--they watch for any sign of weakening."
+
+"There will be only two of them at your table, any way, Mr. Upton," said
+Randolph. He passed over a list. "The others are all Fourth and Fifth
+Formers--only Westby and Carroll from the Sixth!"
+
+"Westby!" Wythe sighed. "Maybe we were premature in congratulating you.
+I'd forgotten about Westby."
+
+"What is the matter with him?" asked Irving.
+
+"His cleverness, and his attractiveness. He smiles and smiles and is a
+villain still. He was in my dormitory year before last and kept it in a
+constant turmoil. And yet if you have any sense of humor at all you
+can't help being amused by him--even sympathizing with him--though it's
+apt to be at your own expense."
+
+"He's perfectly conscienceless," declared Marcy.
+
+"And yet there's no real harm in him," said Randolph.
+
+"He seems to be something of a puzzle." Irving spoke uneasily. "And he's
+to be at my table--I'm to have a table?"
+
+"Oh, yes. In fact, one or two of the Sixth Formers--Scarborough, for
+instance--have tables. But we don't let all the Sixth Formers eat
+together; we try to scatter them. And Westby and Carroll have fallen to
+your lot."
+
+"If you happen to see either of them before supper, I should like to
+meet them," Irving said.
+
+He felt that if he could make their acquaintance separately and without
+witnesses, he could produce a better impression than if he waited and
+confronted them before a whole table of strange faces.
+
+But as it happened, that was just the way that he did meet Westby and
+Carroll. When the supper bell sounded, the hallway of the Upper School
+was crowded with boys, examining the schedule which had been posted and
+which assigned them to their seats in the dining-room. Irving, after
+waiting nervously until more than half the number had entered the
+dining-room and deriving no help from any of the other masters, went in
+and stood at the head of the third table, as he had been instructed to
+do. Four or five boys were already standing there at their places; they
+looked at him with curiosity and bowed to him politely. The crowd as it
+entered thinned; Irving was beginning to hope that Westby and Carroll
+had gone elsewhere,--and then, just as Mr. Randolph was mounting to the
+head table on the dais, two boys slipped in and stood at the seats at
+Irving's right. He recognized them as having been two of the three who
+had laughed when he had proclaimed himself a master. One was the slim,
+tall fellow who had called him "new kid."
+
+For a moment at Irving's table, after the boys had rattled into their
+seats, there was silence. In front of Irving were a platter of cold
+tongue and a dish of beans, and he began to put portions of each on the
+plates piled before him. Then as he passed the first plate along the
+line he looked up and said, "I think we'd better find out who everybody
+is. So each fellow, as he gets his plate, will please sing out his
+name."
+
+That was not such a bad beginning; there was a general grin which
+broadened into a laugh when the first boy blushingly owned to the name
+of Walnut. Then came Lacy and Norris, and then Westby.
+
+"Oh," said Irving. "I think you're to be in my dormitory, aren't you?"
+
+"I believe so." Westby looked at him quizzically, as if expecting him to
+make some reference to their encounter; but Irving passed on to his next
+neighbor, Carroll, and then began with the other side of the table.
+
+He liked the appearance of the boys; they were quiet-looking and
+respectful, and they had been responsive enough to his suggestion about
+announcing their names. A happy inspiration told him that so long as he
+could keep on taking the initiative with boys, he would have no serious
+trouble. But it was one thing to recognize an effective mode of conduct,
+and another to have the resourcefulness for carrying it out. Irving was
+just thinking what next he should say, when Westby fell upon him.
+
+"Mr. Upton,"--Westby's voice was curiously distinct, in spite of its
+quietness,--"wasn't it funny, our taking you for a new kid this
+afternoon?"
+
+Because the question was so obviously asked in a lull to embarrass him,
+Irving was embarrassed. The interest of all the boys at the table had
+been skillfully excited, and Westby leaned forward in front of Carroll,
+with mischievous eyes and smile. Irving felt his color rising; he felt
+both abashed and annoyed.
+
+"Why, yes," he said hesitatingly. "I--I was a little startled."
+
+"Did they take you for a new kid, Mr. Upton?" asked Blake, the Fifth
+Former, who sat on Irving's left.
+
+"For a moment, yes," admitted Irving, anxious not to pursue the subject.
+
+But Westby proceeded to explain with gusto, while the whole table
+listened. "Lou Collingwood and Carrie here and I were in front of the
+Study, and out came Mr. Upton. And Lou wanted to nail him for the
+Pythians, so we all pranced up to him, and I said, 'Hello, new kid; what
+name, please?'--just like that; didn't I, Mr. Upton?"
+
+"Yes," said Irving grudgingly. He had an uneasy feeling that he was
+being made an object of general entertainment; certainly the eyes of all
+the boys at the table were fixed upon him smilingly.
+
+"What happened then?" asked the blunt Blake.
+
+"Why, then," continued Westby, "Mr. Upton told us that he wasn't a new
+kid at all, but a new master. You may imagine we were surprised--weren't
+we, Mr. Upton?"
+
+"Oh, I could hardly tell--"
+
+"The joke was certainly on us. As the French say, it was a
+_contretemps_. To think that after all the years we'd been here, we
+couldn't tell a new kid from a new master!"
+
+Irving was mildly bewildered. He could not quite determine whether
+Westby was telling the story more as a joke on himself or on him.
+Anyway, in spite of the temporary embarrassment which they had caused
+him, there seemed to be nothing offensive in the remarks. He liked
+Westby's face; it was alert and good-humored, and the cajoling quality
+in the boy's voice and the twinkle in his eyes were quite attractive. In
+fact, his manner during supper was so agreeable that Irving quite forgot
+it was this youth whom he had overheard mimicking him: "I am not a new
+kid; I am a master."
+
+After supper there were prayers in the Common Room; then all the boys
+except the Sixth Formers went to the Study building to sit for an hour
+under the eyes of a master, to read or write letters. On subsequent
+evenings they would have to employ this period in studying, but as yet
+no lessons had been assigned; the classroom work had not begun. The
+Sixth Form were exempt from the necessity of attending Study, and had
+the privilege of preparing their lessons in their own rooms. Irving
+found, on going up to his dormitory, that the boys were visiting one
+another, helping one another unpack, darting up and down the corridor
+and carrying on loud conversations. He decided, as there were no lessons
+for them to prepare, not to interfere; their sociability seemed harmless
+enough.
+
+So, leaving the door of his room open that he might hear and suppress
+any incipient disorder, he began a letter to Lawrence. He thought at
+first that he would confide to his brother the little troubles which
+were annoying him. But when he set about it, they seemed really too
+petty to transcribe; surely he was man enough to bear such worries
+without appealing to a younger brother for advice.
+
+There was a loud burst of laughter from a room in which several boys had
+gathered. It was followed by the remark in Westby's pleasant,
+persuasive voice,--
+
+"Look out, fellows, or we'll have Kiddy Upton down on us."
+
+"Kiddy Upton!" another voice exclaimed in delight, and there was more
+laughter.
+
+Kiddy Upton! So that was to be his name. Of course boys gave nicknames
+to their teachers,--Irving remembered some appellations that had
+prevailed even at college. But none of them seemed so slighting or so
+jeering as this of Kiddy; and Irving flushed as he had done when he had
+been taken for a "new kid." But now his sensitiveness was even more
+hurt; it wounded him that Westby, that pleasant, humorous person, should
+have been the one to apply the epithet.
+
+Westby began singing "The Wearing of the Green," to an accompaniment on
+a banjo. Presently four or five voices, with extravagant brogues, were
+uplifted in the chorus:--
+
+    "'Tis the most disthressful counthry
+      That ever there was seen;
+    For they're hanging men and women too
+      For wearin' of the green."
+
+There was much applause; boys from other rooms went hurrying down the
+corridor. The banjo-player struck up "The Road to Mandalay;" again
+Irving recognized Westby's voice.
+
+Irving decided that he must not be thin-skinned; it was his part to step
+up, be genial, make himself known to all these boys who were to be under
+his care, and show them that he wished to be friendly. He did not wait
+to debate with himself the wisdom of this resolve or to consider how he
+should proceed; he acted on the impulse. He walked down the corridor to
+the third room on the left--the door of Westby's room, from which the
+sounds of joviality proceeded. He knocked; some one called "Come in;"
+and Irving opened the door.
+
+Three boys sat in chairs, three sat on the bed; Westby himself was
+squatting cross-legged on the window seat, with the banjo across his
+knees. They all rose politely when Irving entered.
+
+"I thought I would drop in and make your acquaintance," said Irving.
+"We're bound to know one another some time."
+
+"My name's Collingwood," said the boy nearest him, offering his hand. He
+was a healthy, light-haired, solidly put together youth, with a genial
+smile. "This is Scarborough, Mr. Upton."
+
+The biggest of them all came forward at that and shook hands. Irving
+thought that his deep-set dark eyes were disconcertingly direct in their
+gaze; and a lock of black hair overhung his brow in a far from
+propitiating manner. Yet his bearing was dignified and manly; Irving
+felt that he might be trusted to show magnanimity.
+
+"Here's Carroll," continued Collingwood; and Irving said, "Oh, I know
+Carroll; we sat together at supper." Carroll said nothing, merely smiled
+in an agreeable, non-committal manner; so far it was all that Irving had
+discovered he could do.
+
+"That fellow with the angel face is Morrill," Collingwood went on, "and
+the one next to him, with the aristocratic features, is Baldersnaith,
+and this red-head here is Dennison,--and that's Westby."
+
+Irving, shaking hands round the circle, said, "Oh, I know Westby."
+
+"Sit down, won't you, Mr. Upton?" Westby pushed his armchair forward.
+
+"Thank you; don't let me interrupt the singing."
+
+"Maybe you'll join us?"
+
+Irving shook his head. "I wish I could. But please go on."
+
+Westby squatted again on the window-seat and plucked undecidedly at the
+banjo-strings. Then he cleared his throat and launched upon a negro
+melody; he sang it with the unctuous abandon of the darkey, and Irving
+listened and looked on enviously, admiring the display of talent. Westby
+sang another song, and then turned and pushed up the window.
+
+"Awfully hot for this time of year, isn't it?" he said. "Fine moonlight
+night; wouldn't it be great to go for a swim?"
+
+"Um!" said Morrill, appreciatively.
+
+"Will you let us go, Mr. Upton?" Westby asked the question pleadingly.
+"Won't you please let us go? It's such a fine warm moonlight night--and
+it isn't as if school had really begun, you know."
+
+"But I think the rules don't permit your being out at this time of
+night, do they?" said Irving.
+
+"Well, but as I say, school hasn't really begun yet. And besides, Scabby
+here is almost as good as a master--and so is Lou Collingwood; I'm the
+only really irresponsible one in the bunch--"
+
+"Where do you go to swim?"
+
+"In the pond, just beyond the isthmus--only about a quarter of a mile
+from here. Come on, fellows, Mr. Upton's going to let us go."
+
+Irving laughed uneasily. "Oh, I didn't say that. If Mr. Randolph is
+willing that you should go, I wouldn't object."
+
+"You're in charge of this dormitory," argued Westby. "And if you gave us
+permission, Mr. Randolph wouldn't say anything."
+
+"I don't feel that I can make an exception to the rules," said Irving.
+
+"But school hasn't really begun yet," persisted Westby.
+
+"I think it really has, so far as observing the rules is concerned,"
+replied Irving.
+
+"You might go with us, sir--and that would make it all right."
+
+"But I don't believe I want to go in swimming this evening."
+
+"I'm awfully afraid you're going to be just like granite, Mr. Upton,"
+sighed Westby,--"the man with the iron jaw." He turned on the others a
+humorous look; they all were smiling. Irving felt uncomfortable again,
+suspecting that Westby was making game of him, yet not knowing in what
+way to meet it--except by silence.
+
+"I'll tell you what I will do with you to-morrow, Wes," said
+Collingwood. "I'll challenge you to that water duel that we were to have
+pulled off last June."
+
+"All right, Lou," said Westby. "Carrie here will be my trusty squire and
+will paddle my canoe."
+
+Carroll grinned his assent.
+
+"I'll pick Ned Morrill for my second," said Collingwood. "And Scabby can
+be referee."
+
+"What's a water duel?" asked Irving.
+
+"They go out in canoes, two in each canoe," answered Scarborough. "One
+fellow paddles, and the other stands up in the bow with a long pole and
+a big fat sponge tied to the end of it. Then the two canoes manoeuvre,
+and try to get within striking distance, and the fellow or canoe that
+gets upset first loses. We had a tournament last spring, and these two
+pairs came through to the finals, but never fought it out--baseball or
+tennis or something always interfered."
+
+"It must be quite an amusing game," said Irving.
+
+"Come up to the swimming hole to-morrow afternoon if you want to see
+it," said Collingwood, hospitably. "I'll just about drown Westby. It
+will be a good show."
+
+"Thank you; I'd like to--"
+
+"But don't you think, Mr. Upton,"--again it was Westby, with his cajoling
+voice and his wheedling smile,--"that I might have just one evening's
+moonlight practice for it?"
+
+"Oh, I don't believe you need any practice."
+
+"But you said I might if Mr. Randolph would consent. I don't see why you
+shouldn't be independent, as well as liberal."
+
+There was a veiled insinuation in this, for all the good-natured,
+teasing tone, and Irving did not like it.
+
+"No," he said. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't let you go swimming
+to-night.--I'm glad to have met you all." And so he took his departure,
+and presently the sound of banjo and singing rose again from Westby's
+room.
+
+Irving proceeded to visit the other rooms of the dormitory and to make
+the acquaintance of the occupants--boys engaged mostly in arranging
+bureau drawers or hanging pictures. They were all friendly enough; it
+seemed to him that he could get on with boys individually; it was when
+they faced him in numbers that they alarmed him and caused his manner
+to be hesitating and embarrassed. One big fellow named Allison was
+trying to hang a picture when Irving entered; it was a large and heavy
+picture, and Irving held it straight while Allison stood on a chair and
+set the hook on the moulding. Allison thanked Irving with the gratitude
+of one unaccustomed to receiving such consideration; indeed, his
+uncouthness and unkemptness made him one of those unfortunate boys who
+suffered now and then from persecution. Irving learned afterwards that
+the crowd he had met in Westby's room hung together and were the leaders
+not merely in the affairs of the dormitory, but of the school.
+
+At half past nine the big bell on the Study building rang twice--the
+signal for the boys to go to their respective rooms. Irving had been
+informed of the little ceremony which was the custom; he stepped out in
+front of his door at the end of the corridor, and one after another the
+boys came up, shook hands with him, and bade him good-night. Westby came
+to him with the engaging and yet somewhat disquieting smile which
+recalled to Irving Mr. Wythe's words, "He smiles and smiles, but is a
+villain still." It was a smile which seemed to suggest the discernment
+and enjoyment of all one's weak spots.
+
+"_Good_-night, Mr. Upton," said Westby, and his voice was excessively
+urbane. It made Irving look forward to a better acquaintance with both
+expectancy and apprehension.
+
+The first morning of actual school work went well enough; Irving met his
+classes, which were altogether in mathematics, assigned them lessons,
+and managed to keep them and himself busy. From one of them he brought
+away some algebra exercises, which he spent part of the afternoon in
+correcting. When he had finished this work, the invitation to witness
+the water duel occurred to his mind.
+
+He found no other master to bear him company, so he set off by himself
+through the woods which bordered the pond behind the Gymnasium. He came
+at last to the "isthmus"--a narrow dyke of stones which cut off a long
+inlet and bridged the way over to a wooded peninsula that jutted out
+into the pond. On the farther side of this peninsula, secluded behind
+trees and bushes, was the swimming hole.
+
+As Irving approached, he heard voices; he drew nearer and saw the bare
+backs of boys undressing and heard then the defiances which they were
+hurling at one another--phrased in the language of Ivanhoe.
+
+"Nay, by my halidome, but I shall this day do my devoir right worthily
+upon the body of yon false knight," quoth Westby, as he carefully turned
+his shirt right side out.
+
+"A murrain on thee! Beshrew me if I do not spit thee upon my trusty
+lance," replied Collingwood, as he drew on his swimming tights.
+
+Then some one trotted out upon the spring-board, gave a bounce and a
+leap, and went into the water with a splash.
+
+"How is it, Ned?" called Westby; and Irving came up as Morrill, reaching
+out for a long side stroke, shouted, "Oh, fine--warm and fine."
+
+"Hello, Mr. Upton." It was Baldersnaith who first saw him; Baldersnaith,
+Dennison, and Smythe were fully dressed and were sitting under a tree
+looking on.
+
+"You're just in time," said Collingwood.
+
+Scarborough, stripped like Westby and Carroll and Morrill and
+Collingwood, was out on the pond, paddling round in a canoe. He was
+crouched on one knee in the middle, and the canoe careened over with his
+weight, so that the gunwale was only an inch or two above the surface.
+He was evidently an expert paddler, swinging the craft round, this way
+and that, without ever taking the paddle out of the water.
+
+Two other canoes were hauled up near the spring-board; Carroll was
+bending over one of them.
+
+"Bring me my lethal weapon, Carrie," Westby commanded. "I want to show
+Mr. Upton.--Is the button on tight?"
+
+Carroll produced from the canoe a long pole with an enormous sponge
+fastened to one end; he pulled at the sponge and announced, "Yes, the
+button's on tight," and passed the pole over to Westby.
+
+Westby made one or two experimental lunges with it and remarked
+musingly, "When I catch him square above the bread line with this--!"
+
+"Come on, then!" said Collingwood. "Come here, Ned!"
+
+Morrill swam ashore and pushed off in one of the canoes with
+Collingwood--taking the stern seat and the paddle. Collingwood knelt in
+the bow, with his spear laid across the gun-wales in front of him. In
+like manner Westby and Carroll took to the water.
+
+"This is the best two bouts out of three," called Scarborough, as he
+circled round. "Don't you want to come aboard, Mr. Upton, and help
+judge?"
+
+"Why, yes, thank you," said Irving.
+
+So Scarborough called, "Wait a moment, fellows," and paddling ashore,
+took on his passenger. Then he sped out to the middle of the bay; the
+two other canoes were separated by about fifty feet.
+
+"Charge!" cried Scarborough, and Morrill and Carroll began paddling
+towards each other, while in the bows Collingwood and Westby rose to
+their feet and held their spears in front of them. They advanced
+cautiously and then swung apart, evading the collision--each trying to
+tempt the other to stab and overreach.
+
+"Oh, you're both scared!" jeered Baldersnaith from the shore.
+
+The canoes swung about and made for each other again; and this time
+passed within striking distance. Westby's aim missed, his sponge-tipped
+lance slid past Collingwood's shoulder, and the next instant
+Collingwood's sponge--well weighted with water--smote Westby full in the
+chest and hove him overboard. For one moment Carroll struggled to keep
+the canoe right side up, but in vain; it tipped and filled, and with a
+shout he plunged in head foremost after his comrade.
+
+They came up and began to push their canoe ashore; the two other canoes
+drew alongside and assisted, Scarborough and Morrill paddling, while
+Irving and Collingwood laid hold of the thwarts.
+
+"That's all right; I'll get you this time," spluttered Westby. "We're
+going to use strategy now."
+
+They emptied the water out of the canoe and proceeded again to the
+battleground. Then, when Scarborough gave the word, Carroll began
+paddling madly; he and Westby bore down upon their antagonists at a most
+threatening speed. Morrill swung to the right to get out of their path;
+and then suddenly Carroll swung in the opposite direction--with what
+strategic purpose neither Irving nor Scarborough had time to conjecture.
+For they were loitering close on that side, not expecting any such
+manoeuvre; the sharp turn drove the bow of Carroll's canoe straight for
+the waist of Scarborough's, and Westby with an excited laugh undertook
+to fend off with his pole, lost his balance, and trying to recover it,
+upset both canoes together.
+
+Irving felt himself going, heard Westby's laughing shout, "Look out, Mr.
+Upton!" and then went under.
+
+[Illustration: THE CANOES SWUNG ABOUT AND MADE FOR EACH OTHER]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+WESTBY'S AMUSEMENTS
+
+
+The water was warm, but Irving swallowed a good deal of it and also was
+conscious of the fact that he had on a perfectly good suit of clothes.
+So he came to the surface, choking and annoyed; and when he recovered
+his faculties, he observed first of all Westby's grinning face.
+
+"You can swim all right, can't you, Mr. Upton?" said Westby. "I thought
+for a moment we might have to dive for you."
+
+Irving clutched at the stern of the capsized canoe and said, rather
+curtly, "I'm not dressed to enjoy swimming."
+
+"I'm awfully sorry," said Scarborough. "But I never thought they were
+going to turn that way; I don't know what Carrie thought he was doing--"
+
+"I'd have shown you some strategy if you hadn't blundered into us,"
+declared Carroll.
+
+"Blundered into you! There was no need for Wes to give us such a poke,
+anyhow."
+
+Westby replied merely with an irritating chuckle--irritating at least to
+Irving, who felt that he should be showing more contrition.
+
+Collingwood and Morrill came alongside, both laughing, jeering at Westby
+and offering polite expressions of solicitude to the master. They told
+him to lay hold of the tail of their canoe, and then they towed him
+ashore as rapidly as possible. When he drew himself up, dripping, on the
+bank, Baldersnaith, Dennison, and Smythe were all on the broad grin, and
+from the water floated the sound of Westby's merriment.
+
+Irving stood for a moment, letting himself drip, quite undecided as to
+what he should do. He had never been ducked before, with all his clothes
+on; the clammy, weighted sensation was most unpleasant, the thought of
+his damaged and perhaps ruined suit was galling, the indignity of his
+appearance was particularly hard to bear. He felt that Baldersnaith and
+the others were trying to be as polite and considerate as possible, and
+yet they could not refrain from exhibiting their amusement, their
+delight.
+
+Scarborough, who had swum ahead of the others, waded ashore and looked
+him over. "I tell you what you'd better do, Mr. Upton," he said. "You'd
+better take your clothes off, wring them out, and spread them out to
+dry. They'll dry in this sun and wind. And while they're doing that, you
+can come in swimming with us."
+
+Irving hesitated a moment; instinct told him that the advice was
+sensible, yet he shrank from accepting it; he felt that for a master to
+do what Scarborough suggested would be undignified, and might somehow
+compromise his position. "I think I'd better run home and rub myself
+down and put on some dry things," he replied.
+
+"Well," said Scarborough, "just as you say. Sorry I got you into this
+mess."
+
+"Oh, it's all right," said Irving.
+
+He walked away, with the water trickling uncomfortably down him inside
+his clothes and swashing juicily in his shoes. He liked Scarborough for
+the way he had acted, but he felt less kindly towards Westby. He was by
+no means sure that Westby had not deliberately soused him and then
+pretended it was an accident. He remembered Westby's mirthful laugh just
+when the thing was happening; and certainly if it had really been an
+accident Westby had shown very little concern. He had been indecently
+amused; he was so still; his clear joyous laugh was ringing after Irving
+even now, and Irving felt angrily that he was at this moment a
+ridiculous figure. To be running home drenched!--probably it would have
+been better if he had done what Scarborough had suggested, less
+undignified, more manly really. But he couldn't turn back now.
+
+He was cold and his teeth had begun to chatter, so he started to run. He
+hoped that when he came out of the woods he might be fortunate enough to
+elude observation on the way to the Upper School, but in this he was
+disappointed. As he jogged by the Study building, with his clothes
+jouncing and slapping heavily upon his shoulders, out came the rector
+and met him face to face.
+
+"Upset canoeing?" asked the rector with a smile.
+
+"Yes," Irving answered; he stood for a moment awkwardly.
+
+"Well, it will happen sometimes," said the rector. "Don't catch cold."
+And he passed on.
+
+There was some consolation for Irving in this matter-of-fact view. In
+the rector's eyes apparently his dignity had not suffered by the
+incident. But when a moment later he passed a group of Fourth Formers
+and they turned and stared at him, grinning, he felt that his dignity
+had suffered very much. He felt that within a short time his misfortune
+would be the talk of the school.
+
+At supper it was as he expected it would be. Westby set about airing the
+story for the benefit of the table, appealing now and then to Irving
+himself for confirmation of the passages which were least gratifying to
+Irving's vanity. "You _did_ look so woe-begone when you stood up on
+shore, Mr. Upton," was the genial statement which Irving especially
+resented. To have Westby tell the boys the first day how he had called
+the new master a new kid and the second day how he had ducked him was a
+little too much; it seemed to Irving that Westby was slyly amusing
+himself by undermining his authority. But the boy's manner was
+pleasantly ingratiating always; Irving felt baffled. Carroll did not
+help him much towards an interpretation; Carroll sat by self-contained,
+quietly intelligent, amused. Irving liked both the boys, and yet as the
+days passed, he seemed to grow more and more uneasy and anxious in their
+society.
+
+In the classroom he was holding his own; he was a good mathematical
+scholar, he prepared the lessons thoroughly, and he found it generally
+easy to keep order by assigning problems to be worked out in class. The
+weather continued good, so that during play time the fellows were out
+of doors instead of loafing round in dormitory. They all had their own
+little affairs to organize; athletic clubs and literary societies held
+their first meetings; there was a process of general shaking down; and
+in the interest and industry occasioned by all this, there was not much
+opportunity or disposition to make trouble.
+
+But the first Sunday was a bad day. In a boys' school bad weather is apt
+to be accompanied by bad behavior; on this Sunday it poured. The boys,
+having put on their best clothes, were obliged, when they went out to
+chapel, to wear rubbers and to carry umbrellas--an imposition against
+which they rebelled. After chapel, there was an hour before dinner, and
+in that hour most of the Sixth Formers sought their rooms--or sought one
+another's rooms; it seemed to Irving, who was trying to read and who had
+a headache, that there was a needless amount of rushing up and down the
+corridors and of slamming of doors. By and by the tumult became
+uproarious, shouts of laughter and the sound of heavy bodies being
+flung against walls reached his ears; he emerged then and saw the
+confusion at the end of the corridor. Allison was suspended two or three
+feet above the floor, by a rope knotted under his arms; it was the rope
+that was used for raising trunks up to the loft above. In lowering it
+from the loft some one had trespassed on forbidden ground. Westby,
+Collingwood, Dennison, Scarborough, and half a dozen others were
+gathered, enjoying Allison's ludicrous struggles. His plight was not
+painful, only absurd; and Irving himself could not at first keep back a
+smile. But he came forward and said,--
+
+"Oh, look here, fellows, whoever is responsible for this will have to
+climb up and release Allison."
+
+Westby turned with his engaging smile.
+
+"Yes, but, Mr. Upton, who do you suppose is responsible? I don't see how
+we can fix the responsibility, do you?"
+
+"I will undertake to fix it," said Irving. "Westby, suppose you climb
+that ladder and let Allison down."
+
+"I don't think you're approaching this matter in quite a judicial
+spirit, Mr. Upton," said Westby. "Of course no man wants to be
+arbitrary; he wants to be just. It really seems to me, Mr. Upton, that
+no action should be taken until the matter has been more thoroughly
+sifted."
+
+The other boys, with the exception of Allison, were chuckling at this
+glib persuasiveness. Westby stood there, in a calmly respectful, even
+deferential attitude, as if animated only by a desire to serve the
+truth.
+
+"We will have no argument about it, Westby," said Irving. "Please climb
+the ladder at once and release Allison."
+
+"I beg of you, Mr. Upton," said Westby in a tone of distress, "don't,
+please don't, confuse argument with impartial inquiry; nothing is more
+distasteful to me than argument. I merely ask for investigation; I court
+it in your own interest as well as mine."
+
+Irving grew rigid. His head was throbbing painfully; the continued
+snickering all round him and Westby's increasing confidence and fluency
+grated on his nerves. He drew out his watch.
+
+"I will give you one minute in which to climb that ladder," he said.
+
+"Mr. Upton, you wish to be a just man," pleaded Westby. "Even though you
+have the great weight of authority--and years"--Westby choked a
+laugh--"behind you, don't do an unjust and arbitrary thing. Allison
+himself wouldn't have you--would you, Allison?"
+
+The victim grinned uncomfortably.
+
+"Mr. Upton," urged Westby, "you wouldn't have me soil these hands?" He
+displayed his laudably clean, pink fingers. "Of course, if I go up there
+I shall get my hands all dirty--and equally of course if I had been up
+there, they would be all dirty now. Surely you believe in the value of
+circumstantial evidence; therefore, before we fix the responsibility,
+let us search for the dirty pair of hands."
+
+"Time is up," said Irving, closing his watch.
+
+"But what is time when justice trembles in the balance?" argued Westby.
+"When the innocent is in danger of being punished for the guilty, when--"
+
+"Westby, please climb that ladder at once."
+
+"So young and so inexorable!" murmured Westby, setting his foot upon the
+ladder.
+
+Irving's face was red; the tittering of the audience was making him
+angry. He held his eyes on Westby, who made a slow, grunting progress up
+three rungs and then stopped.
+
+"Mr. Upton, Mr. Upton, sir!" Westby's voice was ingratiating. "Mayn't
+Allison sing for us, sir?"
+
+Allison grinned again foolishly and sent a sprawling foot out towards
+his persecutor; the others laughed.
+
+"Keep on climbing," said Irving.
+
+Westby resumed his toilsome way, and as he moved he kept murmuring
+remarks to Allison, to the others, to Irving himself, half audible,
+rapid, in an aggrieved tone.
+
+"Don't see why you want to be conspicuous this way, Allison.--Won't
+sing--amuse anybody--ornamental, I suppose--good timekeeper though--almost
+hear you tick. Mr. Upton--setting watch by you now--awfully severe kind of
+man--"
+
+So mumbling, with the responsive titter still continuing below and
+Irving standing there stern and red, Westby disappeared into the loft.
+There was a moment's silence, then a sudden clicking of a ratchet wheel,
+and Allison began to rise rapidly towards the ceiling.
+
+"A-ay!" cried Allison in amazement.
+
+The boys burst out in delighted laughter.
+
+"Westby! Westby! Stop that!" Irving's voice was shrill with anger.
+
+Allison became stationary once more, and Westby displayed an innocent,
+surprised face at the loft opening.
+
+"If there is any more nonsense in letting Allison down, I shall really
+have to report you." Irving's voice rose tremulously to a high key; he
+was trying hard to control it.
+
+Westby gazed down with surprise. "Why, I guess I must have turned the
+crank the wrong way, don't you suppose I did, Mr. Upton?--Don't worry,
+Allison, old man; I'll rescue you, never fear. I'll try to lower you
+gently, so that you won't get hurt; you'll call out if you find you're
+coming down too fast, won't you?"
+
+He withdrew his head, and presently the ratchet wheel clicked and
+slowly, very slowly, Allison began to descend. When his feet were a
+couple of inches from the floor, the descent stopped.
+
+"All right now?" called Westby from above.
+
+"No!" bawled Allison.
+
+"Ve-ry gently then, ve-ry gently," replied Westby; and Allison, reaching
+for the floor with his toes, had at last the satisfaction of feeling it.
+He wriggled out of the noose and smoothed out his rumpled coat.
+
+"Saved!" exclaimed Westby, peering down from the opening, and then he
+added sorrowfully, "Saved, and no word of gratitude to his rescuer!"
+
+"Now, boys, don't stand round here any longer; we've had enough
+nonsense; go to your rooms," said Irving.
+
+"Mr. Upton, Mr. Upton, Mr. Upton, sir!" clamored Westby, and the boys
+lingered.
+
+Irving looked up in exasperation. "What is it now?"
+
+"May I come down, please, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+Carefully Westby descended the ladder, mumbling all the time sentences
+of which the lingerers caught fragmentary scraps: "Horrible experience
+that of Allison's--dreadful situation to have been in--so fortunate that I
+was at hand--the man who dares--reckless courage, ready resource--home
+again!" He dropped to the floor, and raising his hand to his forehead,
+saluted Irving.
+
+"Come, move on, all you fellows," said Irving; the others were still
+hanging about and laughing; "move on, move on! Carroll, you and Westby
+take that ladder down and put it back where you got it."
+
+He stayed to see that the order was carried out; then he returned to his
+room. He felt that though he had conquered in this instance, he had
+adopted the wrong tone, and that he must offer something else than
+peevishness and irritation to ward off Westby's humor; already it gave
+indications of becoming too audacious. Yet on the whole Irving was
+pleased because he had at least asserted himself--and had rather enjoyed
+doing it. And an hour later it seemed to him that he had lost all that
+he had gained.
+
+Roast beef was the unvarying dish at Sunday dinner; a large and fragrant
+sirloin was set before the head of each table to be carved. Irving took
+up the carving knife and fork with some misgivings. Hitherto he had had
+nothing more difficult to deal with than steaks or chops or croquettes
+or stews; and carving was an art that he had never learned; confronted
+by the necessity, he was amazed to find that he had so little idea of
+how to proceed. The first three slices came off readily enough, though
+they were somewhat ragged, and Irving was aware that Westby was
+surveying his operations with a critical interest. The knife seemed to
+grow more dull, the meat more wobbly, more tough, the bone got more and
+more in the way; the maid who was passing the vegetables was waiting,
+all the boys except the three who had been helped first were waiting,
+coldly critical, anxiously apprehensive; silence at this table had begun
+to reign.
+
+Irving felt himself blushing and muttered, "This knife's awfully dull,"
+as he sawed away. At last he hacked off an unsightly slab and passed it
+to Westby, whose turn it was and who wrinkled his nose at it in
+disfavor.
+
+"Please have this knife sharpened," Irving said to the maid. She put
+down the potatoes and the corn, and departed with the instrument to the
+kitchen.
+
+Irving glanced at the other tables; everybody seemed to have been
+served, everybody was eating; Scarborough, who was in charge of the next
+table, had entirely demolished his roast.
+
+"I'm sorry to keep you fellows waiting," Irving said, "but that's the
+dullest knife I ever handled."
+
+He addressed the remark to the totally unprovided side of his table; he
+turned his head just in time to catch Westby's humorous mouth and droll
+droop of an eyelid. The other boys smiled, and Irving's cheeks grew more
+hot.
+
+"You'll excuse me, Mr. Upton, if I don't wait, won't you?" said Westby.
+"Don't get impatient, fellows."
+
+The maid returned with the carving knife; Westby paused in his eating to
+observe. Irving made another unsuccessful effort; the meat quivered and
+shook and slid under his attack, and the knife slipped and clashed down
+upon the platter.
+
+"Perhaps if you would stand up to it, sir, you would do better,"
+suggested Westby, in an insidious voice. "Nobody else does, but if it
+would be easier--"
+
+"Thank you, but the suggestion is unnecessary," Irving retorted. He
+added to the other boys, while he struggled, "It's the meat, I guess,
+not the knife, after all--"
+
+"Why, I shouldn't say it was the meat," interposed Westby. "The meat's
+quite tender."
+
+Irving glanced at him in silent fury, clamped his lips together, and
+went on sawing. He finally was able to hand to Carroll a plate on which
+reposed a mussy-looking heap of beef. Carroll wrinkled his nose over it
+as Westby had done.
+
+"If I might venture to suggest, sir," said Westby politely, "you could
+send it out and have it carved in the kitchen."
+
+Irving surrendered; he looked up and said to the maid,--
+
+"Please take this out and have it carved outside."
+
+He felt that he could almost cry from the humiliation, but instead he
+tried to assume cheerfulness and dignity.
+
+"I'm sorry," he said, "to have to keep you fellows waiting; we'll try to
+arrange things so that it won't happen again."
+
+The boys accepted the apology in gloomy silence. At Scarborough's table
+their plight was exciting comment; Irving was aware of the curious
+glances which had been occasioned by the withdrawal of the roast. It
+seemed to him that he was publicly disgraced; there was a peculiar
+ignominy in sitting at the head of a table and being unable to perform
+the simplest duty of host. Worst of all, in the encounter with Westby he
+had lost ground.
+
+The meat was brought on again, sliced in a manner which could not
+conceal the unskillfulness of the original attack.
+
+"Stone cold!" exclaimed Blake, the first boy to test it.
+
+Irving's temper flew up. "Don't be childish," he said. "And don't make
+any more comments about this matter. It's of no importance--and cold
+roast beef is just as good for you as hot."
+
+"If not a great deal better," added Westby with an urbanity that set
+every one snickering.
+
+After dinner Irving was again on duty for two hours in the dormitory,
+until the time for afternoon chapel. During part of this period the boys
+were expected to be in their rooms, preparing the Bible lesson which had
+to be recited after chapel to the rector. Irving made the rounds and
+saw that each boy was in his proper quarters, then went to his own room.
+For an hour he enjoyed quiet. Then the bell rang announcing that the
+study period was at an end. Instantly there was a commotion in the
+corridors--legitimate enough; but soon it centred in the north wing and
+grew more and more clamorous, more and more mirthful.
+
+With a sigh Irving went forth to quell it. He determined that whatever
+happened he would not this time lose his temper; he would try to be
+persuasive and yet firm.
+
+The noise was in Allison's room; the unfortunate Allison was again being
+persecuted. Loud whoops of laughter and the sound of vigorous scuffling,
+of tumbling chairs and pounding feet, came to Irving's ears. The door to
+Allison's room was wide open; Irving stood and looked upon a pile of
+bodies heaped on the bed, with struggling arms and legs; even in that
+moment the foot of the iron bedstead collapsed, and the pile rolled off
+upon the floor. There were Morrill and Carroll and Westby and Dennison
+and at the bottom Allison--all looking very much rumpled, very red.
+
+"Oh, come, fellows!" said Irving in what he intended to make an
+appealing voice. "Less noise, less noise--or I shall really have to
+report you--I shall really!"
+
+But he did not speak with any confidence; his manner was hesitating,
+almost deprecating. The boys grinned at him and then sauntered, rather
+indifferently, out of the room.
+
+There was no more disorder that day. But some hours later, when Irving
+came up to the dormitory before supper, he heard laughter in the west
+wing, where Collingwood and Westby and Scarborough had their rooms. Then
+he heard Westby's voice, raised in an effeminate, pleading tone: "Less
+noise, fellows, less noise--or I shall have to report you--I shall
+really!"
+
+There was more laughter at the mimicry, and Irving heard Collingwood
+ask,
+
+"Where did you get that, Wes?"
+
+"Oh, from Kiddy--this afternoon."
+
+"Poor Kiddy! He seemed to be having an awful time at noon over that
+roast beef."
+
+"He's such a dodo--he's more fun than a goat. I can put him up in the air
+whenever I want to," boasted Westby. "He's the easiest to get rattled I
+ever saw. I'm going to play horse with him in class to-morrow."
+
+"How?" asked Collingwood; and Irving basely pricked up his ears.
+
+"Oh, you'll see."
+
+Irving closed the door of his room quietly. "We'll see, will we?" he
+muttered, pacing back and forth. "Yes, I guess some one will see."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BAITING OF A MASTER
+
+
+The room in which the Sixth Form assembled for the lesson in Geometry
+was on the top floor of the Study building; the windows overlooked the
+pond behind the Gymnasium. The teacher's desk was on a platform in the
+corner; a blackboard extended along two walls; and there were steps
+beneath the blackboard on which the students stood to make their
+demonstrations.
+
+Irving arrived a minute before the hour and found his class already
+assembled--a suspicious circumstance. There was, too, he felt, an air of
+subdued, joyous expectancy. He took his seat and, adjusting his
+spectacles, peered round the room; his eyesight was very bad, and he
+had, moreover, like so many bookworms, never trained his faculty of
+observation.
+
+He read the roll of the class; every boy was there.
+
+"Scarborough, you may go to the blackboard and demonstrate the Fifth
+Theorem; Dennison, you the Sixth; Westby, you the Eighth. The rest of
+you will solve at your seats this problem."
+
+He mounted to the blackboard himself and wrote out the question. While
+he had his back turned, he heard some whispering; he looked over his
+shoulder. Westby was lingering in his seat and had obviously been
+holding communication with his neighbor.
+
+"Westby,"--Irving's voice was sharp,--"were you trying to get help at the
+last moment?"
+
+"I was not." Westby's answer was prompt.
+
+"Then don't delay any longer, please; go to the blackboard at once."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+Westby moved to the blackboard on the side of the room--the one at right
+angles to that on which Irving and Scarborough were at work.
+
+Irving finished his writing, dusted the chalk from his fingers, and
+returned to his seat. The boys before him were now bent industriously
+over their tablets; Scarborough, Westby, and Dennison were drawing
+figures on the blackboard, using the long pointers for rulers and making
+beautiful circles by means of chalk attached to pieces of string. A
+glance at Westby showed that youth apparently intent upon solving the
+problem assigned him and at work upon it intelligently. Irving began to
+feel serene; he proceeded to correct the algebra exercises of the Fourth
+Form, which he had received the hour before.
+
+A sudden titter from some one down in front, hastily suppressed and
+transformed into a cough, caused him to look up. Morrill, with his mouth
+hidden behind his hand, was glancing off toward Westby, and Irving
+followed the direction of the glance.
+
+Westby had completed his geometrical figures and was now engaged in
+labeling them with letters. But instead of employing the usual
+geometrical symbols A, B, C, and so on, he was skipping about through
+the alphabet, and Irving immediately perceived that he was not choosing
+letters at random. Irving observed that the initials of his own name, I,
+C, U, formed, as it were, the corner-stone of the geometrical edifice.
+
+At that moment Westby coughed--an unnatural cough. And instantly a
+miracle happened; every single wooden eraser--there were half a dozen of
+them--leaped from its place on the shelf beneath the blackboard and
+tumbled clattering down the steps to the floor. At the same instant
+Westby flung up both arms, tottered on the topmost step, and succeeded
+in regaining his poise with apparently great difficulty.
+
+The class giggled.
+
+"Mr. Upton, sir! Mr. Upton, sir!" cried Westby excitedly. "Did you feel
+the earthquake? It was very noticeable on this side of the room. Do you
+think it's safe for us to stay indoors, sir? There may be another
+shock!"
+
+"Westby," Irving's voice had a nervous thrill that for the moment
+quieted the laughter, "did you cause those erasers to be pulled down?"
+
+"Did I cause them to be pulled down? I don't understand, sir. How could
+I, sir? Six of them all at once!"
+
+"Bring me one of those erasers, please."
+
+Westby stooped; there was a sound of snapping string. Then he came
+forward and presented the eraser.
+
+"You tied string to all these erasers, did you?" Irving examined the
+fragment that still clung to the object. "And then arranged to have them
+pulled down?"
+
+"You see how short that string is, sir; nobody could have reached it to
+pull it. Didn't you feel the earthquake, sir? Didn't you see how it
+almost threw me off my feet? Really, I don't believe it's quite safe to
+stay here--"
+
+"You may be right; I shouldn't wonder at all if there was a second shock
+coming to you soon," said Irving, and the subdued chuckle that went
+round the class told him he had scored. "You may now demonstrate to the
+class the Theorem assigned you."
+
+"Yes, sir." Westby turned and took up the pointer.
+
+"We have here," he began, "the two triangles I C U and J A Y--with the
+angle I C U of the one equal to the angle J A Y of the other." The class
+tittered; Westby went on glibly, bending the lath-like pointer between
+his hands: "Let us now erect the angle K I D, equal to the angle I C U;
+then the angle K I D will also be equal to the angle J A Y--things equal
+to the same thing are equal to each other."
+
+Westby stopped to turn a surprised, questioning look upon the snickering
+class.
+
+"Yes, that will do for that demonstration," said Irving. He rose from
+his seat; his lips were trembling, and the laughter of the class ceased.
+"You may leave the room--for your insolence--at once!"
+
+He had meant to be dignified and calm, but his anger had rushed to the
+surface, and his words came in a voice that suggested he was on the
+verge of tears.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, but I don't think I quite understand," said
+Westby suavely.
+
+"You understand well enough. I ask you to leave the room."
+
+"I'm afraid, Mr. Upton, that my little pleasantries--usually considered
+harmless--do not commend themselves to you. But you hurt my feelings very
+much, sir, when you apply such a harsh word as insolence to my whimsical
+humor--"
+
+"I'll hold no argument with you," cried Irving; in his excitement his
+voice rose thin and thrill. "Leave the room at once."
+
+Westby laid the pointer and the chalk on the shelf, blew the dust from
+his fingers, and walked towards his seat. Irving took a step forward;
+his face was white.
+
+"What do you mean!--What do you mean! I told you to leave the room."
+
+Westby faced him with composure through which showed a sneer; for the
+first time the boy was displaying contempt; hitherto his attitude had
+been jocose and cajoling.
+
+"I was going for my cap," he said, and his eyes flashed scornfully.
+Then, regardless of the master's look, he continued past the row of his
+classmates, took up his cap, and retraced his steps towards the door.
+Irving stood watching him, with lips compressed in a stern line; the
+line thinned even more when he saw Westby bestow on his friends a droll,
+drooping wink of the left eyelid.
+
+And then, while all the class sat in silence, Westby did an audacious
+thing--a thing that set every one except Irving off into a joyous titter.
+He went out of the door doing the sailor's hornpipe,--right hand on
+stomach, left hand on back, left hand on stomach, right hand on back,
+and taking little skips as he alternated the position. And so, skipping
+merrily, he disappeared down the corridor.
+
+Irving returned to his platform. His hands were trembling, and he felt
+weak. When he spoke, he hardly knew his own voice. But he struggled to
+control it, and said,--
+
+"Scarborough, please go to the board and demonstrate your theorem."
+
+There was no more disorder in class that day; in fact, after Westby's
+disappearance the boys were exceptionally well behaved. Slowly Irving
+recovered his composure, yet the ordeal left him feeling as if he wanted
+to shut himself up in his room and lie down. He knew that he had lost
+command of his temper; he regretted the manner in which he had stormed
+at Westby; but he thought nevertheless that the treatment had been
+effective and therefore not entirely to be deplored. The boys had
+thought him soft; he had shown them that he was not; and he determined
+that from this time forth he would bear down upon them hard. If by
+showing them amiability and kindliness he had failed to win their
+respect, he would now compel it by ferocity. He would henceforth show no
+quarter to any malefactor.
+
+Walking up to his room, he fell in with Barclay, who was also returning
+from a class.
+
+"What is the extreme penalty one can inflict on a boy who misbehaves?"
+he asked.
+
+"For a single act?" asked Barclay.
+
+"For one that's a climax of others--insolence, disobedience, disorder--all
+heaped into one."
+
+Irving spoke hotly, and Barclay glanced at him with a sympathetic
+interest.
+
+"Well," said Barclay, "three sheets and six marks off in decorum is
+about the limit. After that happens to a boy two or three times, the
+rector is likely to take a hand.--If you don't mind my saying it,
+though--in my opinion it's a mistake to start in by being extreme."
+
+"In ordinary cases, perhaps." Irving's tone did not invite questioning,
+and he did not confide to Barclay what extraordinary case he had under
+consideration.
+
+When he reached his room, he wrote out on a slip of paper, "Westby,
+insolence and disorder in class, three sheets," and laid the paper on
+his desk. Then he undertook to correct the exercises in geometry which
+had been the fruit of the Sixth Form's labors in the last hour; but
+after going through five or six of them, his mind wandered; it reverted
+uneasily to the thought of his future relations with those boys. He rose
+and paced about the room, and hardened his heart. He would be just as
+strict and stern and severe with them all as he possibly could be. When
+he had them well trained, he might attempt to win their liking--if that
+seemed any longer worth having! It did not seem so to him now; all he
+wanted to know now was that he had awakened in them respect and fear.
+
+Respect and fear--could he have inspired those, by his excitable
+shriekings in the class room, by his lack of self-control in dormitory
+and at the dinner table, by his incompetence when confronted with a
+roast of beef! Each incident that recurred to him was of a kind to bring
+with it the sting of mortification; his cheeks tingled. He must at least
+learn how to perform the simple duties expected of a master; he could
+not afford to continue giving exhibitions of ignorance and incompetence.
+
+Moved by this impulse, he descended to the kitchen--precincts which he
+had never before entered and in which his appearance created at first
+some consternation. The cook, however, was obliging; and when he had
+confessed himself the incapable one who had sent out the mutilated beef
+to be carved, she was most reassuring in her speech, and taking the cold
+remains of a similar cut from the ice chest, she gave him an object
+lesson. She demonstrated to him how he should begin the attack, how he
+might foil the bone that existed only to baffle, how slice after slice
+might fall beneath his sure and rapid slashes.
+
+"I see," said Irving, taking the knife and fork from her and making some
+imaginary passes. "The fork so--the knife so. And you will always be sure
+to have a sharp carving knife for me--very sharp?"
+
+The cook smiled and promised, and he extravagantly left her
+contemplating a dollar bill.
+
+Shortly after he had returned to his room the bell on the Study building
+rang, announcing the end of the morning session. There was half an hour
+before luncheon; soon the boys came tramping up the stairs and past
+Irving's closed door. Soon also a racketing began in the corridors;
+Irving suspected an intention to bait him still further; it was
+probably Westby once again. He waited until the noise became too great
+to be ignored--shouting and battering and scuffling; then he went forth
+to quell it.
+
+To his surprise Westby was not engaged in the disturbance--was, in fact,
+not visible. Collingwood, with his back turned, was in the act of
+hurling a football to the farther end of the corridor, where Scarborough
+and Morrill and Dennison were gathered. The forward pass was new in
+football this year, and although the playing season had not yet begun,
+Irving had already seen fellows practicing for it, in front of the Study
+and behind the dormitory. Collingwood, he knew, was captain of the
+school football eleven, and naturally had all the latest developments of
+the game, such as the forward pass, very much on his mind. Still that
+was no excuse for playing football in the corridor.
+
+Morrill had caught the ball, and as Irving approached, undertook to
+return it. But it ricochetted against the wall and bounced down at
+Collingwood's feet. Collingwood seized it and was poising it in his hand
+for another throw when Irving spoke behind him--sharply, for he was
+mindful of his resolve to be severe:--
+
+"No more of that, Collingwood."
+
+The boy turned eagerly and said,--
+
+"Oh, Mr. Upton, I'm just getting on to how to do it. Here, let me show
+you. You take it this way, along the lacings--the trouble is, my hand's
+not quite long enough to get a good grip--and then you take it like
+this--"
+
+"Yes," said Irving coldly; he had an idea that Collingwood had adopted
+Westby's method and was engaged in chaffing him. "You needn't show me."
+
+And he turned abruptly and went into his room, closing the door behind
+him.
+
+Collingwood stood, looking round over his shoulder after Irving and
+holding the ball out in the arrested attitude of one about to throw. On
+his face was an expression of utter amazement, which rapidly gave place
+to indignation. Collingwood had a temper, and sometimes--even when he
+was not on the football field--it flared up.
+
+"Of all the chumps!" he muttered; and he turned, and poising the ball
+again, flung it with all his strength at the master's door. It went
+straight to the mark, crashed against the upper panel with a tremendous
+bang, and rebounded to Collingwood's feet.
+
+Irving opened the door and came out with a leap.
+
+"Collingwood," he cried, and his voice was quivering as it had quivered
+that morning in class, "did you throw that ball?"
+
+"I did," said Collingwood.
+
+"Very well. I shall report you. I will have no more of this insolence."
+
+He swung round and shut himself again in his room. The fellows at the
+other end of the corridor had stood aghast; now they came hurrying up.
+Collingwood was laughing.
+
+"Kiddy's getting to be a regular lion," he said, and when Morrill and
+Dennison were for expressing their indignation, he only laughed the
+more.
+
+It was not very pleasant for Irving at luncheon. Westby gave him an
+amused glance when he came in--more amused than hostile--and Irving
+preserved his dignity by returning an unflinching look. Westby made no
+further overtures for a while; the other boys chattered among
+themselves, about football and tennis, and Irving sat silent at the head
+of the table. At last, however, Westby turned to him.
+
+"Mr. Upton," said Westby deferentially, "how would you explain this?
+There's a dog, and he must be doing one of two things; either he's
+running or he's not running. If he's not doing the one, he is doing the
+other, isn't he?"
+
+"I suppose so," said Irving.
+
+"Well, he's not running. Therefore--he is running. How do you explain
+that, Mr. Upton?"
+
+Irving smiled feebly; the other boys were thinking it over with puzzled
+faces.
+
+"That's an old quibble," said Irving. "The alternative for running is
+not running. Therefore when he's not running--he's _not_ running."
+
+"I don't see that that explains it," answered Westby. "That's just
+making a statement--but it isn't logic."
+
+"He's not running is the negative of he's running; he's not not-running
+is the negative of he's not running--"
+
+"Then," said Westby, "how fast must a dog travel that is not not-running
+to catch a dog that is not exactly running but only perhaps?"
+
+The boys laughed; Irving retorted, "That's a problem that you might work
+out on the blackboard sometime."
+
+Thereupon Westby became silent, and Irving more than half repented of
+his speech; he knew that in its reference it had been ill-natured.
+
+He noticed later in the day when he went up to the dormitory that the
+boys tiptoed about the corridors and conversed in whispers; there was an
+extravagant air of quiet. When they went down to supper, they tiptoed
+past Irving's room in single file, saying in unison, "Sh! Sh! Sh!" They
+all joined in this procession--from Collingwood to Allison. Irving felt
+that he had taken Allison's place as the laughing-stock, the butt of the
+dormitory.
+
+In the evening they came to bid him good-night--not straggling up as they
+usually did, but in a delegation, expectant and amused. Westby and
+Collingwood were in the van when Irving opened his door in response to
+the knock.
+
+"We didn't know whether you'd shake hands with two such reprobates or
+not," said Westby. "We thought it wasn't quite safe to come up alone--so
+we've brought a bodyguard."
+
+Irving did not smile, though, all the boys were grinning. He shook hands
+formally with Collingwood, then with Westby, then with the others,
+saying good-night to each; as they left him, they tiptoed to their
+rooms. He thought grimly that, whatever might be the sentiments
+entertained towards him, he would not long be living in an atmosphere of
+ridicule.
+
+Irving had charge of the "big study," as it was called, during the hour
+immediately after morning chapel. The boys filed in from chapel and
+seated themselves at their desks; the members of the Sixth Form, who
+were privileged to study in their rooms and therefore had no desks in
+the schoolroom, occupied the stalls along the wall under the big clock.
+Last of all the rector entered and, mounting the platform, read the
+"reports" for the day--that is, the names of those who had transgressed
+and the penalties imposed. After the reading, the Sixth Form went
+upstairs to their Latin class with Mr. Barclay, and the day's work
+began.
+
+On the morning following his encounters with Westby and with
+Collingwood, Irving as usual took charge of the Study. The boys
+assembled; Irving rang the bell, reducing them to quiet; Dr. Davenport
+came in, mounted the platform, and took up the report book--in which
+Irving had just finished transcribing his entries.
+
+Dr. Davenport began reading in his clear, emphatic voice, "Out of
+bounds, Mason, Sterrett, Coyle, one sheet; late to study, Hart,
+McQuiston, Durfee, Stratton, Kane, half a sheet; tardy to breakfast--"
+and so on. None of the offenses were very serious; and the rector read
+them out rapidly. But at last he paused a moment; and then, looking up
+from the book, he said, with grave distinctness, "Disorderly in class
+and insolent, Westby, three sheets; disorderly in dormitory and
+insolent, Collingwood, three sheets."
+
+He closed the book; a stir, a thrill of interest, ran round the room.
+For a Sixth Former to be charged with such offenses and condemned to
+such punishment was rare: for Collingwood, who was in a sense the leader
+of the school, to be so charged and punished was unprecedented.
+
+Collingwood, sitting directly under the clock, and facing so many
+curious questioning eyes, turned red; Westby, standing by the door,
+looked at him and smiled. At the same time, Dr. Davenport, closing the
+report-book, leaned towards Irving and said quietly in his ear,--
+
+"Mr. Upton, I should like to see you about those last two
+reports--immediately after this study hour."
+
+Irving reddened; the rector's manner was not approving.
+
+Dr. Davenport descended from the platform and walked slowly down the
+aisle. As he approached, he looked straight at Westby; and Westby
+returned the look steadily--as if he was ashamed of nothing.
+
+The rector passed through the doorway; the Sixth Form followed; the
+day's work began.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MASTER TURNS PUPIL
+
+
+The rector received Irving with a smile. "Well," he said, "I think you
+must be a believer in the maxim, 'Hit hard and hit first.' Would you
+mind telling me what was the trouble?"
+
+"It wasn't so much any one thing," replied Irving. "It was a culmination
+of little things.--Oh, I suppose I started in wrong with the fellows
+somehow."
+
+He was silent for a moment, in dejection.
+
+"A good many do that," said Dr. Davenport. "There would be small
+progress in the world if there never was any rectifying of false
+starts."
+
+"I can hardly help it if I look young," said Irving. "That's one of my
+troubles. I suppose I ought to avoid acting young. I haven't,
+altogether. They call me Kiddy."
+
+"We get hardened to nicknames," observed the rector. "But often they're
+affectionate. At least I like to cherish that delusion with regard to
+mine; my legs have the same curve as Napoleon's, and I have been known
+as 'Old Hoopo' for years."
+
+"But they don't call you that to your face."
+
+"No, not exactly. Have they been calling you 'Kiddy' to your face?"
+
+"It amounts to that." Irving narrated the remarks that he had overheard
+in dormitory, and then described Westby's performance at the blackboard.
+
+"That certainly deserved rebuke," agreed the rector. "Though I think
+Westby was attempting to be facetious rather than insolent; I have never
+seen anything to indicate that he was a malicious boy.--What was it that
+Louis Collingwood did?"
+
+Irving recited the offense.
+
+"Weren't you a little hasty in assuming that he was trying to tease
+you?" asked the rector. "When he persisted in wanting to show you how
+the forward pass is made? I think it's quite likely he was sincere; he's
+so enthusiastic over football that it doesn't occur to him that others
+may not share his interest. I don't think Collingwood was trying to be
+'fresh.' Of course, he shouldn't have lost his temper and banged the
+ball at your door--but I think that hardly showed malice."
+
+"It seemed to me it was insolent--and disorderly. I felt the fellows all
+thought they could do anything with me and I would be afraid to report
+them. And so I thought I'd show them I wasn't afraid."
+
+"At the same time, three sheets is the heaviest punishment, short of
+actual suspension, that we inflict. It seems hardly a penalty for
+heedless or misguided jocularity."
+
+"I think perhaps I was hard on Collingwood," admitted Irving.
+
+"If he comes to you about it--maybe you'll feel disposed to modify the
+punishment. And possibly the same with Westby."
+
+"I don't feel sure that I've been too hard on Westby."
+
+The rector smiled; he was not displeased at this trace of stubbornness.
+
+"Well, I won't advise you any further about that. Use your own judgment.
+It takes time for a young man to get his bearings in a place like
+this.--If you don't mind my saying it," added the rector mildly,
+"couldn't you be a little more objective in your interests?"
+
+"You mean," said Irving, "less--less self-centred?"
+
+"That's it." The rector smiled.
+
+"I'll try," said Irving humbly.
+
+"All right; good luck." The rector shook hands with him and turned to
+his desk.
+
+There was no disturbance in the Mathematics class that day. Irving hoped
+that after the hour Westby and Collingwood might approach him to discuss
+the justice of the reports which he had given them, and so offer him an
+opportunity of lightening the punishment. But in this he was
+disappointed. Nor did they come to him in the noon recess--the usual time
+for boys who felt themselves wronged to seek out the masters who had
+wronged them.
+
+Irving debated with himself the advisability of going to the two boys
+and voluntarily remitting part of their task. But he decided against
+this; to make the advances and the concession both would be to concede
+too much.
+
+At luncheon there was an unpleasant moment. No sooner had the boys sat
+down than Blake, a Fifth Former, called across the table to Westby,--
+
+"Say, Westby, who was it that gave you three sheets?"
+
+Westby scowled and replied,--
+
+"Mr. Upton."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Oh, ask him."
+
+Irving reddened, aware of the glancing, curious gaze of every boy at the
+table. There was an interesting silence, relieved at last by the
+appearance of the boy with the mail. Among the letters, Irving found one
+from Lawrence; he opened it with a sense that it afforded him a
+momentary refuge. The unintended irony of the first words drew a bitter
+smile to his lips.
+
+"You are certainly a star teacher," Lawrence wrote, "and I know now what
+a success you must be making with your new job. I have just learned that
+I passed all the examinations--which is more than you or I ever dreamed I
+could do--so I am now a freshman at Harvard without conditions. And it's
+all due to you; I don't believe there's another man on earth that could
+have got me through with such a record and in so short a time."
+
+Irving forgot the irony, forgot Westby and Collingwood and the amused,
+whispering boys. Happiness had suddenly flashed down and caught him up
+and borne him away to his brother. Lawrence's whole letter was so gay,
+so exultant, so grateful that Irving, when he finished it, turned back
+again to the first page. When at last he raised his eyes from it, they
+dwelt unseeingly upon the boys before him; they held his brother's
+image, his brother's smile. And from the vision he knew that there at
+least he had justified himself, whatever might be his failure now; and
+if he had succeeded once, he could succeed again.
+
+Irving became aware that Westby was treating him with cheerful
+indifference--ignoring him. He did not care; the letter had put into him
+new courage. And pretty soon there woke in him along with this courage a
+gentler spirit; it was all very well for Westby, a boy and therefore
+under discipline, to exhibit a stiff and haughty pride; but it was
+hardly admirable that a master should maintain that attitude. The
+punishment to which he had sentenced Westby and Collingwood was, it
+appeared, too harsh; if they were so proud that they would not appeal to
+him to modify it, he would make a sacrifice in the interest of justice.
+
+So after luncheon he followed Westby and spoke to him outside of the
+dining-room.
+
+"Westby," he said, "do you think that considering the circumstances
+three sheets is excessive?"
+
+Westby looked surprised; then he shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I'm not asking any favors," he replied.
+
+Irving laughed. "No," he said, "I see you're not. But I'm afraid I must
+deny you the pleasure of martyrdom. I'll ask you to take a note to Mr.
+Elwood--he's in charge of the Study, isn't he? I'll tell him that you're
+to write a sheet and a half instead of three sheets."
+
+He drew a note-book from his pocket and tore out one of the pages.
+Westby looked at him curiously--as if in an effort to determine just how
+poor-spirited this sudden surrender was. Irving spoke again before
+writing.
+
+"By the way, will you please ask Collingwood to come here?"
+
+When Westby returned with Collingwood, Irving had the note written and
+handed it to him; there was no excuse for Westby to linger. He went over
+and waited by the door, while Irving said,--
+
+"Collingwood, why didn't you come up and ask me to reduce your report?
+Didn't you think it was unfair?"
+
+"Yes," Collingwood answered promptly.
+
+"Well, then--why didn't you come to me and say so?"
+
+Collingwood thought a moment.
+
+"Well," he said, "you had such fun in soaking me that I wasn't going to
+give you the additional satisfaction of seeing me cry baby."
+
+"I'll learn something about boys sometime--if you fellows will keep on
+educating me," observed Irving. "I think your performance of yesterday
+deserves about a sheet; we'll make it that."
+
+He scribbled a note and handed it to the boy.
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Upton." Collingwood tucked the note into his pocket with
+a friendly smile, and then joined Westby.
+
+"Knock you down to half a sheet?" asked Westby, as they departed in the
+direction of the Study, where they were to perform their tasks.
+
+"No; a sheet."
+
+"Mine's one and a half now. What got into him?"
+
+"He's not without sense," said Collingwood.
+
+"Ho!" Westby was derisive. "He's soft. He got scared. He knew he'd gone
+too far--and he was afraid to stand by his guns."
+
+"I don't think so. I think he's just trying to do the right thing."
+
+It was unfortunate for Irving that later in the afternoon Carter of the
+Fifth Form--who played in the banjo club with Westby--was passing the
+Study building just as Westby was coming out from his confinement.
+
+"Hello, Wes!" said Carter. "Thought you were in for three sheets; how do
+you happen to be at large so soon?"
+
+"Kiddy made it one and a half--without my asking him," said Westby.
+
+"And Collingwood the same?"
+
+"He made his only a sheet."
+
+"That's it," said Carter shrewdly. "I was waiting to see the rector this
+morning; the door was open, and he had Kiddy in there with him. I guess
+he was lecturing him on those reports; I guess he told him he'd have to
+take off a couple of sheets."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder," said Westby. "I don't believe old Hoopo would
+have interfered much on my account,--but I guess he couldn't stand for
+Lou Collingwood getting three sheets. And Kiddy, the fox, tried to make
+us think he was being magnanimous!"
+
+Westby chuckled over his humorous discovery, and as soon as possible
+imparted it to Collingwood.
+
+"Oh, well, what if the rector did make him do it?" said Collingwood.
+"The way he did it shows he's all right--"
+
+"Trying to get the credit with us for being just and generous!" observed
+Westby. "Oh, I don't mind; of course it's only Kiddy."
+
+And it was Westby's view of the matter which most of the boys heard and
+credited. So the improvement in the general attitude for which Irving
+had hoped was hardly to be noticed. He had some gratification the next
+Sunday when the roast beef was brought on and he carved it with
+creditable ease and dispatch; the astonishment of the whole table, and
+especially of Westby and Carroll, was almost as good as applause. He
+could not resist saying, in a casual way, "The knife seems to be sharp
+this Sunday." And he felt that for once Westby was nonplussed.
+
+But the days passed, and Irving felt that he was not getting any nearer
+to the boys. At his table the talk went on before him, mainly about
+athletics, about college life, about Europe and automobiles,--all topics
+from which he seemed strangely remote. It needed only the talk of these
+experienced youths to make him realize that he had gone through college
+without ever touching "college life,"--its sports, its social diversions,
+its adventures. It had been for him a life in a library, in classrooms,
+in his own one shabby little room,--a cloistered life; in the hard work
+of it and the successful winning of his way he had been generally
+contented and happy. But he could not talk to these boys about "college
+life" as it appeared to them; and they very soon, perhaps by common
+consent, eliminated him from the conversation. Nor was he able to cope
+with Westby in the swift, glancing monologues which flowed on and on
+sometimes, to the vast amusement of the audience. Often to Irving these
+seemed not very funny, and he did not know which was the more trying--to
+sit grave and unconcerned in the midst of so much mirth or to keep his
+mouth stretched in an insincere, wooden smile. Whichever he did, he felt
+that Westby always was taking notes, to ridicule him afterwards to the
+other boys.
+
+One habit which Westby had was that of bringing a newspaper to supper
+and taking the table with him in an excursion over headlines and
+advertising columns. His mumbling manner, his expertness in bringing out
+distinctly a ridiculous or incongruous sentence, and his skill in
+selecting such sentences at a glance always drew attention and applause;
+he had the comedian's technique.
+
+The boys at the neighboring tables, hearing so much laughter and seeing
+that Westby was provoking it, would stop eating and twist round and tilt
+back their chairs and strain their ears eagerly for some fragment of the
+fun. At last at the head table Mr. Randolph took cognizance of this
+daily boisterousness, spoke to Irving about it, and asked him to curb
+it. Irving thereupon suggested to Westby that he refrain from reading
+his newspaper at table.
+
+"But all the fellows depend on me to keep them _au courant_, as it
+were." Westby was fond of dropping into French in his arguments with
+Irving.
+
+"You will have to choose some other time for it," Irving answered. "I
+understand that there is a rule against reading newspapers at table, and
+I think it must be observed."
+
+"Oh, very well,--_de bon coeur_," said Westby.
+
+The next day at supper he appeared without his newspaper. But in the
+course of the meal he drew from his pocket some newspaper clippings
+which he had pasted together and which he began to read in his usual
+manner. Soon the boys of the table were laughing, soon the boys of the
+adjacent tables were twisting round and trying to share in the
+amusement. Westby read in his rapid consecutive way,--
+
+"'Does no good unless taken as directed--pain in the back, loins, or
+region of the kidneys--danger signal nature hangs out--um--um--um. Mother
+attacks son with razor, taking tip of left ear. Catcher Dan McQuilligan
+signs with the Red Sox--The Woman Beautiful--Bright Eyes: Every woman is
+entitled to a clear, brilliant complexion--um--if she is not so blessed,
+it is usually her own fault--um--Candidate for pulchritude: reliable
+beauty shop--do not clip the eyelashes--um.--Domestic science column--Baked
+quail: pick, draw, and wipe the bird outside and inside; use a wet
+cloth.--No, Hortense, it is not necessary to offer a young man
+refreshments during an evening call.'"
+
+Westby was going on and on; he had a hilarious audience now of three
+tables. From the platform at the end of the dining-room Mr. Randolph
+looked down and shook his head--shook it emphatically; and Irving, seeing
+it, understood the signal.
+
+"Westby," said Irving. "Westby!" He had to raise his voice.
+
+"Yes, sir?" Westby looked up innocently.
+
+"I will have to ask you to discontinue your reading."
+
+"But this is not a newspaper."
+
+"It's part of one."
+
+"Yes, sir, but the rule is against bringing newspapers to table--not
+against bringing newspaper clippings to table."
+
+"The rule's been changed," said Irving. "It now includes clippings."
+
+"You see how it is, fellows." Westby turned to the others.
+"Persecuted--always persecuted. If I'm within the rules--they change the
+rules to soak me. Well,"--he folded up his clippings and put them in his
+pocket,--"the class in current topics is dismissed. But instead Mr. Upton
+has very kindly consented to entertain us this evening--some of his
+inimitable chit-chat--"
+
+"I wouldn't always try to be facetious, Westby," said Irving.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," replied Westby urbanely. "If I have wounded
+your sensibilities--I would not do that--never--_jamais--pas du tout_."
+
+Irving said nothing; it seemed to him that Westby always had the last
+word; it seemed to him as if Westby was always skillfully tripping him
+up, executing a derisive flourish over his prostrate form, and then
+prancing away to the cheers of the populace.
+
+But there were no more violent encounters, such as had taken place in
+the class-room; Westby never quite crossed the line again; and Irving
+controlled his temper on threatening occasions. These occurred in
+dormitory less often; the fine weather and the fall sports--football and
+tennis and track athletics--kept the boys out-doors. On rainy afternoons
+there was apt to be some noise and disorder--usually there was what was
+termed an "Allison hunt," which took various forms, but which, whether
+resulting in the dismemberment of the boy's room or the pursuit and
+battery of him with pillows along the corridors, invariably required
+Irving's interference to quell it. This task of interference, though it
+was one that he came to perform more and more capably, never grew less
+distasteful or less humiliating; he saw always the row of faces wearing
+what he construed as an impudent grin. What seemed to him curious was
+the fact that Allison after a fashion enjoyed--at least did not
+resent--the outrages of which he was the subject; after them he would be
+found sitting amicably with his tormentors, drinking their chocolate and
+eating their crackers and jam. This was so different from his own
+attitude after he had been teased that Irving could not understand it.
+After studying the case, he concluded that the "Allison hunts" were not
+prompted by any hatred of the subject, but by the fact merely that he
+was big, clumsy, good-natured, slow-witted--easy to make game of--and
+especially by the fact that when aroused he showed a certain joyous rage
+in his own defense. But Irving saw no way of learning a lesson from
+Allison.
+
+As the days went on, the sense of his isolation in the School became
+more oppressive. He had thought that if only the fellows would let him
+alone, he would be contented; he found that was not so. They let him
+alone now entirely; he envied those masters who were popular--whom boys
+liked to visit on Sunday evenings, who were consulted about
+contributions to the _Mirror_, the school paper, who were invited to
+meetings of the Stylus, the literary society, who coached the football
+elevens or went into the Gymnasium and did "stunts" with the boys on the
+flying rings.
+
+One day when he was walking down to the athletic field with Mr. Barclay,
+he said something that hinted his wistful and unhappy state of mind.
+Barclay had suspected it and had been waiting for such an opportunity.
+
+"Why don't you make some interest for yourself which would put you on a
+footing with the boys--outside of the class-room and the dormitory?" he
+asked.
+
+"I wish I could. But how?"
+
+"You ought to be able to work up an interest of some sort," said Barclay
+vaguely.
+
+"I don't know anything about athletics; I'm not musical, I don't seem to
+be able to be entertaining and talk to the boys. I guess I'm just a
+grind. I shall never be of much use as a teacher; it's bad enough to
+feel that you're not up to your job. It's worse when it makes you feel
+that you're even less up to the job that you hoped to prepare for."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"I meant to study law; I'd like to be a lawyer. But what's the use? If I
+can't learn to handle boys, how can I ever hope to handle men?--and
+that's what a lawyer has to do, I suppose."
+
+"Look here," said Barclay. "You're still young; if you've learned what's
+the matter with you--and you seem to have--you've learned more than most
+fellows of your age. It's less than a month that you've been here, and
+you've never had any experience before in dealing with boys. Why should
+you expect to know it all at once?"
+
+"I suppose there's something in that. But I feel that I haven't it in me
+ever to get on with them."
+
+"You're doing better now than you did at first; they don't look on you
+entirely as a joke now, do they?"
+
+"Perhaps not.--Oh," Irving broke out, "I know what the trouble is--I want
+to be liked--and I suppose I'm not the likeable kind."
+
+Barclay did not at once dispute this statement, and Irving was beginning
+to feel hurt.
+
+"The point is," said Barclay at last, "that to be liked by boys you've
+got to like them. If you hold off from them and distrust them and try to
+wrap yourself up in a cloak of dignity or mystery, they won't like you
+because they won't know you. If you show an interest in them and their
+interests, you can be as stern with them as justice demands, and they
+won't lay it up against you. But if you don't show an interest--why, you
+can't expect them to have an interest in you."
+
+They turned a bend in the road; the athletic field lay spread out before
+them. In different parts of it half a dozen football elevens were
+engaged in practice; on the tennis courts near the athletic house boys
+in white trousers and sweaters were playing; on the track encircling
+the football field other boys more lightly clad were sprinting or
+jogging round in practice for long-distance runs; a few sauntered about
+as spectators, with hands in their overcoat pockets.
+
+"There," said Barclay, indicating a group of these idle observers, "you
+can at least do that."
+
+"But what's the use?"
+
+"Make yourself a critic; pick out eight or ten fellows to watch
+especially. In football or tennis or running. It doesn't much matter. If
+they find you're taking an intelligent interest in what they're doing,
+they'll be pleased. Westby, for instance, is running; he's entered for
+the hundred yards in the fall games,--likely to win it, too. Westby's
+your greatest trial, isn't he? Then why don't you make a point of
+watching him?--Not too obviously, of course. Come round with me; I'm
+coaching some of the runners for the next half-hour, and then
+Collingwood wants me to give his ends a little instruction."
+
+"Dear me! If I'd only been an athlete instead of a student in college!"
+sighed Irving whimsically.
+
+"You don't need to be much of an athlete to coach; I never was so very
+much," confided Barclay. "But there are things you can learn by looking
+on." They had reached the edge of the track; Barclay clapped his hands.
+"No, no, Roberts!" The boy who was practising the start for a sprint
+looked up. "You mustn't reel all over the track that way when you start;
+you'd make a foul. Keep your elbows in, and run straight."
+
+Irving followed Barclay round and tried to grasp the significance of his
+comments. Dennison came by at a trot.
+
+"Longer stride, Dennison! Your running's choppy! Lengthen out, lengthen
+out! That's better.--I have it!"
+
+Barclay turned suddenly to Irving.
+
+"What?"
+
+"The thing for you to do. We'll make you an official at the track games
+next week. That will give you a standing at once--show everybody that you
+are really a keen follower of sport--or want to be."
+
+"But what can I do? I suppose an official has to do something."
+
+"You can be starter. That will put you right in touch with the fellows
+that are entered."
+
+"Would I have a revolver? I've never fired a gun off in my life."
+
+"Then it's time you did. Of course you'll have a revolver. And you'll be
+the noisiest, most important man on the field. That's what you need to
+make yourself; wake the fellows up to what you really are!--Now I must be
+off to my football men; you'd better hang round here and pick up what
+you can about running. And remember--you're to act as starter."
+
+"If you'll see me through."
+
+"I'll see you through."
+
+Barclay waved his hand and swung off across the field.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE PENALTY FOR A FOUL
+
+
+How it was managed Irving did not know, but on the morning of the day
+when the fall handicap track games were held Scarborough lingered after
+the Sixth Form Geometry class. Scarborough was president of the Athletic
+Association.
+
+"We want somebody to act as starter for the races this afternoon, Mr.
+Upton," said Scarborough. "I wondered if you would help us out."
+
+"I should be delighted," said Irving. "I've not had much experience--"
+
+"Oh, it's easy enough; Mr. Barclay, I guess, can tell you all that has
+to be done. Thank you very much."
+
+It was quite as if Irving was the one who was conferring the favor; he
+liked Scarborough for the way in which the boy had made the suggestion.
+He always had liked him, for Scarborough had never given any trouble; he
+seemed more mature than most of the boys, more mature even than Louis
+Collingwood. He was not so popular, because he maintained a certain
+dignity and reserve; even Westby seemed to stand somewhat in awe of
+Scarborough. He was, as Irving understood, the best oarsman in the
+school, captain of the school crew, besides being the crack shot-putter
+and hammer-thrower; if he and Collingwood had together chosen to throw
+their influence against a new master, life would indeed have been hard.
+But Scarborough's attitude had been one of entire indifference; he would
+stand by and smile sometimes when Westby was engaged in chaffing Irving,
+and then, as if tired of it, he would turn his back and walk away.
+
+Irving visited Barclay at his house during the noon recess, borrowed his
+revolver, and received the last simple instructions.
+
+"Make sure always that they're all properly 'set' before you fire. If
+there's any fouling at the start, you can call them back and penalize
+the fellow that fouled--a yard to five yards, according to your
+discretion. But there's not likely to be any fouling; in most of the
+events the fellows are pretty well separated by their handicaps."
+
+"I'll be careful," said Irving. He inspected the revolver. "It's all
+loaded?"
+
+"Yes--and there are some blank cartridges. Now, you're all equipped. If
+any questions come up--I'll be down at the field; I'm to be one of the
+judges and you can call on me."
+
+At luncheon Irving entered into the talk about the sports to come,
+without giving any intimation as to the part which he was to play.
+
+"They've given Heath only thirty yards over Lou Collingwood," complained
+Westby.
+
+"I thought Lou wasn't going to run, because of football; he hasn't been
+practising," said Carroll.
+
+"I know, but the Pythians have got hold of him, and Dennison's persuaded
+him it's his duty to run. And I guess he's good enough without practice
+to win from scratch--giving that handicap!"
+
+"Is Dennison the captain of the Pythian track team?" asked Irving.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And who's captain of yours--the Corinthians?"
+
+"Ned Morrill."
+
+"Morrill's going awfully fast in the quarter now," said Blake. "I timed
+him yesterday."
+
+"They've handicapped him pretty hard. And he's apt to be just a shade
+late in starting--just as Dave Pratt is apt to be just a shade previous,"
+said Westby. "It ought to be a close race between those two."
+
+"How much does Pratt get over Morrill?"
+
+"Five yards. And if he steals another yard on the start--"
+
+"Dave wouldn't steal it," exclaimed Blake indignantly. "You Corinthians
+would accuse a man of anything!"
+
+"Oh, I don't mean that he'd do it intentionally," replied Westby. "But
+he's so overanxious and eager always--and he's apt to get away without
+realizing--without the starter realizing.--I wonder who's going to be
+starter, by the way?"
+
+Nobody knew; Irving did not enlighten them.
+
+Westby bethought him to ask the same question of Scarborough half an
+hour later, when they were dressing in the athletic house.
+
+"Mr. Upton has consented to serve," said Scarborough gravely.
+
+Westby thumped himself down on a bench, dangling one spiked running shoe
+by the string.
+
+"What! Kiddy!"
+
+"The same," said Scarborough.
+
+Westby said nothing more; he stooped and put on his shoe, and then he
+rose and came over to Scarborough, who was untangling a knot. He passed
+his hand over Scarborough's head and remarked wonderingly, "Feels
+perfectly normal--strange--strange!"
+
+Morrill came in from outside, clapping his hands. "Corinthians out for
+the mile--Heath--Price--Bolton--Edwards--all ready?"
+
+The four named answered by clumping on their spikes to the door.
+
+A moment later came the Pythian call from Dennison; Collingwood and
+Morse responded. The first event of the day was about to begin. Westby
+leisurely brushed his hair, which had been disarranged in the process of
+undressing; he was like a cat in respect of his hair and could not
+endure to have it rumpled. When it was parted and plastered down to his
+satisfaction, he slipped a dressing gown on over his running clothes and
+went out of doors.
+
+The fall track meet was not of the same importance as that in the
+spring, which was a scratch event. But there were cups for prizes, and
+there was always much rivalry between the two athletic clubs, the
+Corinthians and Pythians, as to which could show the most winners. So
+for that day the football players rested from their practice; many of
+them in fact were entered in the sports--though, like Collingwood,
+without any special preparation. The school turned out to look on and
+cheer; when Westby left the athletic house, he saw the boys lined up on
+the farther side of the track. The field was reserved for contestants
+and officials; already many figures in trailing dressing gowns were
+wandering over it, and off at one side three or four were having a
+preliminary practice in putting the shot.
+
+But most of those who were privileged to be on the field stood at the
+farther side, where the start for the mile run was about to take place.
+Westby saw Randolph and Irving kneeling by the track, measuring off the
+handicap distances with a tape line; Barclay walked along it, and
+summoned the different contestants to their places. By the time that
+Westby had crossed the field, the six runners were at their stations;
+there was an interval of a hundred and forty yards between Collingwood,
+at scratch, and young Price of the Fourth Form.
+
+Westby came up and stood near Irving, and fixed him with a whimsical
+smile.
+
+"Quite a new departure for you, isn't it, Mr. Upton?" he said.
+
+"I thought I'd come down and see if you can run as fast as you can talk,
+Westby." Irving drew out the revolver, somewhat ostentatiously.
+
+"I hope you won't shoot any one with that; it looks to me as if you
+ought to be careful how you handle it, sir."
+
+"Thank you for the advice, Westby." Irving turned from the humorist, and
+raised his voice. "All ready for the mile now! On your marks! Set!"
+
+He held the pistol aloft and fired, and the six runners trotted away.
+There is nothing very exciting about the start of a mile run, and Irving
+felt that the intensity with which he had given the commands had been
+rather absurd. It was annoying to think that Westby had been standing by
+and finding perhaps in his nervousness a delectable subject for mockery
+and derision.
+
+Irving walked down the track towards the finish line. He found Barclay
+there holding the watch.
+
+"You seem to be discharging your arduous duties successfully," said
+Barclay.
+
+"Oh, so far." Irving looked up the track; the foremost runners were
+rounding the curve at the end of their first lap. He had a moment's
+longing to be one of them, stretching his legs like them, trying out his
+strength and speed on the smooth cinder track against others as eager as
+himself. He had never done anything of that kind; hardly until now had
+he ever felt the desire. Why it should come upon him now so poignantly
+he did not know; but on this warm October afternoon, when the air and
+the sunshine were as soft as in early September, he wished that he might
+be a boy again and do the things which as a boy he had never done. To be
+still young and looking on at the sports and the strife of youth, sports
+and strife in which he had never borne a part--there was something
+humiliating and ignoble in the thought. If he could only be for the
+moment the little Fourth Former there, Price--now flying on in the lead
+yet casting many fearful backward glances!--Poor child, even Irving's
+inexperienced eyes told him that he could never keep that pace.
+
+"Go it, kid!" cried three or four older boys good-naturedly, as Price
+panted by; and he threw back his head and came down more springily upon
+his toes, trying in response to the cheer to display his best form.
+
+After him came Bolton and Edwards, side by side; and Collingwood, who
+started at scratch, had moved up a little on Morse and Heath. Heath was
+considered the strongest runner in the event for the Corinthians, and
+they urged him on with cries of "Heath! Heath!" as he made the turn.
+"You've got 'em, Lou!" shouted a group of Pythians the next moment as
+Collingwood passed. It was early in the race for any great demonstration
+of excitement.
+
+It was Price whom Irving watched with most sympathy. When he got round
+on the farther side of the field, his pace had slackened perceptibly;
+Bolton and Edwards passed him and kept on widening the distance; Morse
+and Heath passed him at the next turn; and when he came down to the turn
+in front of the crowd, running heavily, Collingwood overhauled and
+passed him. It was rather an unfeeling thing for Collingwood to do,
+right there in front of the crowd, but he was driven to it by force of
+circumstances; the four other runners were holding on in a way he did
+not like. The cries of encouragement to him and to Heath were more
+urgent this time; Bolton and Edwards and Morse had their supporters too.
+
+Westby ran along the field beside Price, and Irving felt a moment's
+indignation; was Westby taunting the plucky and exhausted small boy? And
+then Irving saw that he was not, and at the same instant Barclay turned
+to him and said,--
+
+"Price is Westby's young cousin."
+
+Irving stood near enough to hear Westby say, "Good work, Tom; you set
+the pace just right; it'll kill Collingwood. Now drop out."
+
+Price shook his head and kept on; Westby trotted beside him, saying
+anxiously, "There's no use in your wearing yourself all out." But Price
+continued at his determined, pounding trot.
+
+"He's a plucky kid," said Barclay.
+
+"Rather nice of Westby to take such an interest," said Irving.
+
+Barclay nodded. From that point on it became a close and interesting
+race, yet every now and then Irving's eyes strayed to the small figure
+toiling farther and farther to the rear--but always toiling. Westby stood
+on the edge of the green oval, not far away, and when on the third lap
+Heath came by in the lead, ran with him a few moments and shouted advice
+and encouragement in his ear; he had to shout, for all the Corinthians
+were shouting for Heath now, and the Pythians were shouting just as
+loudly for Collingwood, who, pocketed by the two other Corinthians,
+Bolton and Edwards, was running fifteen yards behind. Morse, the only
+Pythian to support Collingwood, was hopelessly out of it.
+
+Westby left Heath and turned his eyes backward. His cousin came to the
+turn, white-faced, and mouth hanging open; the crowd clapped the boy.
+"Quit it, Tom!" cried Westby. "Quit it; there's no sense--" but Price
+went pounding on. Westby stood looking after him with a worried frown,
+and then because there was a sudden shout, he turned to look at the
+others.
+
+There, on the farther side of the field, Collingwood had at last
+extricated himself from the pocket; he was running abreast of Bolton;
+Edwards had fallen behind. Heath was spurting; Collingwood passed
+Bolton, but in doing so did not lessen Heath's lead--a lead of fully
+fifteen yards. So they came to the last turn, to the long straight-away
+home-stretch; and the crowd clustered by the finish broke and ran up
+alongside the track to meet them. Every one was yelling wildly--one name
+or another--"Corinthian!" "Pythian!" "Heath!" "Collingwood!"
+
+Barclay ran across the track with one end of the tape,--the finish line;
+Mr. Randolph held the other. "Collingwood! Collingwood!" rose the shout;
+Irving, standing on tiptoe, saw that Collingwood was gaining, saw that
+at last he and Heath were running side by side; they held together while
+the crowd ran with them shouting. Irving pressed closer to the track;
+Westby in his dressing gown was jumping up and down beside him, waving
+his arms; Irving had to crane his neck and peer, in order to see beyond
+those loose flapping sleeves. He saw the light-haired Collingwood and
+the black-haired Heath, coming down with their heads back and their
+teeth bared and clenched; they were only fifteen yards away. And then
+Collingwood leaped ahead; it was as if he had unloosed some latent and
+unconquerable spring, which hurled him in a final burst of speed across
+the tape and into half a dozen welcoming arms. Heath stumbled after him,
+even more in need of such friendly services; but both of them revived
+very quickly when Mr. Barclay, rushing into the crowd with the watch,
+cried, "Within eight seconds of the record! Both of you fellows will
+break it next June."
+
+The other runners came gasping in--and Price was still toiling away in
+the rear. He had been half a lap behind; he came now into the
+home-stretch; the crowd began to laugh, and then more kindly, as he drew
+nearer, to applaud. They clapped and called, "Good work, Price!" Westby
+met him about fifty yards from the finish and ran with him, saying,
+"You've got to stick it out now, Tom; you can't drop out now; you're all
+right, old boy--lots of steam in your boiler--you'll break a record yet."
+Irving caught some of the speeches. And so Westby was there when Price
+crossed the line and collapsed in a heap on the track.
+
+It was not for long; they brought him to with water, and Westby knelt by
+him fanning his face with the skirt of his dressing gown. Barclay picked
+the boy up. "Oh, I'm all right, sir," said Price, and he insisted on
+being allowed to walk to the athletic house alone,--which he did rather
+shakily.
+
+Westby flirted the cinders from the skirt of his dressing gown. "Blamed
+little fool," he remarked to Carroll and to Allison, who stood by.
+"Wouldn't his mother give me the dickens, though, for letting him do
+that!" But Irving, who heard, knew there was a ring of pride in Westby's
+voice--as if Westby felt that his cousin was a credit to the family. And
+Irving thought he was.
+
+The sports went on; not many of the runs were as exciting as that with
+which the afternoon had opened. Irving passed back and forth across the
+field, helped measure distances for the handicaps, and tried to be
+useful. His interest had certainly been awakened. Twice in college he
+had sat on the "bleachers" and viewed indifferently the track contests
+between Yale and Harvard; he had had a patriotic desire to see his own
+college win, but he had been indifferent to the performance of the
+individuals. They had not been individuals to him--merely strange figures
+performing in an arena. But here, where he knew the boys and walked
+about among them, and saw the different manifestations of nervousness
+and excitement, and watched the muscles in their slim legs and arms, he
+became himself eager and sympathetic. He stood by when Scarborough went
+on putting the shot after beating all the other competitors--went on
+putting it in an attempt to break the School record. Unconsciously
+Irving pressed forward to see him as he prepared for the third and last
+try; unconsciously he stood with lips parted and eyes shining,
+fascinated by the huge muscles that rose in Scarborough's brown arm as
+he poised the weight at his shoulder and heaved it tentatively. And when
+it was announced that the effort had fallen short by only a few inches,
+Irving's sigh of disappointment went up with that of the boys.
+
+At intervals the races were run off--the two-twenty, the quarter-mile,
+the half-mile, the high hurdles, the low hurdles. Irving started them
+all without any mishap. The last one, the low hurdles for two hundred
+and twenty yards, was exciting; the runners were all well matched and
+the handicaps were small. And so, after firing the revolver, Irving
+started and ran across the field as hard as he could, to be at the
+finish; he arrived in time, and stood, still holding the revolver in his
+hand, while Morrill and Flack and Mason raced side by side to the tape.
+They finished in that order, not more than a yard apart; and Irving
+rammed his revolver into his pocket and clapped his hands and cheered
+with the Corinthians.
+
+The Pythians were now two points ahead, and there remained only one
+event, the hundred yards. First place counted five points and second
+place two; in these games third place did not count. So if a Corinthian
+should win the hundred yards, the Corinthians would be victorious in the
+meet by one point.
+
+There were eight entries in the hundred yards--a large number to run
+without interfering with one another. But the track was wide, and two of
+the boys had handicaps of ten yards, one had five yards, and one had
+three. So they were spread out pretty well at the start, and
+consequently the danger of interference was minimized.
+
+The runners threw off their dressing gowns and took their places. Drake,
+Flack, Westby, and Mason lined up at scratch,--Westby having drawn the
+inside place and being flanked by the two Pythians. There was a moment's
+pawing of the cinders, and settling down firmly on the spikes.
+
+"Ready, everybody!" cried Irving. He drew the revolver from his pocket
+and held it aloft. He was as excited as any of the runners; there was
+the nervous thrill in his voice. "On your marks!" They put their hands
+to the ground; he ran his eyes along them to see that all were placed.
+"Set!" There was the instant stiffening of muscles. Then from the
+revolver came a click. Irving had emptied the six chambers in starting
+the other races, and had forgotten to reload.
+
+"Just a moment, fellows; ease off!" he called, and they all straightened
+up and faced towards him questioningly. "Just till I slip in a
+cartridge," Irving explained with embarrassment.
+
+Westby turned on him a delighted grin, and said,--
+
+"Can I be of any assistance, Mr. Upton?"
+
+"No, thank you," said Irving, and having slipped in one cartridge, he
+began filling the other chambers of the revolver.
+
+"It takes only one shot to start," observed Westby.
+
+"Yes," said Irving. "If I fire a second, it will be to call you back
+because of a false start.--Now then,--all ready once more. On your marks!"
+They crouched. "Set!" He fired.
+
+Somehow in the start Westby's foot slipped, and in trying to get clear
+he lunged against Flack. Irving saw it and instantly fired a second
+shot, and shouted, "Come back, come back!" The runners heeded the signal
+and the shout, but as they tiptoed up the track, they looked irritated.
+
+"Westby, you fouled Flack." Irving spoke with some asperity. "I shall
+have to set you back a yard."
+
+"It was an accident," Westby replied warmly. "My foot slipped. I
+couldn't help myself."
+
+"But it was a foul," declared Irving, "and I shall have to set you back
+a yard."
+
+"It was an accident, I tell you," repeated Westby.
+
+"If it was an accident, you oughtn't to set him back," said Drake, his
+fellow Corinthian.
+
+"It's in the starter's discretion," spoke up Mason, the Pythian.
+
+"The penalty's a yard," affirmed Irving.
+
+Westby shut his lips tight and looked angrily contemptuous. Irving
+measured the distance. "There," he said, "you will start there."
+
+Westby took the place behind the others without a word.
+
+"Ready now! On your marks!"
+
+The pistol cracked, and this time they all got away safely, and Irving
+raced after them over the grass.
+
+From the crowd at the finish came the instant shout of names; out of the
+short choppy cries two names especially emerged, "Flack! Flack! Flack!"
+"Westby! Westby! Westby!" Those two were the favorites for the event.
+Irving saw the scratch men forge ahead, and mingle with the handicap
+runners; in the confusion of flying white figures he could not see who
+were leading. But the tumult near the finish grew wild; arms and caps
+were swung aloft, boys were leaping up and down; the red-haired Dennison
+ran along the edge of the track, waving his arms; Morrill on the other
+side did the same thing; the next moment the race had ended in a
+tumultuous rush of shouting boys.
+
+[Illustration: AS TO WHO HAD WON, IRVING HAD NOT THE SLIGHTEST IDEA]
+
+As to who had won, Irving had not the slightest idea. He was hastening
+up to find out--hoping that it had been Westby. And then out from the
+crowd burst Westby and rushed towards him, panting, flushed, hot-eyed,
+attended by Morrill and half a dozen other Corinthians.
+
+"I hope you're satisfied with your spite-work," said Westby. His voice
+shook with passion, his eyes blazed; never before had Irving seen him
+when he had so lost control of himself. "You lost me that race--by half a
+yard! I hope you're pleased with yourself!"
+
+He surveyed Irving scornfully, breathing hard, then turned his back and
+strode off to the athletic house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE WORM BEGINS TO TURN
+
+
+After the charge which Westby had flung at him so furiously, Irving
+looked in amazement to the other boys for an explanation. They were all
+Corinthians, and he saw gloom and resentment in their faces.
+
+"I think it was pretty rough, Mr. Upton, to penalize him for an
+unintentional foul," said Morrill. "He'd have beaten Flack if they'd
+started even."
+
+"But it _was_ a foul," protested Irving. "So I had to penalize him. I
+made it as small a penalty as I could."
+
+"You didn't have to penalize him unless you wanted to," said Morrill
+grimly. "Of course you had a perfect right to do as you pleased, only--"
+He shrugged his shoulders and walked away, followed by the other
+Corinthians.
+
+Irving stood stricken. So this was the outcome; in seeking to be
+sympathetic and to be understood, he had only caused himself somehow to
+be more hated and despised. Bitterness rose within him, bitterness
+against Westby, against Morrill, against boys in general, against the
+school. And only an hour ago, from what he had seen and heard, he had
+felt that he could like Westby, and had been not without some hope that
+Westby might some time like him.
+
+He saw Barclay standing with Mr. Randolph by the table on which were the
+prize cups; Barclay was bending over, arranging them, and the boys were
+gathering on the opposite side of the track, being "policed back" by the
+half-dozen members of the athletic committee. Evidently the award of
+prizes was to be made at once, and either Barclay or Randolph was to
+hand out the cups--perhaps also to make a speech. But Irving could not
+wait; he must satisfy himself of his doubts and fears, and so he hurried
+forward and touched Barclay on the shoulder.
+
+"Just a moment, please," he said, as Barclay turned. "Did I do anything
+wrong?"
+
+"You penalized Westby a yard for fouling, I heard; is that so?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, you were within your rights. But if it was obviously an
+unintentional foul, I shouldn't have been so strict."
+
+"I misunderstood what you told me," sighed Irving. "I thought that in
+case of foul a fellow _had_ to be penalized."
+
+"Oh, no." Barclay was busy; he had to think up something to say, by way
+of a speech, and he turned and began fussing again with the cups.
+
+Irving walked away. Even his friend Barclay was not sympathetic, did not
+understand the seriousness of what had happened. He could not stay
+longer to be the target of hostile, vengeful eyes; he felt that half the
+boys there were blaming him in their hearts for the defeat of their
+team--and that the others had no gratitude to him for their victory. Not
+that it would have made him feel any better if they had; he had only
+wanted and tried to be fair.
+
+He walked away from the field, crossed the track, and passed round into
+the avenue that led up to the School. When he had gone as far as the
+bend where from behind the cluster of trees the School buildings became
+visible, he heard the pleasant ripple of laughter from the crowd. Some
+one, probably Barclay, was making a speech; to think of being able to
+stand before boys and make them laugh like that! It seemed to Irving
+that he had never before known what envy was.
+
+He spent a mournful hour in his room; then, hearing footsteps on the
+stairs, he closed his door. The boys were returning from the field; he
+felt sure there would be remarks about him by Westby and Morrill and
+other Corinthians up and down the corridor, and he preferred not to hear
+them. To his surprise there was rather less disturbance than usual;
+perhaps the boys were too tired after their exciting and active
+afternoon to indulge in noisy skylarking. So Irving did not have to
+emerge from his solitude until the supper bell rang. Even then he
+waited until all the boys had passed his door and were clattering down
+the stairs. Yet as he descended, Westby's indignant voice floated up to
+him,--
+
+"Just because I guyed him--he felt he had to get even."
+
+At supper Westby did not look at Irving. One of the boys, Blake, made a
+comment; he said,--
+
+"That was a mighty good race you ran, Westby; hard luck you were
+handicapped."
+
+"You can call it hard luck if you want," said Westby.
+
+"How did it happen, anyway?" Blake asked, quite innocently.
+
+"Oh, don't ask _me_," said Westby.
+
+Three or four of the boys who did know glanced slyly at Irving, and
+Irving, though he had meant to say nothing, spoke up; there was
+electricity in the air.
+
+"Westby was unfortunate enough to foul Flack at the start; that was all
+there was to it," he said. "I saw it and set him back a yard. I was
+under the impression that in case of foul a penalty had to be
+imposed--and I made the penalty as light as possible."
+
+He felt that this statement ought to appease any reasonable boy. But
+Westby was not in a reasonable mood. He paid no attention to Irving; he
+addressed the table.
+
+"I told Scarborough he might have known things would be botched
+somehow."
+
+"Why?" asked Blake.
+
+"Oh, you've got to have officials who know their business."
+
+There was an interval of silence at the table; Westby, having fired his
+shot, sat straight, with cheeks flushed, looking across at Blake.
+
+"Westby feels that he has had provocation and therefore may be rude."
+Irving spoke at last with calmness. "It's true that I never officiated
+before at any races. At the same time, I don't believe I did anything
+which some experienced officials would not have done. There are probably
+a good many who believe in penalizing a runner for clumsy and stupid
+interference as well as for deliberate intent to foul."
+
+He had spoken mildly; he did not even emphasize the words "clumsy and
+stupid." But the retort went home; the Pythians at the table,--of whom
+Blake was one,--chuckled; and Westby, with a deeper shade of crimson on
+his face and a sudden compression of his lips, lowered his eyes.
+
+Irving had triumphed, but after the first moment he felt surprisingly
+little satisfaction in his triumph. He could not help being sorry for
+Westby; the boy was after all right in feeling that he had been deprived
+of a victory to which he had been entitled. And as Irving looked at his
+downcast face, he softened still further; Westby had so often delighted
+in humiliating him, and he had longed for the opportunity of reprisal.
+Now it had come, and Westby was humiliated, and the audience were not
+unsympathetic with Irving for the achievement; yet Irving felt already
+the sting of remorse. Westby was only a boy, and he was a master; it was
+not well for a master to mortify a boy in the presence of other boys--a
+boy whose disappointment was already keen.
+
+The letters were distributed; there was one for Irving from his brother.
+It contained news that made the world a different place from what it had
+been an hour ago. Lawrence was playing left end on the Harvard Freshman
+football eleven; not only that, but in the first game of the season,
+played against a Boston preparatory school, he had made the only
+touchdown. He added that that didn't mean much, for he had got the ball
+on a fluke; still, the tone of the letter was excited and elated.
+
+And it excited and elated Irving. He folded the letter and put it in his
+pocket; he sat for a moment looking out of the window with dreamy eyes
+and an unconscious smile. Lawrence was succeeding, was going to succeed,
+in a way far different from his own--if his own college course could be
+said in any sense to have terminated in success. Lawrence would have the
+athletic and the social experience which he had never had; Lawrence
+would be popular as he had never been; Lawrence would go brilliantly
+through college as he had never done. Everything now was in Lawrence's
+reach, and he was a boy who would not be spoiled or led astray by the
+achievement of temporary glories.
+
+In the vision of his brother's triumphant career, Irving was transported
+from the troubles and perplexities, from the self-reproaches and the
+doubts which had been making him unhappy. He wanted now to share his
+happiness, to take the boys into his confidence--but one can share one's
+happiness only with one's friends. There was Westby, aggrieved and
+hostile; there was Carroll, sitting next to him, the queer, quizzical,
+silent youth, with whom Irving had been entirely unable to establish any
+relation of intimacy; no, there were no boys at his table with whom he
+was intimate enough to appeal for their interest and congratulations.
+And feeling this, he shrank from communicating the news,--though he felt
+sure that even Westby, who was going to Harvard the next year, might be
+interested in it; he shrank from anything like boasting. He found an
+outlet soon; Barclay came to see him that evening.
+
+"I looked for you this afternoon, after the giving out of the prizes,"
+said Barclay. "But I couldn't find you."
+
+"No, I didn't wait for that. Did you make a speech? I heard the boys
+laughing and cheering as I came away."
+
+"Oh, yes, I got off a few stale jokes and some heavy-footed persiflage.
+It went well enough.--But I looked for you afterwards because I felt I
+may have seemed rather short when you came up; the truth is, I was
+racking my brain at that moment; Scarborough had just sprung the fact on
+me that I must make the speech."
+
+"Oh, it was all right," said Irving. "I'm sorry to have bothered you at
+such a time. I was just a little agitated because Westby was rather
+angry over being penalized in the hundred--"
+
+"So I hear. Well, it was hard luck in a way--but after all you had a
+perfect right to penalize him; he did foul, and he ought to be sport
+enough to take the consequences."
+
+"I suppose it wouldn't have been--it wouldn't be possible to run the race
+over?"
+
+"Certainly not. Besides, Westby has no right to say that if he'd started
+even with Flack, he'd have beaten him. It's true that he gained half a
+yard on Flack in the race; but it's also true that Flack knew he had
+that much leeway. There's no telling how much more Flack might have done
+if he'd had to. So if Westby says anything to me, I shall tell him just
+that."
+
+"I feel sorry about the thing anyway. I'm sorry I made a mess of it--as
+usual."
+
+"Oh, cheer up; it's not going to do you any harm with the fellows. A
+little momentary flash from Westby and Morrill--"
+
+"No, I wasn't thinking of myself."
+
+"You weren't!" The bluntness of Barclay's exclamation of astonishment
+caused Irving to blush, and Barclay himself, realizing what he had
+betrayed to Irving's perception, looked embarrassed. But Irving
+laughed.
+
+"I don't wonder you're surprised. I guess that's been the worst trouble
+with me here--thinking about myself. And that was what was troubling me
+when I went to you this afternoon. But it isn't any longer. I feel bad
+about Westby. I can't help thinking I did rob him of his race--and then I
+sat on him at supper into the bargain."
+
+Barclay shouted with laughter. "You sat on Westby--and you're sorry for
+it! What's happened to you, anyway? Tell me about it."
+
+Irving narrated the circumstances. "And I want to be friendly with him,"
+he concluded. "Don't you think I might explain that it was a blunder on
+my part--and that I'm sorry I blundered?"
+
+"I wouldn't," said Barclay. "He's beginning to respect you now. Don't do
+anything to make him think you're a little soft. That's what he wants to
+think, and he'd construe any such move on your part unfavorably."
+
+"Well, perhaps so." Irving sighed.
+
+"You're stiffening up quite a lot," observed Barclay.
+
+"I was very wobbly when Westby and the other fellows went for me after
+that race," confessed Irving. "If I stiffened up, I guess it was just
+the courage of desperation. And I don't think that amounts to much. But
+I've cheered up for good now."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+Somewhat shyly Irving communicated the proud news about his brother.
+
+"Oh, I read about him in to-day's Boston newspaper," exclaimed Barclay.
+
+"What?" asked Irving. "Where was it? I didn't see it."
+
+"You probably don't read all the football news, as I do. But you will
+after this." Barclay laughed. "Yes, there was quite an account of that
+game, and Upton was mentioned as being the bright particular star on the
+Freshman team. It never occurred to me that he was your brother."
+
+"Naturally not. I wish I could get away to see the game with the Yale
+Freshmen; I've never seen Lawrence play. But I don't suppose I could
+manage that, could I?"
+
+Barclay looked doubtful. "The rector's pretty strict with the masters as
+well as with the boys. Especially when a man has charge of a dormitory.
+I somehow think it wouldn't be wise to try it,--your first term."
+
+"I suppose not. Well, I shall certainly read the football columns from
+now on."
+
+"I wonder," remarked Barclay, "if we couldn't get the Harvard Freshmen
+up here to play a practice game with our School eleven--say, the week
+before the St. John's game? It would be good practice for them as well
+as for us; three or four years ago the Freshmen played here."
+
+"Oh, I wish we could." Irving's face lighted up. "I'll write to my
+brother, and perhaps he can arrange it with the captain and manager."
+
+"I'll talk it over with Collingwood first," said Barclay. "And then
+we'll proceed officially; and you can pull any additional wires that are
+possible through your brother." He rose to go. "I shouldn't wonder," he
+added, "if that brother of yours turned out to be a useful asset for
+you here."
+
+"I should prefer to stand on my own legs," said Irving. "I shan't
+advertise it round that I have a football brother."
+
+"Oh, it won't be necessary for you to do that; things have a way of
+leaking out." Barclay laughed as he took his departure.
+
+As it happened, the next day Louis Collingwood, the captain of the
+School eleven, went to Barclay to consult him about the outlook for the
+season.
+
+"It seems to me we'll have a good School team," said Collingwood, "but
+no second eleven capable of giving them hard practice--the kind they'll
+need to beat St. John's. If we could only arrange one or two games with
+outside teams, to put us into shape--"
+
+"I was thinking of that," said Barclay. "I wonder if we mightn't get the
+Harvard Freshmen up here. They have a good eleven, apparently."
+
+"Yes, awfully good, from all that the papers say. Don't you suppose
+their schedule is filled up?"
+
+"It may be--but perhaps they could give us a date. Suppose you come over
+to my house this evening and we'll send a letter off to their captain.
+And I'm sure"--Barclay threw the remark out in the most casual
+manner--"Mr. Upton will be glad to approach them for us through his
+brother."
+
+"His brother? Who's that?"
+
+"Why, didn't you know? His brother plays left end on the team--"
+
+"Kiddy Upton's brother on the Harvard Freshmen! No!"
+
+"Whose brother?"
+
+"Mr. Upton's, I meant to say." Louis grinned. "Is he really, Mr.
+Barclay?"
+
+"I'm rather surprised you didn't know it. But I guess Mr. Upton is the
+kind that doesn't talk much."
+
+"I should think he'd have let that out."
+
+"Well, he let it out to me. I suspect--though he hasn't told me--that he's
+helping to put his brother through college. And his success in doing
+that will naturally depend largely on his success or failure here as a
+master."
+
+"You mean--keeping his job?"
+
+Barclay nodded. "Yes. Oh, I don't suppose there's any real doubt about
+that. He's a perfectly competent teacher, isn't he? You know; you have a
+class with him."
+
+"Ye-es," said Louis, slowly. "The trouble has been, the fellows horse
+him a good deal--though not quite so much as they did."
+
+"They'll get over that when they know him better," remarked Barclay.
+
+He knew that Louis Collingwood went away feeling much impressed, and he
+was pretty sure he had done Irving a good turn.
+
+It was in the noon half-hour, while Collingwood was holding this
+interview with Mr. Barclay, that Westby, reading the Harvard news in his
+Boston paper, went giggling into Morrill's room.
+
+"There's a fellow named Upton playing on the Freshmen." He showed
+Morrill the name. "Let's get a crowd and go in to Kiddy; I'll get him
+rattled."
+
+"How?" asked Morrill.
+
+"Oh, ask him if this fellow's a relation of his, and say I supposed of
+course he must be--such athletic prowess, and all that sort of thing;
+with a crowd standing there giggling you know how rattled he'll get."
+
+"All right," said Morrill, who was an earnest admirer of Westby's wit.
+
+So they collected Dennison and Smythe and Allison and Carroll and
+Scarborough, and marched up the corridor--humorously tramping in step--to
+Irving's door. There Westby, newspaper in hand, knocked. Irving opened
+the door.
+
+"Mr. Upton, sir," began Westby, "sorry to disturb you, sir." The boys
+all began to grin, and Irving saw that he was in for some carefully
+planned attack. "I was just reading my morning paper, sir, and I wanted
+to ask you what relation to you the man named Upton is that's playing on
+the Harvard Freshman eleven, sir."
+
+Irving's eyes twinkled; if ever the enemy had been delivered into his
+hands!
+
+"What makes you think he's a relation?" he asked, with an assumption of
+cold dignity.
+
+"Oh, we all feel sure he must be, sir. Of course your well-known and
+justly famous interest in all athletic sports, sir--not to say your
+prowess in them, sir--it's natural to suppose that any athlete named
+Upton would belong to the same family with you, sir."
+
+The boys were all on the broad grin; Westby's manner was so expansively
+courteous, his compliments were so absurdly urbane, that Irving threw
+off his air of coldness and adopted a jaunty manner of reply which was
+even more misleading.
+
+"Oh, well, if you've been so clever as to guess it, Westby," he said, "I
+don't mind telling you--it's my brother."
+
+Westby bestowed on his confederates--quite indifferent as to whether
+Irving detected it or not--his slow, facetious wink. He returned then to
+his victim and in his most gamesome manner said,--
+
+"I supposed of course it was your brother, sir. Or at least I should
+have supposed so, except that I didn't know you had a brother at
+Harvard. Wasn't it rather--what shall I say?--_peu aimable_ not to have
+taken us, your friends, into your confidence? Would you mind telling us,
+sir, what your brother's first name is?"
+
+"My brother's first name? Lawrence."
+
+"Hm!" said Westby, referring to his newspaper. "I find him set down here
+as 'T. Upton.' But I suppose that is a misprint, of course."
+
+"I suppose it must be," agreed Irving.
+
+"Newspapers are always making mistakes, aren't they?" said Westby. "Such
+careless fellows! We'd like awfully to hear more about your brother
+Lawrence, Mr. Upton."
+
+The broad grin broke into a snicker.
+
+"Why, I don't know just what there is to tell," Irving said awkwardly.
+
+"What does he look like, sir? Does he resemble you very much?--I mean,
+apart from the family fondness for athletics."
+
+Irving's lips twitched; Westby was enjoying so thoroughly his revenge!
+And the other boys were all stifling their amusement.
+
+"We are said not to look very much alike," he answered. "He is of a
+somewhat heavier build."
+
+"He must be somewhat lacking, then, in grace and agility, sir," said
+Westby; and the boys broke into a shout, and Irving gave way to a faint
+smile.
+
+At that moment Collingwood came up the stairs.
+
+"Hello, Lou," said Westby, with a welcoming wink. "We're just
+congratulating Mr. Upton on his brother; did you know that he has a
+brother playing on the Harvard Freshmen?"
+
+"Yes," said Collingwood. "I've just heard it from Mr. Barclay."
+
+The boys stared at Collingwood, then at Irving, whose eyes were
+twinkling again and whose smile had widened. Then they looked at Westby;
+he was gazing at Collingwood unbelievingly,--stupefied.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" asked Collingwood.
+
+And then Irving broke out into a delighted peal of laughter. He could
+find nothing but slang in which to express himself, and through his
+laughter he ejaculated,--
+
+"Stung, my young friend! Stung!"
+
+They all gave a whoop; they swung Westby round and rushed him down the
+corridor to his room, shouting and jeering.
+
+When Irving went down to lunch, Carroll, the quizzical, silent Carroll,
+welcomed him with a grin. Westby turned a bright pink and looked away.
+At the next table Allison and Smythe and Scarborough were all looking
+over at him and smiling; and at the table beyond that Collingwood and
+Morrill and Dennison were craning their necks and exhibiting their joy.
+Westby, the humorist, had suddenly become the butt, a position which he
+had rarely occupied before.
+
+He was quite subdued through that meal. Once in the middle of it, Irving
+looked at him and caught his eye, and on a sudden impulse leaned back
+and laughed. Carroll joined in, Westby blushed once more, the Sixth
+Formers at the next table looked over and began to laugh; the other boys
+cast wondering glances.
+
+"What's the joke, Mr. Upton?" asked Blake.
+
+"Oh, don't ask _me_," said Irving. "Ask Westby."
+
+"What is it, Wes?" said Blake, and could not understand why he received
+such a vicious kick under the table, or why Carroll said in such a
+jeering way, "Yes, Wes, what _is_ the joke, anyhow?"
+
+When the meal was over, Westby's friends lay in wait for him outside in
+the hall, crowded round, and began patting him on the back and offering
+him their jocular sympathy. To have the joke turned on the professional
+humorist appeared to be extremely popular; and the humorist did not take
+it very well. "Oh, get out, get out!" he was saying, wrenching himself
+from the grasp of first one and then another. And Irving came out just
+as he exclaimed in desperation, "Just the same, I'll bet it's all a
+fake; I'll bet he hasn't got a brother!"
+
+He flung himself around, trying to escape from Collingwood's clutch,
+and saw Irving. The smile faded from Irving's face; Westby looked at him
+sullenly for a moment, then broke away and made a rush up the stairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE HARVARD FRESHMAN
+
+
+For two or three days the intercourse between Irving and Westby was of
+the most formal sort. At table they held no communication with each
+other; in the class-room Irving gave Westby every chance to recite and
+conscientiously helped him through the recitation as much as he did any
+one else; in the dormitory they exchanged a cold good-night. Irving did
+not press Westby for a retraction of the charge which he had overheard
+the boy make; it seemed to him unworthy to dignify it by taking such
+notice of it. He knew that none of the boys really believed it and that
+Westby himself did not believe it, but had been goaded into the
+declaration in the desperate effort to maintain a false position. Irving
+wondered if the boy would not have the fairness to make some
+acknowledgment of the injustice into which his pride had provoked him.
+
+And one day at luncheon, Westby turned to Irving and with an embarrassed
+smile said,
+
+"Mr. Upton, do you get any news from your brother about the Harvard
+Freshman eleven?"
+
+Carroll directed at Westby the quizzical look under which Irving had so
+often suffered. But Westby did not flinch; he waited for Irving's
+answer, with his embarrassed, appealing smile.
+
+"I had a letter from him this morning," said Irving. "He writes that
+there is a chance of their coming up here to play the School eleven; I
+had asked him if that couldn't be arranged."
+
+"Oh, really!" exclaimed Westby, in a tone of honest interest.
+
+"When, Mr. Upton?" "Does he think they'll come?" "Does Lou Collingwood
+know about it?"
+
+"I guess he knows as much as I do." Irving tried to answer the flood of
+questions. "He wrote officially to the captain at the same time that I
+wrote to Lawrence. If they come at all, it will be about a week before
+the St. John's game."
+
+"When shall we know for sure?" asked Westby.
+
+"It appears to be a question whether the Freshmen will choose to play us
+or Lakeview School. They want to play whichever team seems the stronger,
+and they're going to discuss the prospects and decide in a few days."
+
+"I'm sure we're better than Lakeview," declared Blake. "You'll tell your
+brother we are, won't you, Mr. Upton?"
+
+"I'll tell him that I understand we have a very superior team," said
+Irving. "I fancy he knows that it's as much as I can do to tell the
+difference between a quarterback and a goal post."
+
+"You will admit, then, that there was some reason for my not believing
+you had a football brother, won't you, Mr. Upton?" Westby tried thus to
+beat a not wholly inglorious retreat.
+
+"Every reason--until it became a matter of doubting my word," said
+Irving.
+
+Westby crimsoned, and Irving felt that again he had been too severe with
+him; the boy had been trying to convey an apology, without actually
+making one; it might have been well to let him off.
+
+But Irving reflected that the account was still far from even and that
+perhaps this unwonted adversity might be good for Westby. Irving did not
+realize quite how much teasing had been visited upon Westby in
+consequence of his disastrous error, or how humiliated the boy had been
+in his heart. For Westby was proud and vain and sensitive, accustomed to
+leadership, unused to ridicule; for two days now the shafts of those
+whom he had been in the habit of chaffing with impunity had been
+rankling. Because of this sensitive condition, the final rebuke at the
+luncheon table, before all the boys, cut him more deeply than Irving
+suspected. Afterwards Westby said to Carroll,--
+
+"Oh, very well. If he couldn't accept my acknowledgment of my mistake,
+but had to jump on me again--well, it's just spite on his part; that's
+all. I don't care; I can let him alone after this. That seems to be what
+he wants."
+
+"A month ago he wouldn't have asked more than that of you," observed
+Carroll. "And you didn't feel like obliging him then."
+
+The implication that Irving had worsted him galled Westby.
+
+"Oh," he retorted, "the best of jokes will wear out. Kiddy was a
+perfectly good joke for a while--"
+
+Carroll annoyed him by laughing.
+
+For one who had hitherto been indifferent to all forms of athletics,
+Irving developed a surprising interest in the game of football. Every
+afternoon he went to the field and watched the practice of the Pythian
+and Corinthian elevens. He had once thought the forward pass a detail
+incapable of engaging one's serious attention, and worthy of rebuke if
+attempted in dormitory; but after Lawrence wrote that in executing it he
+was acquiring some proficiency, Irving studied it with a more curious
+eye.
+
+He wondered if Lawrence was as skillful at it as Collingwood, for
+instance; Collingwood had now learned to shoot the ball with accuracy
+twenty or twenty-five yards. Occasionally Irving got hold of a football
+and tested his own capacity in throwing it; his attempts convinced him
+that in this matter he had a great deal to learn. Looking back, he could
+comprehend Louis Collingwood's indignation and amazement at a master who
+would coldly turn away when a boy was trying to illustrate for him the
+forward pass.
+
+One afternoon from watching the football practice Irving moved aside for
+a little while to see the finish of the autumn clay-pigeon shoot of the
+Gun Club.
+
+There were only six contestants, and there were not many spectators;
+most of the boys preferred to stay on the football field, where there
+was more action; the second Pythians and second Corinthians were playing
+a match. But Irving had heard Westby talking at luncheon about the
+shoot and strolled over more from curiosity to see how he would acquit
+himself than for any other reason.
+
+The trap was set in the long grass on the edge of the meadow near the
+woods; Allison was performing the unexciting task of pulling the string
+and releasing the skimming disks. When Irving came up, Smythe was
+finishing; he did not appear to be much of a shot, for he missed three
+out of the seven "birds" which Irving saw him try for.
+
+Then it was Westby's turn. Westby had got himself up for the occasion,
+in a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers and leggings; he was always
+scrupulous about appearing in costumes that were extravagantly correct.
+He saw Irving and somewhat ostentatiously turned away.
+
+Irving waited and looked on. Westby stood in an almost negligent
+attitude, with his gun lowered; the trap was sprung, the clay pigeon
+flew--and then was shattered in the midst of its flight. It seemed to
+Irving that Westby hardly brought his gun to his shoulder to take aim.
+It could not all be luck either; that was evident when Westby demolished
+ten clay pigeons in rapid succession. It was Carroll's turn now; Westby,
+having made his perfect score, blew the smoke from the breech and stood
+by.
+
+Irving went up to him.
+
+"I congratulate you on your shooting, Westby," he said. "It seems quite
+wonderful to a man who never fired a gun off but a few times in his
+life--and then it was a revolver, with blank cartridges."
+
+Westby looked at him coolly. "It's funny you've never done anything that
+most fellows do," he observed. "Were you always afraid of hurting
+yourself?"
+
+"I was offering my congratulations, Westby," said Irving stiffly, and
+walked away.
+
+"Why did you go at him like that?" asked Carroll, who had heard the
+interchange.
+
+"Oh," said Westby, "I wasn't going to have him hanging round swiping to
+me, soft-soaping me."
+
+"I think he was only trying to be decent," said Carroll.
+
+"I like a man who is decent without trying," Westby retorted.
+
+Yet whether his nerves were a little upset by the episode or his eye
+thrown off by the wait, Westby did not do so well in the next round. The
+trap was set to send the birds skimming lower and faster; Westby missed
+two out of ten, and was tied for first place with Carroll. And in the
+final shoot to break the tie, Westby lost.
+
+He shook hands with Carroll, but with no excess of good humor. He knew
+he was really the better shot, and even though Carroll was his closest
+friend, the defeat rankled.
+
+At supper Blake congratulated Carroll across the table.
+
+"You won, did you, Carroll?" asked Irving.
+
+"Yes, sir--by a close shave."
+
+"I'm sorry I didn't stay to see it." The remark was innocent in
+intention, but to Westby it seemed edged with malice--as if the master
+was exulting over his defeat.
+
+Something in Westby's expression told Irving what the boy had inferred;
+Irving went afterwards to his room in a despondent mood. It didn't
+matter how hard he tried or what he did; he had not the faculty of
+winning and holding affection and respect. As it was with boys, so it
+would be with men. If only he could see how and why he failed, and could
+learn to correct his mistakes!
+
+He felt of more importance in the School world when a letter from
+Lawrence was the first announcement that the Freshman eleven would come
+to play St. Timothy's. He asked Collingwood if he had had any word, and
+when Collingwood said no, he told him his brother's message.
+
+"I don't believe there can be any mistake," said Irving. "He writes that
+it was decided only the night before. You'll probably receive the
+official communication in a day or two."
+
+Collingwood was tremendously elated. "I knew we were better than
+Lakeview--but I was afraid they wouldn't realize it," he said. "Now
+we'll have to get ready and beat them. Anyway, if we can't do that, it
+will be the best kind of preparation for the St. John's game."
+
+The official communication arrived; Collingwood rushed with it to the
+bulletin board in the Study building and posted it for all eyes to see.
+The same day he posted the School eleven, as it would line up in that
+game.
+
+Westby was to be first substitute for Dennison at right half back.
+Westby had been playing a streaky game on the First Corinthians; on some
+days he was as brilliant a runner and tackler as there was in the
+School, and on other days he would lose interest and miss everything.
+
+If he was disappointed at the preference given to Dennison, he did not
+show it; in fact, that he appeared on the list as substitute seemed to
+fill him with elation. He had never taken football quite so seriously as
+some of the others--as Collingwood and Dennison, for example; and
+therefore only a moderate success in it was for him a matter of
+gratification.
+
+The training table was organized at once, but Westby was not admitted to
+it. There was not room for the substitutes; they were expected to do
+their own training. Westby was notoriously lax in that matter and had to
+be nagged constantly by Collingwood, whom he found some pleasure in
+teasing.
+
+He would secure some forbidden article of food and ostentatiously appear
+to be eating it with the greatest enjoyment until he caught
+Collingwood's eye; a large circular doughnut or a chocolate eclair
+delicately poised between his thumb and finger were his favorite
+instruments for torturing his captain's peace of mind. He would contrive
+to be seen just as he was on the point of taking the first bite; then he
+would reluctantly lay the tidbit down.
+
+"It's a hard life, this being a near athlete," he grumbled. "Sitting at
+a table with a lot of uncongenial pups like you fellows.--Mr. Upton,
+Blake's kicking me; make him quit, sir.--Not allowed to eat half the
+things the rest of you do, and not allowed either to get any of the
+training-table grub. Well, I never did think of self, so I can endure it
+better than most."
+
+The others jeered. But Westby, however he might complain, was faithful
+at practice and accepted good-naturedly his position upon the second
+eleven, and the hard battering to which every one on the second eleven
+was subjected.
+
+The day when he got round Morrill, the first eleven's left end, and
+scored a touchdown--the only one which in that week of practice the
+second eleven scored--brought him so much applause that he began really
+to think there might be a chance of his ousting Dennison from the
+regular position. When that notion entered his head he ceased to be
+facetious about the training; he became suddenly as serious as
+Collingwood himself. But in spite of that, he remained Dennison's
+substitute.
+
+The Saturday set for the game with the Harvard Freshmen was an Indian
+Summer day. In the early morning mist wreathed the low meadows and the
+edges of the pond; it seemed later to dissipate itself through all the
+windless air in haze. The distant hills were blue and faint, the elms in
+the soft sunlight that filtered down had a more golden glow.
+
+"Great day," was the salutation that one heard everywhere; "great day
+for the game."
+
+Now and then in his morning classes Irving's thoughts would wander,
+there would be a gentle rush of excitement in his veins. He would turn
+his mind firmly back to his work; he did not do any less well that day
+because his heart was singing happily.
+
+In three hours more--in two--in one--he was going to see Lawrence again; he
+wondered if he would find his brother much changed. Only two months had
+passed since they had parted; yet in that time how remote Lawrence had
+grown in Irving's eyes from the Lawrence of the Ohio farm!
+
+The bell announcing the noon recess rang; Irving dismissed his last
+class. He hurried down the stairs almost as madly as the Fourth Formers
+themselves; the train on which the Harvard Freshmen were coming was due
+ten minutes before; already Lawrence and the others must have started on
+the two-mile drive out to the School.
+
+In front of the Study building most of the older boys and many of the
+younger were congregated, awaiting the arrival of the visitors. Irving
+walked about among the groups impatiently, now and then looking at his
+watch. He passed Westby and Collingwood, who were standing together by
+the gate.
+
+"Pretty nearly time for them, Mr. Upton," said Westby. "Feeling nervous,
+sir?"
+
+There was more good nature in his smile than he had displayed towards
+Irving since the day of the track games.
+
+"A little," Irving admitted, and at that moment some one shouted, "Here
+they come!"
+
+Over the crest of the hill galloped four horses, drawing a long red
+barge crowded with boys. Collingwood climbed up on the gate-post.
+
+"Now, fellows," he said, "when they get here, give three times three for
+the Freshmen."
+
+The boys waited in silence. Irving strained his eyes, trying to
+distinguish the figures huddled together in the barge. The horses came
+down at a run, with a rattle of hoofs and harness; the driver
+flourished his whip over them spectacularly.
+
+"Now then, fellows!" cried Collingwood. "Three times three for the
+Freshmen!"
+
+And amidst the waving of caps as the cheers were given, Irving could see
+no one in the barge. Then when that cheer had subsided, one of the
+visitors stood up and took off his hat and shouted,--
+
+"Three times three for St. Timothy's! One--two--three!" The fellows in the
+barge sent up a vigorous, snappy cheer, and then overflowed at back and
+sides. In the confusion and the crowd, Irving was still straining his
+short-sighted eyes in a vain attempt to discover Lawrence.
+
+Suddenly he heard a shout,--"Hello, Irv!"--and there, a little way off,
+was Lawrence, laughing at him and struggling towards him through the
+throng. The boys understood and drew apart and let the two brothers
+meet.
+
+"It's great to see you again, Irv," said Lawrence, when he could reach
+and grasp his brother's hand; he looked at Irving with the same old
+loving humor in his eyes.
+
+"It's great to see you again, Lawrence," said Irving. He could not help
+being a little conscious and constrained, with so many eyes upon him.
+
+He tucked one hand in his brother's arm and with the other reached for
+Lawrence's bag. Lawrence laughed, and with hardly an effort detached it
+from Irving's grasp.
+
+"_You_ carry that, you little fellow! I guess not," he said.
+
+Some of the boys heard and smiled, and Lawrence threw back at them a
+humorous smile; Irving blushed. He led Lawrence away, towards the Upper
+School. The other Freshmen were being conducted in the same direction by
+Collingwood and his team.
+
+"Well," said Westby to Carroll in an outpouring of slang from the
+heart, "Kiddy's brother is certainly a peach of a good looker. I hope
+he'll bring him to lunch."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WESTBY IN THE GAME
+
+
+It was with satisfaction that Westby and Carroll saw Lawrence entering
+the dining-room with Irving. They had observed the long table spread in
+the common room of the Upper School, where the visiting team were to be
+entertained at luncheon, and had supposed therefore that they would have
+no chance of satisfying their curiosity about the master's brother.
+
+When Irving introduced Lawrence to them, Westby said,--
+
+"We hoped we were going to see you here, but we were afraid you might
+have to eat outside with your team."
+
+"Oh, I got special permission from the captain for this occasion," said
+Lawrence. "I'm afraid I'm depriving somebody of his seat," he added to
+Irving.
+
+"It's Caldwell--I arranged with him about it. He's gone to Mr. Randolph's
+table."
+
+"Besides, he's only a Fourth Former," said Westby.
+
+Lawrence laughed. "You're Sixth, I suppose?" Westby nodded. "Going to
+Harvard next year?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good for you. I'll tell you one thing; you couldn't have a better man
+to get you in than this brother of mine--if I do say it. He tutored me
+for Harvard--and I guess you've never had a worse blockhead, have you,
+Irv?"
+
+"Oh, you were all right in some things, Lawrence."
+
+"I'd like to know what. How I used to try your patience, though!"
+Lawrence chuckled, then turned and addressed the boys, especially Westby
+and Carroll, as they were the oldest. "Did any of you ever see him mad?"
+
+"Oh, surely never that," said Westby urbanely. "Irritated perhaps, but
+not mad--never lacking in self-control."
+
+Westby, thinking himself safe, ventured upon his humorous wink to Blake
+and the others who were grinning; Lawrence intercepted it and at once
+fixed Westby with a penetrating gaze.
+
+Westby colored and looked down; Lawrence held his eyes on him until
+Westby looked up and then, in even greater embarrassment under this
+prolonged scrutiny, down again. Then Lawrence turned to his brother.
+
+"Tell me, Irv," he said in a tone that simply brushed aside as
+non-existent everybody else at the table--just as if he and his brother
+were talking together alone, "what sort of kids do you have to look
+after in your dormitory, anyhow?"
+
+Irving's lip twitched with amusement; Westby, still scarlet, was looking
+at his plate. "Oh, a pretty good sort--but they're Sixth Formers, you
+know--not kids."
+
+"Pretty fresh, are they--trying to show off a good deal and be funny?"
+
+"Oh, one or two only; still, even they aren't bad."
+
+Lawrence paid no further attention to Westby. Now and then he spoke to
+Carroll and to Blake, but most of his conversation--and it dealt with the
+sort of college life about which boys liked to hear, and about which
+Irving had never been able to enlighten them--he addressed directly to
+his brother.
+
+Westby listened to it gloomily; there were many questions that he wanted
+to ask, but now he did not dare. Evidently Mr. Upton had warned his
+brother against him, had imparted to his brother his own dislike; that
+was why Lawrence had nipped so brutally his harmless, humorous allusion
+to the master's temper.
+
+As a matter of fact, Lawrence had had no previous knowledge whatever of
+Westby; Irving had always withstood his impulse to confide his troubles.
+He made now an effort to draw Westby forward and reinstate him in the
+conversation; he said,--
+
+"Lawrence, you and Westby here may come against each other this
+afternoon; Westby's first substitute for one of the half-backs on the
+School eleven."
+
+Lawrence said, "That's good," and gave Westby hardly a glance.
+
+After luncheon, walking down to the athletic field with Westby, Carroll
+said jeeringly,--
+
+"Well, Kiddy Upton's brother is no myth, is he, Wes?"
+
+At that Westby began to splutter. "Conceited chump! He makes me tired.
+Of all the fresh things--to sit up there and talk about the 'kids' in
+Kiddy's dormitory!"
+
+Carroll laughed in his silent, irritating way. "He certainly put you
+down and out--a good hard one. Why, even Kiddy was sorry for you."
+
+Westby went on fuming. "Sorry for me! I guess Kiddy had been whining to
+him about how I'd worried him. That's why the chump had it in for me."
+
+"Chump, Wes! Such a peach of a good looker?"
+
+"Oh, shut up. I don't care if he is good looking; he's fresher than
+paint."
+
+"He would think that was a queer criticism for you to make."
+
+Westby stalked on in angry silence. He was more wounded than he could
+let Carroll know. There was a side to him which he shrank from
+displaying,--the gentle, affectionate side of which Irving had had a
+glimpse when the boy was anxiously watching his young cousin Price in
+the mile run; and to this quality Lawrence's greeting of his brother had
+unconsciously appealed. Westby had stood by and heard his words, "_You_
+carry that, you little fellow!" had seen the humor in his eyes and the
+gentleness on his lips, and had felt something in his own throat.
+
+For all his affectation of worldliness and cynicism, the boy was a
+hero-worshiper at heart, and could never resist being attracted by a
+fine face and a handsome pair of eyes and a pleasant voice; Lawrence had
+in the first glance awakened an enthusiasm which was eager for near
+acquaintance. And now, although he talked so venomously against him, it
+was not Lawrence whom he reproached in his heart; it was himself.
+
+Why had he been unable to resist the impulse to be smart, to be funny,
+to be cheap? He might have known that a fellow like Lawrence would see
+through his remark and would resent it; he might have known that his
+silly, clownish wink could not escape Lawrence's keen eyes.
+
+So Westby walked on, gloomily reproaching himself, unconscious that at
+that very moment, walking a hundred yards behind, Irving was defending
+him.
+
+"A month ago, Lawrence, I'd have been glad to have you light on Westby
+as you did," he said. "But now I'm rather sorry."
+
+"Why so?"
+
+"Oh, he's had some hard luck lately, and--well, I don't know. Those
+encounters with a boy don't seem to me worth while."
+
+"You've got to suppress them when they're fresh like that," insisted
+Lawrence. "For a fellow to talk to you in that fresh way before a
+guest--and that guest your brother--I don't stand for it; that's all."
+
+"No, I don't either. Well, it doesn't matter much; reproof slides off
+Westby like water off a duck's back."
+
+They talked of other things then until Lawrence had to join his team and
+enter the athletic house with them to dress.
+
+Out on the field Irving mingled with the crowd, walked to and fro
+nervously, stopped to say only a word now to a boy, now to a master, and
+then passed on. It was foolish for him to be so excited, so tremulous,
+he told himself. Lawrence had parted from him with the same calmness
+with which he might have gone to prepare for bed. It was all the more
+foolish to be so excited, because the accessories to promote a
+preliminary excitement were lacking,--rivalry, partisanship; the visiting
+team had no supporters.
+
+The School had turned out to see the game, but there was no cheering, no
+thrill of expectation; the boys stood about and waited quietly, as they
+would before ordinary practice. It would be different in another week,
+when the St. John's team were sharing the athletic house with St.
+Timothy's, and the adherents of the two schools were ranged opposite
+each other, waving flags and hurling back and forth challenging
+cheers--cheers meant to inspirit the players while they dressed. But now
+Irving was aware that he in all the crowd was the only one whose nerves
+and muscles were quivering, whose voice might not be quite natural or
+quite under his control, whose heart was beating hard.
+
+If Lawrence should not play well this time--the first time he had ever
+seen him play! Or if anything should happen to him! Irving tramped back
+and forth, digging cold hands into his pockets.
+
+The Harvard team was the first to leave the athletic house; they broke
+through the line of spectators near where Irving stood and trotted out
+on the field. As they passed, he caught his brother's eye and waved to
+him. In the preliminary practice Irving watched him eagerly; with his
+light curly hair he was conspicuous, and as he was on the end of the
+line his movements were easy to follow. It seemed to Irving that he was
+the quickest and the readiest and the handsomest of them all.
+
+Out came St. Timothy's, and then there was a cheer. The two teams went
+rollicking and tumbling up and down the field for a few moments; then
+Collingwood and the Harvard captain met in the centre, Mr. Barclay
+tossed a coin, and the players went to their positions. Mr. Barclay blew
+a whistle; the game began.
+
+From that time on Irving trotted up and down the side lines, his heart
+twittering with pride and anxiety. After every scrimmage, after every
+tackle, he looked apprehensively for a curly light head; he was always
+glad when he saw it bob up safely out of a pile. Through all the press
+and conflict, he watched for it, followed it--just as, he thought in one
+whimsical moment, the French troopers of Macaulay's poem watched for the
+white plume of Navarre.
+
+If he had known even less about the game than he did, he must still have
+seen that for Harvard his brother and Ballard, the fullback, were
+playing especially well. Ballard, with his hard plunges through the
+centre and his long punts, was the chief factor in Harvard's offensive
+game; Lawrence was their ablest player on the defense.
+
+After the first ten minutes St. Timothy's made hardly an attempt to go
+round his end, but devoted their assaults to the centre and other wing
+of the line.
+
+If there was one thing for which Collingwood, the best football player
+in the School, had achieved a special reputation, it was the fleetness
+and dexterity with which he could run the ball back after punts. He was
+known as the best man in the back field that St. Timothy's had had in
+years. So when Ballard prepared for his first kick, the spectators
+looked on with composure.
+
+It was a fine kick; the ball went spiraling high and far, but
+Collingwood was under it as it fell, and Dennison was in front of him to
+protect him.
+
+Yet Lawrence, rushing down upon them, was too quick, too clever;
+Dennison's attempt to block him off was only a glancing one that
+staggered him for the fraction of an instant; and the ball had no sooner
+struck in Collingwood's arms than Lawrence launched himself and hurled
+the runner backwards.
+
+"Whew! What a fierce tackle!" ejaculated a boy near Irving admiringly.
+
+"I think Lou did well to hang on the ball," responded his friend.
+
+Irving heard; he went about greedily drinking in comments which that
+tackle had evoked. He found himself standing behind Westby and the other
+substitutes, who, wrapped in blankets, trailed up and down the field
+keeping pace with the progress of their team.
+
+"No!" Briggs, one of the substitutes, was saying. "Was that Kiddy
+Upton's brother? He's a whirlwind, isn't he?"
+
+"Looked to me as if he was trying to lay Lou Collingwood out," returned
+Westby sourly.
+
+At once Irving's cheeks flamed hot. He put out his hand and touched
+Westby's shoulder; the boy turned, and then the blood rushed into his
+cheeks too.
+
+"Was there anything wrong about that tackle, Westby?" Irving asked.
+
+"It just seemed to me he threw him pretty hard."
+
+Irving spoke to the three or four other substitutes standing by.
+
+"I don't know much about football; was there anything wrong with that
+tackle--that it should be criticised?"
+
+"It looked all right to me," said Briggs.
+
+"If there is any question about it, I shall want to talk to my brother--"
+
+"Oh, it was all right," Windom spoke up. "It was a good, clean, hard
+tackle--the right kind. Wes is always down on the enemy, aren't you,
+Wes?"
+
+Westby stood in sullen silence. The next play was started; St. Timothy's
+gained five yards, and in the movement of the crowd Irving and Westby
+were separated.
+
+For a few moments Irving's thoughts were diverted from his brother, and
+his joyous excitement was overshadowed by regret. He felt less indignant
+with Westby than sorry for him; he knew that the boy had repented of his
+hasty and intemperate words. If he would only come up and acknowledge
+it--so that he might be forgiven!
+
+Then Irving put Westby out of his mind. St. Timothy's had kicked;
+Ballard had recovered the ball for Harvard on St. Timothy's forty-yard
+line, and then Warren, the quarterback, had made a long pass straight
+into Lawrence's hands; Lawrence started to run; then, just as Chase and
+Baldersnaith were bearing down for the tackle, he stopped and hurled the
+ball forward and across to Newell, the other Harvard end.
+
+It sailed clear over the heads of the intervening players; Newell had
+been signaled to, had got down the field and was ready for it; three St.
+Timothy's players ran to get under the ball, but instead of blocking
+Newell off and merely trying to spoil his catch, they all tried to make
+the catch themselves; they all leaped for it. Newell was the quickest;
+he grabbed the ball out of the air and went down instantly, with the
+three others on him--but he was on St. Timothy's ten-yard line.
+
+It was a brilliant pass and a brilliant catch; St. Timothy's stood
+looking on disconsolate, while the Harvard players gathered exultantly
+for the line-up. Three rushes through tackle and centre and one run
+round Lawrence's end carried the ball across St. Timothy's line for a
+touchdown. Ballard kicked the goal.
+
+There was no more scoring that half. In the second half St. Timothy's
+kicked off; Harvard got the ball and set about rushing it back up the
+field. They had gained ten yards and had carried the ball forty yards
+from their own goal, when they lost possession of it on a fumble. The
+spectators cheered, and began shouting,--
+
+"Touchdown, St. Timothy's, touchdown!"
+
+There was more shouting when, with Collingwood interfering for him,
+Dennison broke through the Harvard left tackle and made fifteen yards.
+Then Collingwood made a quarter-back kick which Morrill captured on the
+Harvard five-yard line.
+
+The St. Timothy's cheering broke out afresh, Scarborough leading it.
+Irving joined in the cheer; he was glad to see Collingwood and the
+others making gains--provided they did not make them round Lawrence's
+end.
+
+On the five-yard line the Harvard defense stiffened. On the third down
+the ball was two yards from the goal line.
+
+"Everybody get into this next play--everybody!" cried Collingwood
+appealingly; he went about slapping his men on the back. "Now
+then--twelve, thirty-seven, eighteen."
+
+There was a surge forward, a quivering, toppling mass that finally fell
+indecisively. No one knew whether the ball had been pushed across or
+not. No one wanted to get up for fear it might be pushed one way or the
+other in the shifting.
+
+Barclay and Randolph, who was umpire, began summarily dragging the
+players from the pile, hauling at an arm or a leg; at last Dennison was
+revealed at the bottom hugging the ball--and it was just across the line.
+
+Then all the St. Timothy's players capered about for joy, and the
+spectators shouted as triumphantly as if it had been the St. John's
+game; the Harvard team ranged themselves quietly under the goal.
+Dennison kicked the goal, and the score was tied.
+
+For the next ten minutes neither team succeeded in making much progress.
+St. Timothy's were playing more aggressively than in the first half;
+twice Kenyon, the Harvard halfback, started to skirt round Lawrence's
+end, but both times Baldersnaith, the St. Timothy's tackle, broke
+through and dragged him down. Baldersnaith, Dennison, Morrill, and
+Collingwood were especially distinguishing themselves for the School.
+
+At last, after one of the scrimmages, Dennison got up, hobbled a moment,
+and then sat down again. Collingwood hurried over to him anxiously.
+
+"Wrenched my ankle," said Dennison. "I guess I'll be all right in a
+moment."
+
+Waring, the Fifth Former, who acted as water-carrier, ran out on the
+field with his pail and sponge. Mr. Barclay examined the ankle, then
+turned to Collingwood.
+
+"I think he could go on playing," he said. "But if I were you I'd take
+him out now and save him for the St. John's game. You don't want to risk
+his being laid up for that."
+
+Dennison protested, but Collingwood agreed with Mr. Barclay. He turned
+and called, "Westby"; and as Westby ran out, Dennison picked himself up
+and limped to the side-line.
+
+It was Harvard's ball in the middle of the field. Though it was only the
+first down, Ballard dropped back to kick.
+
+"Now then, Wes, hang on to it," Collingwood cried as he and Westby
+turned and ran to their places in the back field.
+
+Westby had a faint hope that the kick might go to Collingwood; he didn't
+feel quite ready yet to catch the ball; he wanted to be given a chance
+to steady down first. But he knew that was exactly what the Harvard
+quarterback intended to prevent.
+
+The ball came sailing, high and twisting; he had to run back to get
+under it. Then he planted himself, but the ball as it came down was
+slanted off by the wind, so that he had at the last to make a sudden
+dash for it; it struck and stuck, hugged to his breast, and then over
+he went with a terrific shock, which jarred the ball from his grasp.
+
+Irving had seen the play with mingled joy and sorrow. It was his brother
+who had made the tackle; it was Newell, the other Harvard end, who had
+dropped on the fumbled ball.
+
+Westby and Lawrence got to their feet together; Lawrence's eyes were
+dancing with triumphant expectation; the ball was Harvard's now on St.
+Timothy's twenty-yard line. And Westby went dully to his position, aware
+of the accusing silence of the crowd.
+
+"All right, Wes; we'll stop them," Collingwood said to him cheerfully.
+
+Westby did his best and flung himself desperately into the thick of
+every scrimmage. The whole team did its best, but Harvard would not be
+denied. By short rushes they fought their way down, down, and at last
+across the goal line--and the game was won. There were only three minutes
+left to play, and in that time neither side scored.
+
+When Mr. Barclay blew his whistle, the Harvard team assembled and
+cheered St. Timothy's, and then St. Timothy's assembled and cheered
+Harvard. After that the players walked to the athletic house, beset on
+the way by the curious or by friends.
+
+Westby was the victim of condolences, well meant but ill-timed; he
+responded curtly when Blake, pushing near, said to him, "It was awfully
+hard luck, Wes--but after that you played a mighty good game." He wished
+nothing but to be let alone, he wished no sympathy. He knew that he had
+lost the game; that was enough for him.
+
+In the dressing-room he sat on a bench next to Lawrence Upton and began
+putting on his clothes in silence. The other boys were talking all round
+him, commenting cheerfully on the plays and on the future prospects of
+the teams.
+
+Lawrence refrained from discussing the game at all; he asked Westby what
+St. Timothy's boys he knew at Harvard, and where he expected to room
+when he went there; he tried to be friendly. But Westby repelled his
+efforts, answering in a sullen voice. At last Lawrence finished
+dressing; he picked up his bag and turned to Westby.
+
+"Look here," he said, and there was a twinkle in his eyes. "I'm going to
+be at Harvard the next three years; we're likely to meet. Must a little
+hard luck make hard feeling?"
+
+"Oh, there's no hard feeling," Westby assured him.
+
+"Glad to hear it. Good-by." Lawrence held out his hand.
+
+"You're not going to stay for supper?"
+
+"No. I'm going back with the team on the six o'clock train--hour exam on
+Monday. My brother's waiting for me outside; I want to see him for a
+while before we start. I hope to come up here some time again--hope I'll
+see you."
+
+"Thanks. I hope so. Good-by."
+
+The words were all right, but Westby spoke them mechanically. It had
+flashed upon him that Lawrence would now learn from his brother the
+charge that he had so unjustly and hotly made. And of a sudden he wished
+he could prevent that. He would have been glad to go to Irving and
+retract it all and apologize; anything to keep Lawrence from hearing of
+it.
+
+Why had he been so slow in dressing--why hadn't he hurried on his clothes
+and gone out ahead of Lawrence and made it all right with Irving!
+
+With a wild thought that it might not yet be too late, he flung on his
+coat and rushed from the building--only to see Irving and Lawrence
+walking together across the football field.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MASTER AND BOY
+
+
+For several days Westby's unnatural quiet was attributed to his
+sensitiveness over the error which had given the Harvard Freshmen their
+victory. It was most noticeable at Irving's table; there his bubbling
+spirits seemed permanently to have subsided; he wrapped himself in
+silence and gloom. His manner towards Irving was that of haughty
+displeasure. Carroll was at a loss to understand it and questioned him
+about it one day.
+
+"Oh, I'm just tired of him--tired of hearing his everlasting brag about
+his brother," Westby said sharply.
+
+"He bragged so little about him once you wouldn't believe he had a
+brother," replied Carroll. "I don't see that he brags much more about
+him now."
+
+"Well, I see it, and it annoys me," retorted Westby rudely. "I think
+I'll see if I can have my seat changed. I'd rather sit at Scabby's
+table."
+
+Mr. Randolph, however, the head of the Upper School, refused to grant
+Westby's petition.
+
+"You don't give any special reason," he said. "You have friends at Mr.
+Upton's table; you ought to be contented to stay there. What's the
+matter? Are you having friction with some one?"
+
+"I should be better satisfied if I were at Scarborough's table," said
+Westby.
+
+"We can't gratify every individual preference or whim," replied Mr.
+Randolph.
+
+He asked Irving if he knew of any reason why Westby should be
+transferred and told him that the boy had asked for the change.
+
+"Oh, it's just between him and me," said Irving wearily. "We don't get
+on."
+
+"Then you'd like to have him go, too?"
+
+"No, I wouldn't. When he's his natural self, I like him. And I haven't
+yet given up the hope that some time we'll get together."
+
+He met Westby's coldness with coolness. But on the morning of the St.
+John's game, after breakfast, he drew Westby aside. He held a letter in
+his hand.
+
+"Westby," he said, "I don't know that you will care to hear it, but I
+have a message for you from my brother."
+
+Westby cast down his eyes and reddened. "I don't suppose I shall care to
+hear it," he said with a humility that amazed Irving. "But go ahead--give
+it to me, Mr. Upton."
+
+"I don't quite understand--he just asked me to say to you that he hopes
+you'll get your chance in the game to-day. He felt you were rather cut
+up by your hard luck in the Freshman game."
+
+"Didn't he--isn't he--" Westby hesitated for an uncomfortable moment, then
+blurted out, "Isn't he sore at me, Mr. Upton?"
+
+"What for?"
+
+"For saying about him what I did--about his trying to lay Collingwood out
+when he tackled."
+
+"He doesn't know you said it."
+
+"Oh! Didn't you tell him?"
+
+"No. The criticism was unjust--there was no use in repeating it."
+
+"It was unjust." Westby had lowered his voice. "I am very much ashamed,
+Mr. Upton."
+
+"That's all right," said Irving. He took Westby's hand. "I hope too
+you'll get your chance in the game."
+
+"Thank you." Westby spoke humbly. "I hope if I do, I won't make a mess
+of it again."
+
+That game was far different in color and feeling from the one with the
+Freshmen on the Saturday before. Long before it began the boys of St.
+John's with their blue banners and flags and the boys of St. Timothy's
+with their red were ranged on opposite sides of the field, hurling
+defiant, challenging cheers across at one another; for St. Timothy's a
+band, in which Scarborough beat the drum and was director, paraded back
+and forth; the little boys were already hopping up and down and
+trembling and squealing with excitement; already their little voices
+were almost gone.
+
+Irving knew that to himself alone was this occasion one of less moving
+interest than that of the preceding Saturday; as he stood and looked on
+at the waving red and the waving blue and later at the struggle that was
+being waged in the middle of the field, he wondered how on this
+afternoon that other game between the red and the blue was going, and
+how Lawrence was acquitting himself.
+
+Certainly it could not, he thought, be any more close, more hotly
+contested, than this of the two rival schools. All through the first
+half they fought each other without scoring.
+
+Once St. Timothy's had got down to St. John's fifteen-yard line, but
+then had been unable to go farther, and Dennison had missed by only a
+few feet his try for a goal from the field.
+
+Early in the second half St. Timothy's met with misfortune. Dennison was
+laid out by a hard tackle; when at last he got to his feet, he limped
+badly. Louis Collingwood took him by the arm and walked round with him;
+Dennison was arguing, protesting. But Collingwood led him towards the
+side-line, patting him on the back, and called "Westby!"
+
+The spectators cheered the injured player who came off so reluctantly;
+then they cheered Westby as he ran out upon the field. Irving was near
+the group of substitutes when Dennison hobbled in.
+
+"Hurt much, Denny?" asked Briggs.
+
+"No--just that same old ankle--hang it all!" Dennison slipped into a
+blanket and lowered himself painfully to the ground.
+
+Irving's eyes were upon Westby; he hoped that this time the boy would
+not fail. Westby had an opportunity now to steady his nerves; it was St.
+Timothy's ball and only the first down. Collingwood gave the signal;
+Irving watched closely, saw Westby take the ball on the pass and dive
+into the line. In a moment all the St. Timothy's eleven seemed to be
+behind him, hurling him through, and St. Timothy's on the side-lines
+waved and shouted, for Westby had gained five yards.
+
+Collingwood called on him again; he gained three yards more. Irving
+shouted with the rest; he turned to Mr. Randolph and said,--
+
+"That ought to give Westby confidence."
+
+"I hope it does; he's so erratic," Mr. Randolph answered. "If only he's
+starting in now on one of his brilliant streaks!"
+
+Lane, the Fifth Form halfback, tried to go round the end on the next
+play, but made no gain. Then Westby was driven again at left tackle, but
+he got only two yards.
+
+Collingwood gave the signal for a criss-cross; Lane took the ball, and
+passed it to Westby, who was already on the run. Westby got clear of the
+St. John's end, and seemed well started for a brilliant run; but their
+halfback chased him across the field and finally, by a tremendous diving
+tackle, pulled him down. As it was, Westby had made so much of a gain
+that the distance had to be measured; he had failed by only a few inches
+to make the required amount, and the ball went to St. John's on their
+thirty-five-yard line.
+
+St. John's made two ineffectual rushes; then their fullback, Warner,
+prepared to kick. Westby and Collingwood raced to their places in the
+back field.
+
+There was a tense moment on both sides; then Warner sent the ball flying
+high and far. It was Westby's ball; the St. John's ends and one of their
+tackles came down fast under the kick.
+
+Irving, with his heart in his throat, watched Westby; the boy, with both
+hands raised, was wabbling about, stepping to the right, to the left,
+backward, forward; the ends were there in front of him, crouched and
+waiting; Collingwood tried to fend them off, but the big tackle rushed
+in and upset him, and at the same instant the ball fell into Westby's
+arms--and slipped through them.
+
+One of the ends dropped on the ball, rolled over with it a couple of
+times, rolled up on his feet again and was off with it for the St.
+Timothy's goal; he had carried it to the twenty-yard line when
+Collingwood pulled him down. St. John's were streaming down their side
+line, shrieking and waving their blue flags; St. Timothy's stood dazed
+and silent.
+
+"Oh, butterfingers!" cried Briggs, stamping his foot.
+
+"Just like Wes--he wouldn't make a football player in a thousand years!"
+exclaimed Windom.
+
+Irving heard the comments; he heard other comments. If St. John's should
+score now! He hoped they wouldn't; he was sorry enough for Westby. But
+St. John's did score, by a series of furious centre rushes, and their
+fullback kicked the goal. And when, fifteen minutes later, the referee
+blew his whistle, the game was St. John's, by that score of six to
+nothing.
+
+Irving could understand why some of the St. Timothy's boys had tears in
+their eyes. It was pretty trying even for him to see the triumphant
+visitors rush upon the field, toss the members of their team upon their
+shoulders, and bear them away exultantly to the athletic house, yelling
+and flaunting their flags, while the St. Timothy's players walked
+disconsolately and silently behind them.
+
+It was trying afterwards to stand by and see those blue-bedecked
+invaders form into long-linked lines and dance their serpentine of
+victory on St. Timothy's ground. It was trying to stand by and watch
+barge after barge bedecked with blue roll away while the occupants
+shouted and waved their hats--and left the field to silence and despair.
+
+But still St. Timothy's did not abandon the scene of their defeat. They
+waited loyally in front of the athletic house to welcome and console
+their team when it should emerge. Collingwood led the players out, and
+the crowd gave them a good one.
+
+Collingwood said, with a smile, though in an unsteady voice, "Much
+obliged, fellows," and waved his hand.
+
+Then the crowd dispersed; slowly they all walked away.
+
+That evening, as Irving was about to leave his room to go down to
+supper, a boy brought him a telegram. It was from his brother; it said,--
+
+"We licked them, twelve to six. Feeling fine. Lawrence."
+
+At the table Irving tried not to appear too happy. He apologized for his
+state of mind and told the boys the cause; those who, like Carroll, were
+Harvard sympathizers derived a little cheer from the news, and the
+others seemed indifferent to it. Westby was not there. The training
+table was vacant, and at the other tables were empty chairs where
+substitutes on the team had sat. Mrs. Barclay was entertaining the
+football players.
+
+"I wish I was breaking training there," said Carroll to Irving; "she has
+the most wonderful food."
+
+In the discussion of the game there seemed to be little disposition to
+blame Westby.
+
+"After all," said Blake, "he was only a sub, and he never got so very
+much practice in handling punts. I don't think fellows ought to be sore
+on him."
+
+"No, he's just sore on himself," said Carroll.
+
+"It's hard luck, anyhow; except for that one thing he played mighty
+well."
+
+The mail boy passed, leaving a letter for Irving. It was in his uncle's
+handwriting; and his uncle never wrote to him; it was his aunt who kept
+him posted on all the news of home. Did this mean that she was ill--or
+that some disaster had befallen?
+
+Irving determined that if it was bad news, he would reserve it until he
+should be alone; he put the letter in his pocket and waited anxiously
+for the meal to end.
+
+When he was again in his room, he tore open the envelope and read this
+letter:--
+
+     DEAR IRVING,--I have not helped you and Lawrence much financially. I
+     thought it would do you and him no harm to try out your own
+     resources. But I always meant to give you a lift whenever it should
+     seem wise, and whenever a lift could be most advantageously
+     arranged.
+
+     Your father was never able to lay up any money; his work was of a
+     kind that did not permit that. But he would always have shared with
+     me whatever he had. I have had it in mind to do the same by his
+     children. I have sold half the farm--the western half--your half and
+     Lawrence's. There is four thousand dollars in cash for each of you,
+     and four thousand on a mortgage for each of you at six per cent.
+     You had better draw out of school-teaching as soon as possible and
+     study law--if that is still what you most want to do.
+
+     Your aunt is well and sends her love. We are both looking forward
+     to seeing you and Lawrence at Christmas.
+
+     Your affectionate uncle,
+
+     ROBERT UPTON.
+
+A flood of warm emotion poured through Irving; his eyes filled. He had
+sometimes thought his uncle selfish and narrow--and all the time he had
+been working towards this!
+
+Irving wrote his reply; he wrote also to Lawrence. Then he took his
+letters down to the Study building, to post them so that they might go
+out with the night mail. On his way he passed the Barclay house; it was
+all brightly lighted, the sound of laughter and of gay boy voices rang
+out through the open windows; the notes of a piano then subdued them,
+and there burst out a chorus in the sonorous measured sweep of "Wacht am
+Rhein."
+
+Irving stood for a few moments and listened; his exultant heart was
+responsive to that shouted song. Fellows who could sing like that, he
+thought, must have trodden disappointment under heel.
+
+An hour later, when Irving sat in his room, the boys who had been
+entertained at the Barclays' came tramping up the stairs. They were
+still singing, but they stopped their song before they entered the
+dormitory. Irving met them to say good-night--first Dennison and then
+Morrill and then Louis Collingwood.
+
+"Have you heard the new song Wes has got off, Mr. Upton?" asked
+Dennison.
+
+"No, what's that?"
+
+"Hit it up, Wes."
+
+"Oh, choke it off." Collingwood grinned uneasily.
+
+"Go on, Wes,--strike up. We'll all join in."
+
+"Wait till I get my banjo--you don't mind, do you, Mr. Upton?"
+
+"No. I'd like to hear it."
+
+So Westby hastened to his room and returned, bearing the instrument; and
+all the other boys gathered round, except Collingwood, who stood
+sheepishly off at one side. Westby twanged the strings and then to the
+accompaniment began,--
+
+    "Across the broad prairies he came from the west,
+    With fire in his eye and with brawn on his chest;
+    His arms they were strong and his legs they were fleet;
+    There was none could outstrip his vanishing feet;
+    We made him our captain--what else could we do?
+    You ask who he is? Do I hear you say, 'Who?'"
+
+Then they all came in on the chorus:--
+
+    "He is our Lou, he is our honey-Lou,
+      He is our pride and joy;
+    He is our Loo-loo, he is our Loo-loo,
+      He is our Lou-Lou boy."
+
+"Silly song!" exclaimed Collingwood with disgust.
+
+"Wes made it up just this evening, at Mrs. Barclay's," said Dennison.
+"We were all singing, and after a while Wes edged in to the piano and
+sprung this on us. Don't you think it's a good song?"
+
+"So good that I wish I could furnish inspiration for another," said
+Irving.
+
+Westby joined in the laugh and looked pleased.
+
+"Good-night, everybody," said Collingwood; he walked away to his room.
+The others followed, all except Westby, to whom Irving said,--
+
+"Will you wait a moment? I should like to have a little talk with you."
+He led the boy into his room and pushed forward his armchair.
+
+Westby seated himself with his banjo across his knees and looked at
+Irving wonderingly.
+
+"The fellows seem pretty cheerful after their defeat, don't they?" said
+Irving.
+
+A shadow crossed Westby's face. "They've been very decent about it," he
+answered.
+
+Irving put his hand on Westby's arm.
+
+"Do you know why they're so decent? It's because you've cheered them up
+yourself. Who was the fellow, Westby, that said he didn't care who might
+make his country's laws if only he might write its songs?"
+
+[Illustration: A SHADOW CROSSED WESTBY'S FACE]
+
+"Oh--no--that's got nothing to do with me."
+
+"You needn't care who makes the touchdowns. Your job is to do something
+else. It's no discredit to you if because of lack of training or
+adaptability, you can't hang on to a ball at a critical moment. There
+are plenty of fellows who can do that.--I suppose you don't see it yet
+yourself--but you know the message my brother sent you? I shall tell him
+that you got your chance to-day--and took it."
+
+"I don't see how."
+
+"Well, I don't know how you managed it exactly. But I could see when
+those fellows came upstairs just now that you stood better with them
+than you ever had done before. It must have been because you showed the
+right spirit--and I know by experience, Westby, that it's awfully hard to
+show the right spirit when you're down."
+
+There was silence for a few moments.
+
+"I guess I've made it hard for you," said Westby at last, in a low
+voice. "You're different from what I thought you were."
+
+Irving's low laugh of exultation sprang from the heart. "Maybe I am--and
+maybe you were right about me, too. A fellow changes. A month ago, I was
+wondering what use there could ever be in my studying law--trying to
+practise, mixing with men--when I couldn't hold my own with a handful of
+boys. For some reason, I don't feel that way any longer.--Well, that's
+about all I wanted to say to you, Westby." He stood up. "Good-night."
+
+Westby rose and shook hands. "Good-night, sir."
+
+He passed out and quietly closed the door. Irving stood at the window,
+gazing beyond the shadowy trees to the dim silver line of the pond,
+touched now by the moonlight. There was a knock on the door.
+
+"Come in," Irving called.
+
+It was Westby again.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Upton," he said, "I meant to tell you--I heard at Mr. Barclay's
+how the Freshman game came out; I wish, if you would, you'd send your
+brother my congratulations."
+
+"Thank you, I will."
+
+"Good-night, sir."
+
+"Good-night."
+
+The door closed softly. Irving turned again and pressed his forehead
+against the window-pane with a smile. It was a smile not merely of
+satisfaction because he had won his way at last, though he was not
+indifferent to that; he was happy too because this night he felt he had
+come close to Westby.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Jester of St. Timothy's, by
+Arthur Stanwood Pier
+
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