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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24735-8.txt b/24735-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd67943 --- /dev/null +++ b/24735-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6715 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Stanford Stories, by Charles K. Field and Will H. Irwin + +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: Stanford Stories + Tales of a Young University + +Author: Charles K. Field + Will H. Irwin + +Release Date: March 2, 2008 [EBook #24735] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STANFORD STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +STANFORD STORIES + +TALES OF A +YOUNG UNIVERSITY + +BY + +CHARLES K. FIELD + [CAROLUS AGER] + +AND + +WILL H. IRWIN + +_ILLUSTRATED_ + + + +NEW YORK +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY +1900 + +Copyright, 1900, by +Doubleday, Page & Co. + + +BLANCHARD PRESS, NEW YORK. + + + * * * * * + + +DEDICATION. + + + "To the newest born of the Sisters, + At the end of the race's march, + In her quaint, old Spanish garment, + Pillar and tile and arch; + Awaiting the age that hallows, + Her face to the coming morn-- + Whose scholars still walk in her cloisters, + Whose martyrs are yet unborn." + + + "We scatter down the four wide ways, + Clasp hands and part, but keep + The power of the golden days + To lull our care asleep, + And dream, while our new years we fill + With sweetness from those four, + That we are known and loved there still, + Though we come back no more." + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +These are stories of the University as it was before the era of new +buildings. While the attempt has been made to create, in character, +incident and atmosphere, a picture of Stanford life, the stories, as +stories, are fiction, with the exception of "Pocahontas, Freshman," and +"Boggs' Election Feed," which were suggested by local occurrences, and +"One Commencement," which is mainly fact. The original draft of "His +Uncle's Will" was printed in _The Sequoia_ with the title "The Fate of +Freshman Hatch." + +It may be necessary to add that, in the endeavor to present the actual +life of the University, it has seemed quite inadvisable to edit the +conversation of the characters from the standpoint of the English +purist. Since, however, those readers who boggle over slang could hardly +be much interested in the Undergraduate, it is sufficient merely to call +attention to the point. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + A Midwinter Madness, 3 + + Pocahontas, Freshman, 29 + + His Uncle's Will, 55 + + The Initiation of Dromio, 77 + + The Substituted Fullback, 91 + + Two Pioneers and an Audience, 119 + + For the Sake of Argument, 135 + + An Alumni Dinner, 171 + + Boggs' Election Feed, 185 + + In the Dark Days, 207 + + Crossroads, 223 + + A Song Cycle and a Puncture, 249 + + One Commencement, 265 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAST THE LONELY REDWOOD TREE TO THE UNIVERSITY, _Frontispiece_ + + ... TOWARD THE LA HONDA REDWOODS, _Facing page_ 148 + + A STROLL IN THE MOONLIT QUAD, PLANNED TO INTEREST THE CROWD + AT THE TUESDAY EVENING LECTURE, _Facing page_ 154 + + ... THEN THE LULL DURING CLASS, _Facing page_ 200 + + + + +A MIDWINTER MADNESS. + + + + +STANFORD STORIES. + + + + +A Midwinter Madness. + + Genius has been defined as a capacity for taking pains. + + +When a college man's good fairy makes her first call at his cradle, she +may bestow upon him the football instinct, with muscles to match; no +fairy could do more. But if she bumps up against Heredity, and is +powerless to give him the supreme gift, she may compensate for it in a +degree by leaving the kind of larynx and tympanum used in the Glee Club. +Failing this, she may render next best service by throwing a mandolin in +his way and bewitching his parents into paying for lessons. Some twenty +years later, behind the enchanted scenes of a specially hired theater, +or on the polished floor of society's inner temple, he may think of the +fairy kindly. + +Doubtless, all theatrical life means drudgery, but the Christmas tour of +the Glee and Mandolin clubs is drudgery amidst bowers of roses. The +hard-working professional would call it play; yet, even in this gilded +stage-life, there is the common affliction of being forced to appear at +every concert, and in places you don't care about--unless, of course, +you happen to be seriously ill. + +The Clubs had just done an abbreviated stunt for the Los Angeles High +School the afternoon before Christmas. The occasion was a big ad., but +they ripped matters through in a hurry, because the social event of the +trip came that afternoon--Lillian Arnold's reception at her home on +Figuerroa Street. + +At Hacienda Arnold there is running water along the garden copings, and +the grounds are large. It was bud-time, and the heavy fragrance of the +orange blossoms mingled with the bitter-almond smell of oleanders. Miss +Arnold served her refreshments on the lawn, and the girls looked peachy +in plume-laden hats and filmy organdies. The day was rather warm for +December. To this out-door reception came the prettiest girl in Los +Angeles, Dolores Payson; her full name, she confided to Cecil Van Dyke +that evening with a slight but captivating roll of her Andalusian eyes +and r's, was Dolores Ynez Teresa Payson. Van Dyke was the only man on +the trip who had thought to bring his summer togs, and he looked very +swell. Van played first mandolin and was notoriously susceptible. It is +down in the Club annals that she caught his game at first sight. + +Had she been given to genealogical investigation, the name Van Dyke +might have recalled to this descendant of many hidalgos that foggy +battle-field in the Netherlands on which her ancestor and his took +pot-shots at each other with the primitive cross-bow. Motley records +that on that day far-gone Holland laid low the Spaniard. The present +historian is forced to chronicle the final triumph of Spain. The only +bow used in this last encounter was in the hands of a mythological +person whose existence is doubted only by scoffers. + +They tried a dance or two in the crowded rooms, they strolled out into +the gardens, they ate ices under the roses in a secluded arbor. The +place, the time, the air had their influence on Van Dyke. He was from +Montana, where the magnolias do not shed their waxen petals at +Christmas, and the gold-of-Ophir roses sternly refuse to leaf until the +Fourth of July. + +Perhaps he might have withstood all the seductive charms of the hour if +he had not escorted Dolores home and essayed to bid her good-bye. There +was a great clump of flaming poinsettia at the Payson gate. Dolores was +dark, with a rich southern complexion; her dress was white. So she stood +against the poinsettia. That is why there is more to this story. + +Van Dyke meditated as he went into town. She was the finest girl he had +ever met. It was a hard graft, this playing one day in a live town where +one could meet charming people, and being forced to take the train next +morning for some uninteresting country place where they would have to +lounge around a cheap hotel until concert time. Why couldn't the manager +get up a schedule that would give them a day or so longer in a place +like Los Angeles? This making a college trip with the sole idea of +money-getting was degrading. He, for one, was willing enough to pay his +share of the extra expense. + +On his way he stopped at a florist's. It was a habit he had acquired +under similar circumstances. He was puzzled to know just what to send in +a land where the highways and hedges run riot with flowers, but he +finally selected some wonderful orchids of delicate lavender and mauve. +Purposely, he put no card with them, feeling that she would guess the +sender. + +He got into his dress clothes in rather an ungracious humor. Pomona was +the next place, a fruit town further south. Oh, it was too bad! Well, at +least he would see her again at the concert that night. He was grateful +for this much. Her seat was on an aisle, she told him; he would be able +to speak to her during the intermission; more than this, she had said, +in her best convent manner, that he might ride home with her papa and +mamma afterwards. + +Still, this was an unsatisfactory way of carrying on an affair of the +sort, especially when it was the first really serious one he had ever +had. Clean out of Van's mind had faded the memory of a Montana cow-girl, +a San Francisco actress, a senior in the Lambda Mu sorority, a----but +space forbids. He mussed three ties. Freshmen are petulant things. + +Perkins, who led the Mandolin Club, joshed him at dinner. + +"What's the matter, my boy; didn't you have a good time this afternoon?" + +"Of course he didn't," answered a guitar man. "You must have noticed his +bored expression all through; that is, when you saw him at all." + +"That was merely the blasé look that comes with four months at the +Youngest and Best," said "Cap." Smith. "The Freshman was happy on his +little inside because he was so well got up. He really looked the part; +now he's in ordinary clothes, like a common strolling player, and he +feels cross." + +"No," growled Van Dyke, "I've caught cold or something." + +"Oh," said Phillips, the Glee Club leader. He took up his table fork and +bit the end; holding it to his ear he gave the table a starting chord, +and they hummed "Ma Onliest One," while Van grew red, and the rest of +the dining-room stopped to listen. + +Dolores Payson sat in an orchestra seat and smiled up at the immaculate +Mr. Van Dyke, above the only bunch of orchids in the theatre. He came to +chat with her during the interval between "La Czarina" and "Schneider's +Band." She was doubly guarded by her father on one side and her mother +on the other. It was a way they had. She introduced him demurely with an +adorable little wave of her black fan. He wondered if, should he quit +college right away, he could get a job which would enable him to support +a wife. He looked at the placid, olive-skinned mother, not yet old +enough to be very fat, and decided that he could; his glance wandered to +the angular, sharp-featured American father, and he was sure he +couldn't. + +Van could not remember ever having seen such great, dark liquid eyes as +now melted into his. It seemed hard not to behold them again for a whole +week. Hard? It was impossible. It was dreadful to leave her for the +little time while the mandolin club was on the stage. On his way up the +aisle his freshman brain was seized and overmastered by a brilliant +idea; he almost stopped to pat himself on the shoulder. + +Going into one of the dressing rooms, he sank dejectedly on a chair and +pressed his hand to his forehead. Perkins, gathering in his musicians +for the next piece, found him there. + +"Come along, Freshie." + +The first mandolin rose slowly. + +"What's the matter?" asked the leader. + +"Oh, nothing," said the other, "I'll be all right." + +After the piece he went back to the dressing-room. + +"Encore!" cried Perkins, rushing in. + +"I can't help it," said Van, in a contracted tone, "I can't go on." + +"Why not?" demanded Perkins. + +"I'm in awful pain, Ted," pleaded Van. "Something I've eaten, I guess. I +can hardly stand up straight." + +"Oh, rats!" answered Perkins sympathetically, and tore out again. + +Van took his coat and mandolin and disappeared. Between numbers he came +in and slipped down the aisle to the Paysons' seats. + +"Will you excuse me, Miss Payson? I can't go home with you after the +concert. I'm awfully sorry, but I feel pretty sick and I'm going back to +the hotel now." + +"Oh, what is it?" Dolores asked, and her mother leaned forward with +polite interest. + +Van smiled weakly. + +"Nothing serious, probably," he said. "Don't worry, please. I won't say +good-bye," he added, taking Dolores' hand, "because if I _have_ to stay +over to-morrow I shall try to see you in the morning." + +"Oh, I hope you'll be better, and I shall look for you." + +Then Mason came out to sing, and Van left with a hurried good-night. The +streets were full of Christmas shoppers. At the first drug store he +bought some Jamaica ginger; then he went to the hotel and slid into bed, +leaving the lights on. + +After the concert Perkins did not go to the café with the rest; he, too, +hastened back to the hotel. + +"I'll bet he's at the Payson ranch this minute," he thought, as he made +for Van's room, but the sick musician was lying on his face, breathing +heavily. + +"Well, what's the matter, anyway?" said Perkins, his suspicions fading. + +"I don't know," groaned Van. "It came on all of a sudden at the theatre. +The pain is here on my right side. Gee whiz, it knocks me out!" + +"Shan't I get a doctor?" asked the leader. "What do you think it is?" + +"Of course," moaned the sufferer, "it may be appendicitis,--I don't +think that could hurt more,--but it can hardly be anything like that. +I've taken the ginger, and it will set me up, probably." + +"You ought to have a doctor look at you, though. It's dangerous to put +it off," urged Perkins. + +"No," said Van. "I'll stick it out to-night, and if I'm not better +to-morrow, why, you may get one. Never mind me, Ted. Where is the gang?" + +"They're all down in the Grotto." + +"Go on and join them; don't stay here, it isn't necessary. I'll be all +right, I say, and I can ring if I'm not. Come in in the morning, won't +you?" + +"Sure. The train goes at ten-fifteen, you know. We can't get along +without you very well." + +"Oh, I'll be fit in the morning. So long, old man." + +"Good-night," and Perkins shut the door. + +The Freshman lay still awhile, then got up and, smiling broadly, turned +out the lights and tumbled back to sleep. + +Meanwhile Perkins joined the men at the restaurant. + +"Van Dyke is sick," he said. "I've just been up in his room." + +"What's the matter?" + +"We don't know. He's afraid it's appendicitis." + +"I'll tell you what it is," said Mason, the baritone; "it's heart +trouble. I wouldn't believe that man Van under a triple oath, if there +were a skirt in the case." + +"You won't have to search far in this case," laughed a deep bass voice +behind a cool stein. + +"Oh, I don't think so," protested Perkins; "he looked bad, bad. I think +it's square enough." + +"Don't you believe him a minute. I'll bet it's a fake, pure and simple." + +"He couldn't expect to work one on us." + +"Why not? The time the Mandolin Club went North with the Berkeley Glee +somebody played the same blooming game. It worked all right then and +they joshed the life out of the leader, too. I heard Shirlock tell about +it." + +The Freshman should never have allowed himself to go to sleep so easily. +By the time Perkins and Mason tiptoed up to his room, he was sprawled +out on his back, snoring with a healthfulness that was positively +vulgar. Mason gave the leader a significant punch and drew him down the +hall to his room. + +"See here, Perk," he said, "if he keeps up that gag to-morrow I have a +scheme that is a pipe." + +The invalid wore a woe-begone expression when the two fellows went in +before breakfast. + +"Are you any better?" asked Perkins. + +"No," said Van, miserably. "The pain is just as bad. I guess I'll have +to see a doctor after all." + +"How did you sleep?" inquired Perkins. + +"Bum. My fever was high all night," moaned the sufferer. "I heard you +fellows come up, and I hoped someone might drop in. I suppose you were +all too sleepy." + +"Yes," said Mason, with a side look at Perkins, "everybody went right to +sleep." + +"Well," said the leader, "we'll go down to breakfast now, and then we +will get a doctor to see you before we have to go." + +Neither of them stopped to eat. They hurried first to the Polyclinic. +There Perkins asked for the name of one or two physicians who were known +to have little practice, and who could afford to take charge of a man +who would require constant attention for a week, a middle-aged person +preferred. + +The man in charge gave them three names and addresses. They went first +to a Doctor Mead, who displayed his shingle in a quiet street. He was a +big, slow-spoken man, somewhat shabbily dressed. + +Jimmy Mason approached him with such hesitation in his voice as befitted +the part he was playing. They wanted the doctor on a delicate matter, he +explained; it was a private affair which lay very near to them, Perkins +added. + +"You see," said Jimmy, "we're all cut up. Poor little devil----" and his +voice broke artistically, while Perkins forebore to grin. + +"Perhaps the case is not so grave as it seems," said the doctor, with +professional calm. + +"I don't see how it could be any worse." Jimmy controlled his emotion +with an effort. "If it were just common sickness, but--but he's lost +some of his buttons--bughouse, crazy you know,--" his giggle turned into +a sob again, and Perkins, bearing up under his trouble, took the thread +of the story. + +"You see, Doctor, we are musicians from Stanford, travelling through +here; something has happened to one of our party; I don't know what's +the matter: some hallucination." + +"It struck him first at Santa Barbara," said Mason. "He thought that he +was very ill one evening when he was tired; said he was sure he was +coming down with appendicitis. We sent for Doctor----" + +"Brown," filled in Perkins with presence of mind. + +"A very able man; he stands high in the profession," said the doctor +gravely. + +All three being thus established on a common basis of mendacity, the +head liar proceeded: + +"The doctor couldn't find anything the matter, but the boy--he's only a +Freshman, you see--he raised Cain that night; next day he said he was +as well as ever. It's been like that ever since, Doctor. One hour he's +himself and then he goes to bed and swears he's sick and wants +medicines. We didn't get onto him until last night, when the poor kid +got to acting loco at the concert." + +Perkins played chorus at discreet intervals. + +"I haven't telegraphed to his people because I wouldn't distress them +till we knew. We must go on with the trip now, and we can't spare any of +our men because we took no substitutes; we strike this place again in a +week. You will be paid well for any services, and furnished a room at +the hotel. Now, Doctor, can you arrange with your patients so that he +will have your undivided time?" + +("Bet you haven't any to arrange with," was the unspoken thought of both +men.) + +Dr. Mead pondered. + +"We come to you," Jimmy put in, "because we need someone on whom we can +rely, a man of skill and tact." + +"It happens," said the doctor after minutes of profound deliberation, +"that I have no necessary calls to make until Saturday this week. What I +have to do can be managed over the telephone, and I presume patients can +call upon me at the hotel as well as here. Now, what are the exact +particulars of your friend's aberration?" + +"Can you walk up to the hotel with us, Doctor?" asked Mason, looking at +his watch. "Our train leaves at ten-fifteen; we have very little time +left." + +On the way the two gave to the unfortunate Freshman such peculiarities, +idiosyncrasies and hallucinations as seemed good; they warned the +physician that he must never be left alone, and that he ought to be +humored to the top of his bent in regard to his fancied attack of +appendicitis. + +"Then it's understood?" said Mason, as they came down the hall toward +Van Dyke's room. "Of course we can't speak of the matter before him." + +"Yes," said the doctor, "I think I can manage everything. You will +explain to the clerk in the office the peculiar character of your +friend's illness, and I shall have no trouble, I am sure." + +"All right," said Perkins, and they entered. There were several of the +club in the room saying good-bye. At the entrance of the physician they +filed out. + +"Where have you the most pain, Mr. Van Dyke?" began Dr. Mead. + +"Here," said Van, without a blush. + +The physician pressed his fingers upon the afflicted region, felt Van's +pulse and forehead and gravely examined his tongue; then he turned to +the two men and said: + +"It is probably appendicitis. The boy must stay in bed for the present." + +"Hate to leave you, Van," Mason said, taking the sick man's hand gently; +"but it's almost train time. Take care of yourself and do as the doctor +says, and you'll be O. K." + +"Good-bye, old man," said Perkins. "Have 'em telegraph right along; we +shall want to know just how you are. We shall have to cut the string +quartet, and that's pretty hard with Pellams out of the trip, but don't +feel bad about that. You'll be nifty by the time we are on for the +return concert." + +"Good-bye," said the man with appendicitis, assuming the look of one who +may be taking his last farewell of earthly things. "I shall come out all +right, I'm sure I shall." + +"Course. Good-bye. Doctor, look out for him." + +"Send up some paper from the office, will you?" murmured the Freshman +wearily. "I--I think I want to write to my mother." + +Ten minutes later the bell-boy brought the paper and a Bible. + +Dr. Mead arranged the bedclothes with a practised hand, then he sent out +for medicine and chatted affably until the stuff arrived. Van submitted +to a plaster on his abdomen and alternated messes for half-hour +intervals. He was contented enough. Early afternoon would be a good time +to find Dolores. + +The doctor settled himself by the window and talked about the University +and politics and climatic conditions in Montana and California; the +musician joined in the conversation politely but without great +enthusiasm, wondering when the man was going; there was not any too much +time now for breakfast and a careful toilet. He ventured to speak. + +"If you have other patients that call you, Doctor, you mustn't stay with +me. I can get along, even if it is lonely in a hotel, and you'll be in +again to-day, won't you?" + +"Appendicitis," said the doctor, with his heaviest air, "is not a thing +to be treated lightly. Just now you are in a critical condition inasmuch +as we are not sure what turn your trouble may take. You are likely to be +seized suddenly with the usual symptoms: then an operation will be an +immediate necessity. I have the needed instruments right here in my +valise, and I can give you relief at once. If, however, I should leave +you, I might not be within reach until serious complications had time to +arise; for that reason I shall be obliged to watch you through to-day. +Afterwards it may not be necessary." + +This speech fairly paralyzed the man in bed. Had he done this artistic +bit of acting for the purpose of spending his Christmas on the flat of +his back talking to a prosy old doctor? He lay still, trying to think +what answer could be made to this physician who told him seriously that +he had appendicitis. He put out a feeler. + +"That medicine of yours is the real thing. The pain is very much less +now." + +Dr. Mead looked at him over his glasses. + +"Is it entirely gone?" + +"Yes," answered Van, cheerily, "it certainly is." + +"That is a dangerous symptom. The plaster should have drawn the pain to +the surface, but not stopped it. That numbness is exactly what I wished +to avoid." + +He rose and poured out medicine from another bottle. Van nearly choked +in swallowing this. It was eleven o'clock. Sounds of Christmas revelry +floated even into his secluded upper room. The bells were telling to the +people of the City of the Angels their message of peace on earth, good +will toward men; they were dinning into the ears of the victim of a +modern disease the fact that he ought at that moment to be waiting for +Dolores on her pious way to Mission Los Angeles. He pictured her with +some ancient missal in her slender hands, and flanked on one side by her +sympathetic duenna of a mother. The certainty that her American father +would be safe at home did not detract from the charm of the situation. + +"The drinks seem to be on me!" thought he after his next dose. The sun +of southern California was shining brightly out of doors; it must be a +glorious day at Westlake Park. The bedclothes were warm and irksome, and +that confounded plaster had begun to itch. If he was ever to see Dolores +again he should have to make a clean breast of the whole thing. + +He sat up. + +"Say, Doctor, I haven't appendicitis at all; I am as well as I ever was. +I just put this up as a joke on the fellows because I wanted to stay in +town instead of going farther south. I've imposed on you, I'm sorry to +say. I haven't any pain whatever. I was faking." + +"Yes," said the doctor, soothingly, "I knew you were, but you are not +well at all, my boy, and my advice to you is to stay right there in bed. +You have appendicitis symptoms in spite of there being no pain, and you +might do yourself no end of harm by getting up now. I wouldn't let any +man go out of doors after taking that belladonna for the world. It would +be suicidal." + +"But, Doctor, I'm not sick, I tell you; I feel out of sight," and Van +threw off the clothes and was about to spring out, plaster and all. + +Dr. Mead thought it time to act. + +"Get back in there," he said, quietly but firmly. He was a man of +powerful physique and Van thought it best to obey until he could reason +with him. + +"I know what I am talking about, young man," he went on, "and you must +listen to me. I want you to stay in bed." + +This was too much. + +"I'll be hanged if I will!" shouted the patient, preparing to rise. + +"Keep covered up!" ordered the doctor. He had a big, deep voice. He +stood a little way off, with his forefinger pointed at the student, +sighting over it with a cold, gray eye. Something in his manner began to +frighten Van. He shivered under the bedclothes. A hideous story which he +had read about a maniac barber came into his mind with sickening effect. +The man's whole appearance, all his actions, his eager grasping of the +appendicitis theory, proclaimed insanity. He meant to operate on him, +whether or no! There were the surgical instruments in that black bag on +the bureau, and he was shut up in the room with the whole crazy outfit! +He would have given his soul to be in Pomona with the club. + +"All right, Doctor," he said weakly, sliding a little farther down into +the bed, "I'll do just as you say. Only I wish you'd ring and see if any +mail has come for me." + +The boy who answered the doctor's call was an athletic young fellow. Van +thought that between them they could manage the maniac; so he sprang +out crying, "Quick! This man is crazy. Help me get him down!" + +To his surprise the boy seized him and deposited him back in bed. + +"What in thunder is the matter with you people?" shouted Van. "I'm not +going to stay here with that man when there's nothing the matter with +me!" + +"There, there," coaxed the boy, "you're all right, sir; try to go to +sleep, can't you?" + +Then Van turned over to the wall and wept salt Freshman tears, and the +awe-struck boy gently closed the door. And Cupid, with his wings folded +over his little arms, sat upon the bureau and laughed long and +cynically. + +It was now past twelve o'clock. Church was over, and Dolores was +returning. Home-ward gently she rode with surging thoughts in her bosom, +and an expression of sweet, religious calm hovering over her straight +black brows. That was the Spanish of her. The moment the front door +closed behind her she sprinted for the telephone. That was the American +of her. + +Had Papa Payson not been absorbed in the forty-eight-page Christmas +edition of the Los Angeles _Herald_, he might have overheard the +following semi-conversation: + +"----" + +"Main eight-double-eight." + +"----" + +"Yes." + +"----" + +"Is this the Westminster?" + +"----" + +"Will you--er--that is--did the Stanford Glee Club leave this morning?" + +"----" + +"Oh! Will you tell me, please, whether Mr. Cecil Van Dyke left with +them?" + +"----" + +"Oh, I'm so sorry! What's the matter?" + +"----" + +"Appendicitis!" The receiver dropped and swung against the wall. Dolores +had fled to mamma. + +Perkins and Mason, treating each other at every station short of the +prohibition town of Pomona, would have felt less complacent over their +little joke had they seen the procession that left the Hotel Westminster +at one-thirty P. M. on that balmy Christmas day. The order of march, as +instituted by the American Dolores, was as follows: + +1. The Payson carriage, with Mrs. and Miss Payson on the forward seat +and a tenderly wrapped Freshman on the other, and the coachman +instructed to drive gently. + +2. Dr. Mead and the devoted bell-boy in a phaëton. + +3. Small citizens on foot. + +The doctor, obeying to the letter the orders of Perkins, who had +commanded him not to leave his patient for one moment, smiled broadly as +he gathered the lunatic into his arms and bore him past the fatal +poinsettia bushes and up the broad steps where the grave major-domo was +waiting to receive them. The scale upon which the Payson household was +conducted just suited the ideas of that worthy practitioner. + + * * * * * + +On Saturday, Perkins and Mason asked at the hotel for Van Dyke and the +doctor. + +"They gave up their rooms last Monday, not very long after you left," +said the clerk. "A lady took your friend to her house." + +"Who was she?" asked Jimmy, with dark foreboding. + +"A Mrs. Payson." + +Perkins collapsed on his suit-case. Jimmy made for the desk and began to +scan the directory. + +"What are you looking for?" + +"The P's. I'm going to haze that rattle-weeded Freshman and slay the +doctor." + +When the two defeated joshers paused inside the Payson gate, a scene of +touching domesticity met their gaze. Under a jasmine-covered corner of +the piazza, nestling in the depths of a great easy chair, lay Freshman +Van Dyke. Señorita Dolores, in the rôle of ministering angel, was +bending unnecessarily close. Dr. Mead, as near his patient as was +consistent with delicacy, was lounging in a hammock, and smoking a good +cigar. It is a tradition in Los Angeles clubdom that John Payson imports +his cigars direct. In the middle-distance, Mrs. Payson was approaching +with a cup of nourishing beef-tea. + +Jimmy Mason, afraid to trust himself to the expression of his thoughts +in the presence of ladies, was about to vanish gracefully, but Van Dyke +caught sight of them. + +"Hello, fellows. Hear you had a frost in San Diego," cried he. + +"You must be very much better--able to be moved, I notice," with a look +in Jimmy's eyes that pointed to future trouble. + +"Oh," said the Freshman, "almost recovered. I've had the very best of +care--and a very satisfactory nurse," and for the last time, in this +story, he gazed into those Andalusian eyes. + +"But not the nurse we engaged," said the aggrieved Perkins. + +"No," said Van, "this young lady was engaged only last evening." + +"S-sh," said Señora Payson, pointing to the open window, "Papa may hear +you." + + + + +POCAHONTAS, FRESHMAN. + + + + +Pocahontas, Freshman. + + "But when they lookt round for the Ladye Pocahontas, she + hadde gone to her Yorke woodes, weepyng they saye." + + ROWE'S LIFE OF POCAHONTAS. + + +I. + +To begin with, the college never called her Pocahontas to her face, and +no one would have found anything pat in the name until a long-remembered +spring afternoon in her Freshman year. After that day, although her +instructors still registered her as Hannah Grant Daly, she was generally +known as "Pocahontas." Students with visitors would point her out in the +Quad. "That's the girl they call Pocahontas." Then they would tell +briefly her story. She knew through her room-mate that the college had +nicknamed her, and she grieved over it. She did not know that John Smith +himself never called her Pocahontas; she had never dared to look at him +since the day they had named her. + +Early in September the noon train brought her through the oaks and the +burdened olive orchards, past the lonely redwood Tree to the University. +The brakeman's call: "Next station is Palo A-al-to!" stirred her with +fluttering excitement. The crowded carriages and people at the station +bewildered her. Eager 'busmen struggled for the hand-baggage of +strangers, men with "Student Transfer" on their caps clamored for +trunk-checks. Fellows in duck seized some of the men who came down the +car steps, carrying away their suit-cases and throwing lusty student +arms about their shoulders. The men thus welcomed introduced younger +fellows and the whole group piled into a 'bus and shouted "Rho House, +Billy," to the driver. + +The man who got out just ahead of Pocahontas was greeted by cries of +"Come on you Ca-ap!" and "Hello, Smithy, old boy!" He was evidently +someone of whom they were very fond. One fat fellow with a comical face +hugged him theatrically. Pocahontas watched them drive away, laughing +and slapping one another's knees. The man they called Smithy was the +nicest looking. + +She had given her new valise to a gray-haired 'busman who looked a +little like the minister at home. On the way up the long avenue of palms +toward the sandstone buildings low in the distance, this 'busman chatted +kindly with her, telling her wonderful, almost incredible things about +the University, so that she began to feel a little less strange. As she +paid her fare in front of the Roble he said: + +"Now, whenever you want a 'bus, Miss, just ask for Uncle John. That's +what they call me." + +"Yes," answered the Freshman, gratefully, "I will,--Uncle John." + +She passed up the dormitory steps, running awkwardly the gauntlet of +experienced eyes scanning the new arrivals. The Theta Gammas wrote her +down as material for a quaint little, quiet little dig,--not of sorority +interest. One of them ventured that there was an Oxford teacher's Bible +and an embroidered mending-case in the shiny valise. Another prophesied +that the newcomer would wear her High School graduation-dress to the +Freshman reception. These ladies had been at college for three years and +their diagnosis was correct. + +So Hannah Grant Daly hopped with no unnecessary flapping of wings upon +her perch in the Roble dove-cote. The matron put her into 52 with +Lillian Arnold, a Sophomore leader of local society. This was "to make +things easier for her." Their wedded life lasted three days. It was long +after lights when Miss Arnold returned the first night. Hannah had read +her chapter and was lying awake, bravely resisting a homesick cry. Her +roommate groped in with an animated tale of a Freshman spread on the top +floor at which the chief attraction had been oyster cocktails. +Pocahontas shuddered. In imagination she detected a faint odor like +that from her mother's medicine-closet. + +"I'd have asked you to go along with me," apologized Lillian, scrambling +into bed without any conventional delay, "but I thought you wouldn't +care for such things." + +"I hope I never shall," said the new girl, solemnly, and turned her face +to the wall. + +The following morning while Pocahontas arranged her share of the bureau, +the Sophomore draped a tennis net on their wall and fixed in its meshes +the trophies of her first year. She was putting a photograph in place +when Hannah spoke: + +"Who is that, Miss Arnold?" + +"That's Jack Smith," answered Lillian; "stunning, isn't he?" + +"He's very interesting, I think. He was on the train yesterday. There +were ever so many boys to meet him." + +"He's a Beta Rho,--belongs to that fraternity, you know. They have a +swell house here. I know most of them very well,--been over there to +dinner several times." + +"What class is he in?" + +"Mine,--Sophomore. He's a splendid athlete,--football and +pole-vaulting,--and he sings in the Glee Club. He was the only Freshman +to make the team last year,--he's really a perfect hero." + +"I knew he was somebody by the way they acted down at the station. I +think he has a good face." The new girl had come over from the bureau +and was looking up at the picture in the net. + +"Everybody thinks he is the handsomest man in college. You wait till you +see him in his red sweater. Don't say anything, Hannah, but I'm going to +have Jack Smith for my very own this year; you see if I don't manage +it," and Lillian, laughing, blew a light kiss to the photograph. + +Decidedly Pocahontas disapproved of her room-mate. Later, when she found +that a half-dozen girls who had dropped in after dinner were there for +the evening, she went out into a music-room to look at her new +text-books. Routed from here by more butterflies, with "beaux," she did +her reading on a bench in the hallway. Another day and she was rooming +with a Junior who was a hard student. Her departure caused Miss Arnold +sincere regret. A girl she knew had roomed with a Freshman the year +before and the child adored her and did the mending of both. Lillian +hated to sew. + +Pocahontas had been at college a week and was already learning that it +is not necessary to read all your references when her room-mate, coming +in from the library one evening, mentioned that there was a rush going +on over at the tank. + +"A rush?" asked Hannah, "what is that?" + +"A relic of barbarism; they ought to have put a stop to it long ago, +Professor Grind says." + +"Yes," said the Freshman, "but what do they do?" + +"Oh, get out and fight somehow,--I don't know just how,--something about +tying up. Only another way of wasting time, Hannah," and the Junior +plunged back into her Livy. + +At breakfast Pocahontas heard Lillian Arnold tell about going over to +the baseball diamond to see the Sophomores lying tied up beside the +backstop, and what a joke it was on her own class and what a ridiculous +figure Jack Smith had made in the coils of a Freshman's trunk-rope, with +his face and hair all grimy with perspiration and dust, and that laundry +agent, Mason, piled on top of him. Hannah left the table in secret +excitement. Between recitations that morning she met Pete Halleck, a +classmate from her own high school; bursting with pride, he took her up +to the Row to show their very own class numerals shining high on the +tank, and she realized vaguely that this was a thing of which she, too, +was a part. There grew within her a longing to reach out a little toward +the big, full life of the college, to know something of the men and +women who lived it. All this was very wrong, she told herself, for she +had come here to study hard. She had only two years in which to fit +herself to teach. Here was the precious book-knowledge for which she had +hungered and pinched so long. It must not be neglected, ever so little; +but the enthusiasm of the boy with her was infectious. In her soul she +took issue with the views of her room-mate, fortified as they were by +the approval of Professor Grind. + +In this rebellious mood she read on the Hall bulletin-board a notice of +the reception to be given to new students by the Christian Associations. +Here was a chance to satisfy that wicked craving without too great +concession, for of course there would be no dancing and the auspices +were so favorable. She spoke about it to Katherine Graham, a Junior, who +was in Lillian Arnold's "set," to be sure, but who had put her arm +around the homesick little Freshman one soft evening after dinner when +the girls were strolling before the Hall, and had drawn her down the +walk toward the Ninety-five Oak. Katherine was a fine, frank girl whose +talk about the University and her love for the campus and its life +stirred the new girl's pulses. She could listen with unguarded eagerness +to this Junior because she knew her to be a student. Pocahontas slipped +her arm wistfully 'round her friend's waist. To room with Miss Graham +would have been perfect happiness. + +"Of course you'll go," declared Katherine, when she had heard the +Freshman's confidence regarding the reception. "It's slow, sometimes, +but you'll meet the people you want to know." + +So out came the plain graduation-dress, folded carefully away since the +night she read the valedictory, three months ago; she sewed a rip in the +gloves saved from the same occasion, and she took out the fan which her +grandmother had given her, a wonderful fan she had considered it until +she saw a few of Lillian's. + +In the gymnasium where glistening bamboo and red geraniums screened the +chest-weights along the walls, and feathery branches of pepper climbed +luxuriantly over the inclined ladders, she found the crowd +characteristic of this occasion,--the Freshman men at one end, the +Freshman girls at the other, and between them a neutral zone of old +students chatting gayly, oblivious of the purpose of the affair. Oh, but +the reception committee! Save for these indefatigable martyrs, the +Freshman sexes might have gazed wistfully at each other across the lines +of upper class-men until the lights dipped and never been able to bow on +the Quad next day. Important-looking persons with silk badges and +worried faces circulated in a grim endeavor to "mix things up." One of +these wild-eyed people would dash into the crowd and haul some +struggling upper class-man over to the feminine section. With his victim +in tow, he would open conversation feverishly: + +"Name, please?" + +"Miss Newcome." + +"Ah, permit me to introduce Mr. Oldman. Miss Newcome, Mr. Oldman. Isn't +it warm to-night? Fine talk of the Doctor's, wasn't it? Well, you must +excuse me; we're very busy," the last words dying in the distance as he +sped away. + +Pocahontas contrasted this chill with the warmth of church socials at +home. She felt disappointed and dreadfully alone. Her sober-minded +room-mate was bobbing like a pigeon before Professor Grind, +enthusiastically telling him "how much inspiration she got from his +courses;" Katherine Graham was lost in a swirl of upper class-men. The +Freshman had half turned toward the dressing-room when out of the press +came Jack Smith, big, wholesome-looking, still smiling with some memory +of his latest conversation. Why did Hannah stop? It was certainly +bold,--doubtless it was half-unconscious,--but stop she did, and a +committee-man, wheeling suddenly, caught Smith, dashed through the +preliminaries, and the Sophomore had added Hannah Grant Daly to the +list of his acquaintances. + +Now "Cap" Smith had not come to this reception to meet Freshman +girls--at any rate insignificant ones with spectacles and sandy hair; +but no one could have told that he had not begged to be presented to +this one. + +"I'll have to ask you the same question we put to all," he began, +smiling pleasantly; "what's your major?" + +She would have given much to have answered something clever or +interesting, as no doubt other girls did, but she could only stammer: + +"Education." + +"You've answered so promptly I'll let you off the rest of the +text,--there are forty-two questions in all, each more inquisitive than +the last." + +The Freshman giggled; she did not know just why, unless it was that his +face and merry way inspired jollity. + +"Have the committee on irrigation attended to you yet?" + +"I don't know; I have registered," she faltered. + +He laughed, and she blushed uncomfortably. + +"Oh, pardon me," he said, "I must go slow with my slang; you've had only +a few days to learn it. I'm just joshing the weakness of the lemonade +the Associations give us. Let's try some, though; shall we?" + +They made their way to the lemonade booth. Such a vain, silly little +Freshman she was, to be sweetly conscious that people looked after them +as she passed along with this handsome, athletic young hero whom +everybody admired. Lillian Arnold was in the booth, dividing her +attention between filling glasses and entertaining four men. She gave +Pocahontas a cool bow and cast a look at Smith which the Freshman +interpreted "What are you doing with _her_?" At the same moment Lillian +thought of a foolish confidence she had made to the dig when they were +room-mates. Jack, however, was describing to Hannah the recent rush and +the glory of her class, and Lillian's glances were lost upon him. The +lemonade finished, he took the Freshman over to Professor Craig's +mother, and left her with a pleasant fairy tale about meeting her again. + +"Who's your friend?" laughed Perkins, as Smith dived back into his own +element. + +"Some little Roble dig. Don't ask me her name. I think people like that +are really lonesome, Ted. Say, those Phis have trotted Haviland 'round +long enough. Let's break up their interference." + +Others came up to Mrs. Craig, and Hannah found herself introduced to a +variety of men, but she cared little if she met no one else just then. +She stood watching Jack as he passed from group to group, chaffing +merrily, shaking hands with many people. There was no one else in the +room so well worth watching. + +That night, while the Junior breathed regularly on her side of the +alcove, Pocahontas lay a long time thinking dreamily. She knew he would +be like that; somehow he had looked so the first day at the station with +all those noisy boys. She should have answered something more than yes +and no at the reception. He would think her stupid. They had given her +advanced standing in Latin; perhaps he would be in the class when it met +on Monday; it would be splendid if he were; lots of the boys walked to +Roble with girls at half-past-twelve; she would ask him all about the +football; they would not have to talk about the Latin;--she felt so +small beside him as they went along the board walk--he looked down at +her and laughed--there was a seat under the Ninety-five Oak--all the +other people were talking, a long way off--the lemonade bowl under the +tree--shall we-- + +She met him on Monday morning near the Chapel. He came loafing along the +arcade one arm flung about "Pellams" Chase. He looked at her +good-humoredly a second, then, without recognition, glanced over her +head to the girl behind her. + +Hannah's heart nearly choked her. His having forgotten her was so plain, +that she had not dared to bow, though she had half done so. She hoped no +one had noticed her face. She bit her lips. He had not meant to do it; +on the bed in her room she told herself this over and over again. Their +meeting in the gymnasium had lasted less than ten minutes. It was two +days ago. She was not like the other college girls he knew. Why should +he remember her, having seen her once? He had been very pleasant to her +at the reception. She went resolutely down to luncheon. Cap. Smith was +still her hero. + + +II. + +One day when from the fences along the pastures exultant meadow-larks +were shouting "April," trilling the "r" ecstatically, and mild-hearted +people were out after golden poppies, the Encina Freshmen, dark-browed +plotters every villain of them, met in Pete Halleck's room. There was +trouble brewing. First, Pete counted them with an air of mystery; then +he pulled down the window shades, shut the transoms, and drew from the +wash-stand a tangled mass of rope, two cans of paint and a coil of wire. +With these beside him on the floor, he harangued the mob. + +"We have got to get a rush out of 'em, fellows," he said, keeping his +voice discreetly low, "and if they won't scrap, we'll force 'em. How +many of you remember how to tie a knot?" + +"We've had experience enough," spoke up a roly-poly boy; "it's the Sophs +who need a lesson in tying." + +"And we'll give it!" + +Halleck drew up and looked so melodramatically important that the +meeting snickered behind their collective hands. Just then there came a +knock at the door. Halleck put his fingers to his lips; the crowd sat as +if petrified; the roly-poly conspirator felt his bravado oozing out in +youthful perspiration. The knocking came again, more imperatively, then +a voice. + +"Let me in, you crazy Freshies." + +Silence in the room. + +"Let me in. I know about you. You're all in there, talking rush. Hang +your little pink skins, let me in!" + +Still no answer. + +"Pete Halleck, unlock your door. It's I--it's Frank Lyman, and I've +something to say to you babies. Open up!" + +The composite face of the gathering fell. With Lyman against them, who +could be for them?--Frank Lyman, oracle of Encina and father-confessor +of Freshmen! + +Pete threw the paraphernalia into his wardrobe. + +"The game's up, fellows." + +He opened the door, admitting the Senior, and with him, alas! Sophomore +Smith, President of his class. The sight of the enemy stirred Halleck. + +"Say, shall we tie up the two of them?" cried he, when he had locked the +door. + +"Key down, Freshie, key down," said the Senior. "You boys pain me to the +limit. Aren't you satisfied with tying up the Sophomores once without +scrapping the whole year through?" + +"What do you know about our wanting to scrap?" + +"I'm on to you, Peter: You have a ton of rope and a barrel of paint +somewhere about your den, and you're going out to-morrow to tie up the +Sophs at the ball game. Now you fellows have had three rushes this year; +when are you going to quit and give us a rest?" + +Halleck held the position that delighted his soul,--center stage,--and +he was a respecter of neither the Faculty nor his seniors. + +"We're going to quit when we get even with you for pulling twenty-five +lone Freshmen out of the Hall at night and making them rush against the +whole Sophomore class; then's when we're going to quit. Observe?" + +Halleck's shamefully fresh manner revived the drooping spirits of his +men. + +"See here, we'll call it off if you will," put in the Sophomore +president. + +"Yes, I guess you will," drawled Halleck. The mob howled. Smith's class +was notoriously weaker at fighting than their own. + +"We've rushed you three times," went on Cap; "you licked us the first +time we fought; then you pulled us out in the mud the night after and +did it again; but we got you the next week by strategy!" + +"By a sneaking trick!" + +"That's right!" chimed the Freshmen, "Pete's dead right!" + +"Well, say," persisted Smith, "we're willing to quit as it is. The score +stands two to one for you fellows, too." + +"Two to nothing!" and again the infant class shouted approval while +Lyman, the Senior, looked on amused. + +"I really have a chap for you children," he said. "Just because rushing +happens to be your game, you run it to death. How do you suppose the +Faculty are going to look at this thing? If you want rushing choked off +entirely next year, just keep on." + +Airily ignoring Lyman's speech, Pete Halleck put his chin out at the +Sophomore. + +"Then you won't rush?" + +"No," answered Cap, perfectly calm, "not even if you carry canes." + +Halleck's face shone. + +"Ai--i, boys, that's what we'll do! We'll get out there with canes +to-morrow and we'll make 'em scrap!" + +"Yes, you will! I believe it," sneered Smith. "You fellows are just +fresh enough to queer yourselves that way." + +"We'll queer _you_!" cried a valiant youngster "if you don't rush +to-morrow we'll tie up your baseball team and cart 'em off to Redwood." + +"Yes, sir, and we'll show you how a class president looks braided with +bailing-rope,--we'll show you the pretty picture in a mirror, Mr. +President,--even if we have to haul you out of the arms of twenty Roble +dames." + +Pete had taken his class-mates by storm and they piped acquiescence in +thin Freshman voices. Smith flushed angrily. + +Here Lyman interfered. + +"All right, make joshes of yourselves if you want to," he said, not so +good-natured as at first. "We have given you warning. Just open that +door and you may go on with your little conspiracy." + +"Come again when you can't stay so long," wittily yelled Pete down the +hall. "I'll meet you on the field to-morrow." + +"Oh, we'll be there," called back Lyman over his shoulder. "So will the +Faculty," and with this covert hint the peacemakers turned the corner. + +The sun shown brightly on the red-brown earth of the diamond when the +Freshmen, the Sophomores and the Faculty met, according to agreement. +The enterprising student-body management had chalked the Quad in +conspicuous places: + + RUSH of the YEAR, + Sophomore-Freshman Game. + Don't Miss It! + +and the college responded. The co-eds were there, radiant in the +snowiest of duck shirts, the gayest of shirt-waists. With them were +"ladies' men," in variegated golf-stockings and gorgeous hat-bands. The +Freshmen, gathered near first base, contrasted disreputably with this +display; they wore old clothes, ragged hats, and they carried a +miscellaneous collection of canes, borrowed from Juniors or stolen from +Sophomores. + +These stalwarts of the latest class were loaded with horns and +noise-machines. Defiance exhaled from them. It was an impressive +object-lesson on the evils of Freshman victories. + +A few sensible Juniors went over and tried to quell their disturbance, +but the infants were beyond any control of their class fathers; they +had at their head the redoubtable Pete Halleck, with his perverted sense +of the proprieties, and their uproar moderated not a bit. The Juniors +returned to the bleachers, shaking their heads in disgust. Professor +Grind, of the Committee on Student Affairs, was observed to write in his +note-book. The Sophomores who saw this rejoiced that they were not in +rushing clothes. Still the racket went on. + +Jack Smith, in spotless tennis flannels, sat on the bleachers. Some +girls from San Francisco, and one in particular as far as Cap was +concerned, had come down with Tom Ashley's mother that morning, and he +brought them over to the game. Pete Halleck picked him out at once and +reminded the others of their promise. + +Hannah Grant Daly, who did not know him to speak to, also picked him +out. To her he looked more goodly than ever this afternoon, contrasted +with the uncouthness of Halleck and others of her class. She watched him +covertly, laughing and talking with the town girl beside him. He had +laughed and talked very much like that to her, once, but he had +forgotten it. That was natural; she had forgiven it long ago. Lillian +Arnold, in the brightest of Easter hats, watched him, too. + +The game was not exciting. The Freshmen were badly outplayed; the +Sophomores galloped around the bases, and the babies' insolence grew +with their opponents' score. As the last inning dragged its tedious +length, the prospect of the Freshmen forcing a rush had become the +important thing with the crowd. The fighting class limbered up for +action. Now their third man struck out and the catcher's mask was off. + +"Ready!" Pete Halleck's voice came out of the silence of the waiting +crowd. + +"All set!" and the class was up and off on a trot toward the Sophomore +players, who were trying not to walk away any faster than was usual. One +after another the baseball men were overtaken and went down in clouds of +dust and hard language. + +Yet the Sophomores would not rush. Frank Lyman had exhorted them simply, +while the Freshmen were attacking their nine. One or two of the +hot-heads hurried to the Hall for old clothes, but the majority stood +looking on, angry but quiet. + +"Now for Smith!" yelled Halleck. His men turned toward the co-ed section +of the bleachers. + +"Shall we get out of this?" Cap asked Ashley. + +"Get out nothing! Stay right here with the girls. They wouldn't have the +gall." + +But the lust of fight was in the Freshman heart as the dust of fight +was on the Freshman skin. They lined up, a ragged mass of impertinence, +as near the women as they dared, and waited for the leader of the +opposition. He chatted on, explaining the college rush to the girl with +him, and gave no sign of moving. + +"Shall we go in and take him?" asked an excited youngster. + +"I'll give him a chance to come easy," said Halleck. He squared himself, +adjusted his dusty hat, and went straight up the steps. + +"Excuse me, Mr. Smith," said he, "you are forgetting an engagement you +made with some of your friends yesterday." + +This was the freshest thing in the history of the college. The +Sophomore's fingers twitched. + +"I think you can wait until later, Halleck," he said slowly. Then he +turned to the girl. + +From the time Halleck climbed the bleachers and went toward Smith and +his guests, the spectators were stiff with astonishment; nobody did +anything. They saw Halleck look for one moment into Smith's angry blue +eyes, go down the steps, and bring back two big fellows. Before the +Sophomore could move away from the girls, the three men had dragged him +down the bleachers; one heave of Halleck's broad back and Smith was +under them, with his wind gone, and a Freshman was getting a rope +ready. + +Then just as Ashley tore down the steps in a rage, a slip of a girl +darted past him and put her hands on Halleck's shoulders; a small, +sandy-haired girl with blazing eyes. + +"Untie him, you great brutes!" + +The man with the rope stared at her irresolutely, furtively slipping the +knot tighter. By this time, Halleck was on his feet again and had +recovered from his surprise. + +"Excuse me," he began. + +The girl looked him in the eye. + +"Get that rope off!" + +She was just a little thing, but her gaze never wavered. The direct gaze +is something that wild beasts and bullies, Freshmen or otherwise, cannot +bear. Pete Halleck looked around for moral support, but his men were +shame-faced and the bleachers were silent. He bent down and slipped the +rope off Smith's feet. + +With the rout of their leader the whole fighting class, weighing some +ten tons in battle trim, vanished like chaff before the spirit of one +Freshie co-ed. By twos and threes they slouched away, trying to look +unconcerned. + +She turned to the man she had rescued. + +"Are you much hurt, Mr. Smith?" she asked, her voice sweet with +sympathy. + +The Sophomore president stood there, rumpled, winded, flaming with +embarrassment. Away up on the bleachers a girl in an Easter hat tittered +and a general laugh followed. That laugh brought Smith to himself, but, +before he could turn to thank her, Hannah, with a swift, frightened +glance at the people, had fled to the Quadrangle. With swelling bosom +and eyes stinging with restrained tears she leaned her face against a +cool pillar and watched the swallows circle mistily about the red +tiling. + +People, coming from the ball-ground, passed her, unnoticed in the +shadow. A man's voice, ringing with merriment, cried: + +"Poor old Captain! I never saw him have such a chap. It's pretty hard on +a man to have a girl do the Pocahontas act like that!" + +A peal of Roble laughter answered. + +"Pocahontas! O--oh, that's a cute name for her!" + + + + +HIS UNCLE'S WILL. + + + + +His Uncle's Will. + + "It's a wise child that resembles its richest relative." + + MODERN PROVERB. + + +Walter Olcott Haviland came to Stanford in September at the age of +eighteen, and was rushed by the fraternities. + +There is nothing remarkable about this, unless considered from +Haviland's point of view. With his High School pin illuminating the vest +on which a mystic Greek symbol was ere long to shine, he passed down the +line of inquisitive Sophomores in Encina lobby, and into the Den of the +Bear, presented his receipt for the room he had prudently engaged months +ahead, and was duly bestowed within those plain white walls between +which the Freshman begins a charmed existence of four years or four +months, as the Committee may determine. + +It is recorded that once before Commencement two Seniors came from +fraternity houses at opposite ends of the campus and slept together the +last night, as they had slept their first, in their Freshman room at the +Hall. They had been rivals and in warring factions, but they lay down +together in that place of beginnings, before a new heaven opened for +them over a new earth. This is proof positive that you never forget your +first room in the Hall. You may give it up for an attic in a +chapter-house, you may go to live with young Freshleigh, with whom you +are already chums, and whose apartment has the morning sun; but the +first room is a foundation stone in your house of memories. Your trunk +is brought in by the Student Transfer man (first lesson in self-help) +and put down near the dreary-looking beds with their mattresses doubled +on the foot-rail. Then, sitting down by the bare, shining table where, +later on, theses are to be written and punches brewed, you stake out +claims for the decorative material in your trunk. Certainly decorations +are needed. The wardrobe stands forbiddingly against the wall. You will +soon learn how to move it forward, reverse it, and adorn the back. The +chilling whiteness of the walls is relieved only by one square, +uncompromising mirror. An "Addersonian" tenderness has placed a +yellow-flowered rug beside each bed. Otherwise, the place is barren. + +If there is time before dinner, you swallow your loneliness and get out +the home photographs and stand them up here and there, and the room is +changed. These walls may become a scrap-book of four years' association +with Alma Mater; the wardrobe may be hidden with kodaks of the gang and +its exploits; but to-day, before you have even met the gang, you come +into your own. + +The newly-arrived Haviland, in the throes of this emotion, looks about +him. He has put upon the ugly commode sundry pictures of his graduating +class at the High School, each one dressed in his best, each flanked by +floral offerings, each holding the impressive diploma. Later, these +portraits will be less prominent in this college room. + +He looks at them with a feeling of pity. It must be hard not to come to +college. He is a lucky boy. Sliding unobtrusively into the hall-way, he +strikes up an acquaintance with some other social Freshman, and together +they watch the upper class-men coming in. Man after man drifts into the +arms of waiting friends. How well they all know one another! Gradually +he learns who and what these men are, the Seniors who manage the Hall or +edit the College papers, the 'Varsity idols, the men who make College +life. Important beings they seem to the Freshman, men who have reached +heights above his modest possibilities, heroes who are great in the +land. After dinner he mingles in the stag dances on the second floor +hall-way; finding that a fellow class-man has neglected the graceful +art, he takes him up on the third floor and teaches him the step. He is +fitting in, you see. Then he hears the crowd surging into the lobby and +picks up the chorus of "We'll rush the ball along," and before this +first day is over he catches the contagion of that intangible, +pervasive, never wholly fading thing, College spirit. + +Jimmy Mason, Sophomore, hustling Student-Body assessments, drops in on +him, and stops to chat awhile. Haviland learns that our team this year +has lost such and such valuable men; that there are opportunities for a +chap with football in him. The Freshman thinks of the day when the crowd +at home cheered him as his school beat the Academy. He hands Mason the +assessment money, being beautifully green yet. Like oases are these +Freshmen to the Student-Body collector. Very likely the Sophomore +rewards him by coming to his door, after the lights are out, at the head +of a motley mob. They put him on the table, shivering in his nightie, +and make derogatory remarks about his shape and his personal charms; +then, having solemnly baptised him "Callipers," or whatever metaphorical +name his physical architecture may suggest, they make him cavort for +their delectation. If he shows modesty and courage in his unhappy +obedience, he is greeted as a nice little boy and is introduced to his +tormentors, who explain that the ritual was offered from the kindest +motives. Doubtless it is this knowledge that makes him enjoy so keenly +the sacrifice of fellow class-men, at which he is permitted to be +present the next evening. + +When he is spoken to mysteriously one night by "Pellams" Chase, a Junior +from the Row, and told to put on his oldest clothes and to get his +trunk-rope ("to rope up a Sophomore's trunk this time," hints the +Junior), for the first time he sees his class as a whole, and stands +shoulder to shoulder with them in the first College rush. The subsequent +pullings and haulings, the poundings and jammings of this experience are +happily compensated for if Chase takes him when all is over, binds up +his bruises and tells him about fights of other days when there were +giants upon the campus. After this, the College is never the immense, +far-away thing it has seemed. He has seen his own class-men together, he +has measured his strength with the dread Sophs, he is a University man. + +Long before this the fraternities have spotted him. + + * * * * * + +"What are you going to do next hour?" + +Haviland had just come out from his nine-thirty recitation and found +"Cap" Smith waiting for him. Smith was a Beta Rho, and he had waited +there in the same way for the same Freshman more than once in the month +since the opening. It was Pellams who had discovered the boy, one night +in Mason's room, where the Junior loafed half his time. Pellams had a +big heart surely, for he had at once interested himself in Haviland, +asking him over to dinner to meet the fellows. The Freshman knew it was +the Juniors' duty to look after the infant class. This particular Junior +was a College favorite,--Walt had seen that--and the boy from far-away +New England went across the campus to the Row feeling that he was +getting into good hands. The Rho house seemed about right. Dinner was a +boisterous affair where the men took hands around the table and sang a +rollicking accompaniment to Pellams' coon songs, strange table-manners +that did not appear much to disturb Perkins' mother, who poured coffee +at the end. Afterward they all sat out on the porch steps in the summer +evening with their pipes, watching three of the men play catch. One of +the fellows danced a shuffle while the rest stood around and clapped +time and shouted, "Come on you _Nigger_!" They were very happy; it was a +bully way to live; the homelike look of things appealed to the Freshman. +Two of the fellows walked back to the Hall with him, and when they said +good-night they shook his hand strongly and hoped they would see more of +him. + +This was the beginning. The college had become aware of his presence +now. So far he had taken just nine meals that he had paid for, and had +been away from the Hall one night out of four. + +At the reception to the Freshmen he had been introduced to the same +Faculty people six times over by members of as many fraternities, each +presenting him as an individual entirely under their auspices and for +whom they alone were responsible. Higgins, the sky-scraping Beta Phi, +whom he had met only that evening, took him arm in arm up to the +President's wife, and said: + +"I want to introduce Mr. Haviland, a particular friend of mine. You will +be good to him for my sake, won't you?" And the lady with a twinkle in +her brown eyes, having recently promised to do the same for Jack Smith's +sake, pledged her favors anew to the bewildered Walt. + +Haviland did not quite understand this attitude of open arms. His first +days in the Hall had not prepared him for it. He did not know that +because he was well-bred, well-dressed and athletically promising, he +was generally voted the prize Freshman of the year. + +Then came the bids. There were only a few of the crowds that did not +spike him; three who were manifestly not of his style and two who never +presumed to enter the game until the others had made their winnings. All +sorts of methods had been used. The first bid came early; he was given +twenty-four hours to answer it, as "the Gamma Chi Tau never wait for a +man." The Freshman, however, getting riper in the sun of experience, +interpreted this to mean fear of competition, and so "declined with +assurances of continued friendship." There was a crowd who slapped him +on the back and called him "old man." Once he had been fresh enough to +tell them a story, and they had laughed so uproariously over it that he +was dreadfully embarrassed. The hospitality of another set seemed to +consist of a sly but systematic attempt to get him drunk for some +mysterious purpose of their own. He had put some of them to bed and felt +superior, which was fatal to their chances. + +He had been to many varieties of dinner-tables. Some of them were +homelike; the talk at others had robbed him of appetite. + +"What do you think of our crowd?" asked Roach, keenly, after a +particularly disagreeable meal at which there had been much coarseness +and a wreck of a tablecloth. + +"They seem to me to be about the most congenial fellows I ever met," +answered the disgusted but tactful Haviland, and Roach, going back to +his house, announced authoritatively that the boy was theirs if they +wanted him. + +By this time he had learned the art of dodging invitations and remaining +non-committal when asked, "Well, Walt, are you going to do the right +thing?" Many a set, piled upon the beds in a fraternity room, sat up +late talking him over and wondering how he was "coming on." + +The Beta Phis, for instance, were in painful doubt. They were conscious +of a comparatively poor stack-up, but their rushing energy was +admirable, and once the persecuted Haviland had been obliged to ask a +Beta Rho to hide him from them. Pellams and Smith were merry at dinner +that night. + +In his heart, Walt had about decided on Beta Rho. This crowd treated him +with well-bred cordiality but with far less effusiveness than the +others. He was pleased when they had let him mix with them without +permitting him to forget the gulf between. This had put him off his +guard so that he had grown accustomed to them. Observing him expertly +from the corners of their eyes, they affected not to notice the way he +blushed after having joined unconsciously in a Beta Rho song. One day he +dropped over uninvited, and they understood. But in the first week of +their acquaintance they had told him to hold off and be slow about +pledging himself, and nothing more had been said so far. + +On the night of the first rush, ending in complete victory for the +Freshmen, Haviland had been so unfortunate as to clinch with Cap Smith, +and he was largely responsible for the ignominious tying up of that +husky Sophomore. He would much rather have been carted off himself, if +it hadn't been for the class. He saw his Beta Rho chances vanishing. +Pellams evidently did not know what had happened, he was so good to him +after it, rubbing his bruises and dressing his scraped cheek. The next +day Cap Smith came over and bid him to the fraternity. As a matter of +principle, Haviland asked for a week to decide. + +This indulgence was up to-day and now Cap was waiting for him after the +second-hour class. Walt knew what answer he should give. He felt very +contented. + +"I got your mail for you," said Smith, handing him an envelope. "I've a +letter of my own to read, so tackle yours while we walk along." + +They went up toward the stock-farm, and the boy opened his mother's +letter and read eagerly the home news and the affectionate questions. +She enclosed, she said, the check which his uncle, who was putting him +through College, had sent for October. Following this were a few words +that made him stare hard at the road before him, as he and Smith +strolled on. "Your uncle writes," said the letter, "that when he was at +Amherst he was a fraternity man, and thinks you ought to be one, and he +would like to have you join the society to which he belonged, the Beta +Phi. I am sure, Wo dear, you will follow his wishes in a matter like +this. It is not much to do in return." + +Poor Walt! The Beta Rhos had never seemed such smooth fellows as at this +moment when he felt himself suddenly pledged to the Beta Phis. In his +mind's eye the Phis passed before him, one by one, particularly a +certain long, unprepossessing member who had stayed till after twelve +one night and bored him with a dreary recital of the prominence of his +house in College politics, of the stump speeches that a former brother, +now a historical personage, had made in Mayfield for prohibition, to say +nothing of the essay prizes in philology that another ancient Phi had +won in the dim past, when the chapter must have been more prominent than +at present. In comparison with this record, the Rhos were numbskulls, +dwelling in an amplified smoking-room, Walt must admit; their control of +the Eleven and of the Glee Club was nothing. And now his future was +black with philology prizes, with meals at which stew was a staple, and +where only visitors had clean napkins. + +The two fellows had by this time reached the trotting stables. They +looked in at the beautiful, sleek racers, carefully blanketed and +booted, and stroked an inquisitive nose or two, reached out over the +white doors. Then they went on up the stock-farm yard and along the road +to the bridge over San Francisquito. Here Smith stopped; leaning on the +rail, he looked down at his blonde image in the shallow water below. + +"Well, Professor, what's your answer? You ought to know your mind by +this time, surely, and we want you bad, my boy." + +"Cap, old man," began the Freshman, his voice a little husky, for he was +sorely troubled, "you must know how I appreciate the way you fellows +have treated me, and that I want you particularly for a friend." He +stopped, but Smith kept silent. The fraternity had had refusals before; +they usually began this way. + +"I don't know just what I ought to say," went on the luckless Walt. "I +really did think you were the crowd I should join, but something has +come up and I can't say yes." + +"What is it? Is it because you think we don't study enough? We do, +though, a great deal more than it looks. This has been rushing season +and we had to do the entertaining stunt a lot, and Pellams would give +any crowd the look of bumming. We really do work hard the rest of the +year." + +"Oh, no," said Walt, "it isn't anything like that, Cap." + +"There's somebody in the gang that you don't like, then; somebody that +you don't know well and don't understand. Isn't that so? Who is it? You +ought to tell me." + +"I would, Cap, if that were the reason, but it isn't. I like every man +of them all." + +"What is it then?" + +"Nothing that I can tell you." Poor Walt, he was ashamed of his uncle; +Lyman at the Hall had told him that the whole Beta Phi fraternity was as +scrubby as their Stanford chapter. + +Cap's eyes had an angry gleam. "Somebody has been throwing mud," he +said, kicking up a splinter from the bridge floor. "There are plenty of +them to do it." + +"It isn't that at all. I wouldn't be influenced that way," protested +Haviland. "It's another matter." + +"Well, I suppose this is final," said Smith, struggling hard with his +disappointment. The Freshman's past attitude had paved the way for a +different answer. + +"Let's not say that," Walt began slowly. "Give me a while longer, Cap; +things may change. I had hoped--" He broke off;--he could never tell +Smith--he had not until that very moment told himself--how much he had +looked forward to being a Rho. + +"Things may change," he said again as Smith turned savagely and started +back. He was trying to compromise, but he had no idea how any change was +to come about. He brooded over it in his room that night, and the more +he pondered the more clearly he realized that the debt to his uncle +stood in his way. Plainly, he was up against it. He made the foot of his +iron bedstead jingle with a petulant kick, and, muttering the Phi yell +in a savage tone, went off to sleep. + +At luncheon the next day at the Phi house, the Freshman was so friendly +and so gracious that two of the Chapter went out into the kitchen and +shook hands. Had he not inquired solicitously about the fraternity's +position in Amherst, had he not expressed great pleasure at learning of +their high political standing back there? Never a word had they heard of +his uncle, however. The Freshman who is in his own neighborhood does not +donate additional arguments. + +The Phi house was shaken to its foundations. This was the greatest +piece of work for years. Walt was immediately invited to stay for dinner +and to spend the night and the next day, but although it was Saturday, +he declined. Even the tempting bait of a Populist campaign rally moved +him not. + +The days passed and Walter Olcott Haviland was an unhappy child. His +sudden intimacy with the Phis could not escape the astonished Rhos; he +was sensitive to the change in their manner, slight as it was. He would +have been glad enough to have stayed out of fraternities altogether if +it would have helped matters. There was a very jolly set in the Hall, +men who had refused far better bids than the Phis. Jimmie Mason and +Frank Lyman, "Peg" Langdon and Blake, the fullback; these fellows, as +prominent as any in College, were in the dormitory crowd; they used one +another's rooms and tobacco and clothes with the utmost good nature. +Walt had been fond of the big building from his first day there; he +could have had a happy time with this independent set. + +He was not made any happier by Lyman's saying, "Whatever you do, don't +join the Phis. They've no standing here, and you won't help yourself +any." Freshmen usually listened to what Lyman said. But Haviland had +thought and reasoned and struggled with himself, and had come to a +conclusion. To write to his uncle, "I have joined the Phis because you +are one," would be worth any sacrifice. Perhaps he could work to improve +the crowd a little after he was one of them. At least there was no +reason why they need be his only friends. + +He went to the lab one afternoon with his decision made. If the Phis +asked him to dinner, he would go and put his head on the block. + +As he came along toward the main entrance he saw Andrew Higgins, the +longest, lankiest Phi of them all, bearing down upon him. His heart +sank, but his resolution was firm, and he looked his fate in the face. +When his executioner had almost reached him, somebody touched his +shoulder; it was Smith. + +"Before your frat brother gets hold of you," muttered Cap, drawing Walt +aside, "I want to speak to you. The boys must have your final answer +to-day." + +The "frat brother" was not to be turned down. He loomed up steadily in +their direction. Walt was miserable. It was the beginning of the end. + +"I'll give it to-night," he said hurriedly, as the Phi reached them. + +"Will you come to dinner?" + +Haviland wanted one sunbeam before the darkness. + +"Yes, I'll come, Cap," and turned to shake hands with the Phi, whose +invitation was frozen half-way in his throat. Now the Beta Phis were not +of the people who let to-morrow get anything while to-day lasts, so +Higgins asked Walt to come down after dinner for the night, and the +unhappy boy, half-hearing, promised. + +It was a gloomy dinner for the Freshman, baked funeral meats and he the +corpse. Mrs. Perkins gave him a motherly smile and told him in a careful +undertone that she was glad he was going to be one of her boys, after +which he felt childishly close to tears. He sat out-doors with the +others and smoked and joined weakly in the singing. The roses clinging +to the porch had never been so sweet; the Rho dog had never nosed so +affectionately against his shoulder. There was to be no substitute for +this. He wished he had never seen the campus. His mood communicated +itself to the others and things grew slow. One by one the fellows +slipped away with various excuses. Finally Cap said: + +"Come up to the room," and Haviland went up stairs with the emotions one +carries to the dentist. + +Smith threw himself on the bed and motioned Walt to a chair at his study +table. They tried a little general conversation, but failed mournfully. +The Freshman had a wretched feeling that this room was home to him. He +had slept here so often and he knew every athletic picture and trophy +around it. There had been something said about his living here with Cap +after Christmas. The clock ticked spitefully at him. + +Smith's voice, deep and quiet, broke the pause. + +"What's the good word, Professor?" + +Walt swallowed a lump, nervously opened a book that lay on the table, +then looked at the big red sweater on the bed, and said: + +"I can't do it, Cap." + +Smith kicked a pillow of which he thought a great deal almost into the +grate, and said with fine scorn: + +"When do you join the Phis?" + +"I don't know," said Van, drearily. + +"Well, I think you're nutty; it's the cheesiest gang in College." + +The battle had begun. Walt might as well practice his defense at once, +so he said with a little dignity: + +"My uncle is a Phi, and it is his wish." + +"So that is it!" Such a reason was no discredit to the Rhos; therefore +it was the harder to accept. "You give me a jolt, Walt. Just because +your uncle is in a rotten fraternity you must crawl into the heap, too. +I'd see him hanged first before I'd queer myself with those yaps." + +Cap went on even more impatiently, but the Freshman heard not a word. +He was staring at the book open before him. + +"Cap, what book is this?" + +"The fraternity catalogue." + +"What fraternity?" + +"Ours, of course; whose did you think it was, the--" + +Walt gave a hysterical whoop and flung himself over the footboard upon +the astonished Smith. He rolled him over the bed and sent him to join +the pillow on the floor; then, sitting up on the bed with tousled hair +and shining eyes, he said: + +"Cap, if you still want me, I say yes!" + +"What's the matter with you?" asked the amazed Sophomore from the rug. + +"Nothing!" shouted Walt. "I see the whole thing; uncle's awful +writing--mother got it Phi instead of Rho--she doesn't know one from the +other--his name's in your book. Hoo!" and he sprang on Smith again and +lifted him bodily. + +The Chapter had been waiting. Hearing propitious sounds, they came +stringing in, and Haviland's explanation, with the celebration that +followed it, took such a length of time that the longest, lankiest Phi +fell asleep in the parlor and his lamp burned out about two. + + + + +THE INITIATION OF DROMIO. + + + + +The Initiation of Dromio. + + "I know a prof.,--not much to see,-- + Take care! + Mistakes are made here frequently, + Beware!" + + +The Rho fraternity called Walter Haviland "professor." Haviland was one +of their pledged Freshmen. In rushing, a good nickname, gracefully used, +is a great thing. It puts a Freshman considerably at his ease, and +impresses him with the feeling that he belongs to the set. + +The first day that Haviland came over to dinner, Bob Duncan, a Senior, +spoke up from his end of the table: "Are you a relative of Lamb, the +botany professor?" + +"I have never heard that I am," answered the Freshman. + +"Are you in any of his classes?" + +"No; I'm not going to take botany." + +"If you were, I don't believe the class could tell you apart. Doesn't he +look like Lamb to beat the band, fellows?" + +"He's a little heavier than the prof.," suggested Smith. + +"Oh, perhaps he is a little," admitted Duncan, "but their height is the +same to an inch, and the facial resemblance is great." + +"He can't look much like a professor," laughed the Freshman. + +"He doesn't," said Duncan, "they've got him down in the register as an +associate professor in botany, but that's all he has to his credit. He +gets taken for a Freshman right along. New students ask him if he is +registered and what his major is--sure they do." + +"They say there was a big farmer who went in to register in botany and +wouldn't do business with poor Lamb at all," said Perkins. "He said he +wasn't so green as he looked, and he knew all about these students who +make believe they're professors and give fake examinations. The +professor was as red as a beet." + +"I don't blame him," said Duncan. "Why, the man is married and has two +children." + +"Are you sure they're his," said Pellams, seriously. "I've seen them +with him on the Quad, but I thought perhaps he'd borrowed them for +effect, to keep off the Senior girls." + +"The year he came here the Beta Phis tried to rush him, didn't they?" +asked Smith. Duncan scowled across the table at the Sophomore. This was +Haviland's first day at the house; they could josh other frats later, if +he came their way; just now it was a break. + +Ted Perkins interrupted tactfully. "Have some of this Spanish goo? The +English department here is crazy on theatricals. They will probably want +you for a grand revival of the Comedy of Errors." + +"If I were you," came in Smith, to cover up his slip, "I would go over +and draw his salary some day. They would pay it all right if they didn't +look twice and ask questions." + +"Better look out," added Pellams, in his solemn drawl, "those babies of +his will be claiming you in the Quad in front of all Roble some sunny +day, and then you might just as well leave college!" + +This table-talk gave the men an idea for a nickname, and so, when they +knew the Freshman a little better, they slipped an arm through his and +called him "Professor." It was really the most civilized nickname in the +house. + +One Thursday, at football practice, about two weeks after Haviland had +agreed to join, Pellams spoke to him. + +"Professor, on Saturday night you are to be initiated. Bring over your +suit-case with a change of under-clothes and a pair of old shoes." + +"I was going up to San Francisco on Saturday," murmured Haviland, his +heart beating a bit faster, "but----" + +"You have changed your mind," finished Pellams, quietly. "We will have +dinner as usual, and you will be on time, please. So long, Professor." + +Haviland was not wholly at peace as he walked back to the dormitory. A +Freshman never becomes especially hilarious in anticipating his +initiation night; there is an uncertain certainty about it that he +cannot entirely laugh away, however much natural bravery he may have, +however hoary he may be in high school fraternity experience. At the +chapter house, where things have been made so pleasant, careless remarks +are dropped, full of sinister meaning. It is not nearly so comfortable +there now, and Freshman Damocles wishes the suspense were over. + +When the fateful Saturday dawned, Walter had a strong impulse to go to +the city as he had originally planned. Pellams had explained to him that +his having held out so long before agreeing to join would probably mean +his "getting it unusually hard." He knew that of all the fraternities, +the Rhos were the most severe in their initiations--one of the Rhos had +told him so. + +At the post-office that morning he met Professor Lamb starting for a +day's botanizing in the foothills. He did not know the instructor, but +he envied him as he leaned on his wheel and watched the botany man take +the fence and start off across the brown pastures toward the hills +beyond the lake. There certainly was a strong resemblance. + +"Oh," groaned the candidate for fraternity privileges, "I wish it was a +case of his resembling me instead of my looking like him. I only wish I +was the prof, now, I'd change places quickly enough. I'm afraid I'm a +coward." + +He wondered if they guessed how scared he was; he hoped not. He pedaled +around to the courts, where Cap. Smith was waiting to play tennis, and +he put on an infant bravado which secretly pleased the Sophomore. After +a few sets Cap. put his racket under his arm. + +"No more tennis, Professor," he said, with meaning; "you'd better rest +most of the day. Get out your work for Monday, you won't feel much like +studying to-morrow, you know, and don't forget to be at the house at six +sharp." Then, since the Freshman had visibly wilted, Smith grinned all +the way across the field. + +Haviland suspected two other fellows in the Hall of being in a state of +mind similar to his own, but as he had been instructed to keep the +matter absolutely secret, he could not turn to them for relief. He +worried through the long Saturday, making futile attacks on the work +prescribed for Monday, strumming in an aimless way on his banjo, and +finally writing his mother a letter between the lines of which she at +once read malaria. + +Dinner at the Rho house was the most miserable meal he had ever choked +his way through. A half-dozen graduates were present, and some men from +the Berkeley chapter. These visitors seemed a solemn lot, and +conversation included the candidates only now and then. During the lulls +in the talk, the Freshmen made audible sounds trying to swallow their +food; this was so embarrassing that they gave up the effort to eat, only +gulping water now and then during talk. It was a relief when some one +touched each Freshman quietly, and the condemned youngsters followed +upstairs, their faces wearing pitiful dumb-victim-at-the-altar +expressions, or trying with ghastly smiles to show how little they +cared. + +The young moon, sloping toward the shaggy rim of the Palo Alto hills +soon after eight o'clock, looked down into the pasture lands back of the +campus. There she saw Walter Haviland, blindfolded and with a rope about +his waist. Three other Freshmen were in a similar condition in different +parts of the field. Haviland had been intrusted to the tender mercy of +Cap. Smith, a 'Varsity man, and Pellams Chase, greatest of all joshers. +This was indeed a high honor. Two of the less distinguished members +hovered about them, eager to add their services. Their objective point +was a fence skirted by a gully through which water ran in the winter +time; into this gully they flung the luckless Walt and left him there +while they took their ruthless course to a part of the field where +another group of men had gathered. + +The moon touched delicately the redwood trees upon the western ridge, +then slipped down beyond them. With her last look into the field she saw +Haviland lying on his face at the bottom of the gulch. She saw also +Professor Lamb, of the botany department, hurrying home cross-country +from the day's collecting on upper San Francisquito Creek, tired, dusty, +bedraggled, thinking with an unscientific enthusiasm of the hot dinner +awaiting his homecoming. The lingering moon, peering over the mountain +edge, saw the instructor clear the fence and plunge into the shadowy +gulch. Then, before she could see what happened next, the stern law of +the solar system drew her reluctant down. + +The four men who had charge of Haviland came back from their +consultation with the others. When they were near the place where they +had left their victim, a man appeared, climbing out. This called for +investigation; they bounded along through the gulch and came up with the +fellow. To their surprise it was Haviland with his bandage off and the +rope nowhere. It was the first time a man had ever tried to give them +the slip. He should pay for it! Cap. Smith threw himself on the Freshman +at the first glimpse of his face. In a jiffy there was a new bandage +over his eyes and another rope coiled around his waist; this time it +included his hands. He struggled resolutely, but in silence, for his +breath had left him when he struck the ground with Smith on top. + +They seized him firmly and ran him at breakneck speed over a terrible +course, heading for an old well which waters a back pasture. Here they +stopped, spent with running. + +"On your knees, Professor!" gasped Pellams, with as much authority as +his lack of breath would allow. + +The panting victim remained standing. + +"Down!" accompanied by a resounding blow of a barrel stave. + +Still no movement, but a gurgle was heard as though speech was being +labored for. + +Biff! + +The unfortunate creature sprawled beside the well, but struggled up +again to a half-kneeling posture. + +"This--must--stop!" he gasped, painfully. "It--is--an--outrage. +I--am----" + +"No levity, sir!" said Smith. "You've got to do what we say, Professor, +or you won't get in at all." + +"I don't--want--to--get--in," panted the poor wretch in desperate +protest. "It's--a--mistake--I----" + +"See here, Professor; where's your nerve? Be a man! You'll never make a +Rho at this rate. Brace up, for Heaven's sake! Rise, Neophyte." + +They gave the rope a cruel wrench, which brought their captive to his +feet. + +"Let's kill him," whispered one of the men. Never before had there been +so shameful a display of the white feather. + +"We'll duck him." + +They brought their Freshman to the brink of the well. They tightened the +rope under his arms, and, before he could divine their intentions, they +were lowering him down the slippery side. When his feet struck the cold +water he struggled violently, shouting something which his splashing and +the echo of the well made unintelligible. Presently they hoisted him, +dripping and speechless with rage. + +"Thou hast now been cleansed of thy sin and cowardice, O Neophyte," +declaimed Pellams. "Forward to the joys that await thee!" + +They dragged him home on the run, taking the road this time and making +all haste to the house. The half-dead initiate had to be carried +upstairs. Smith took off the rope and told him to strip for a bath. The +victim sat on the edge of the Sophomore's bed and shook his head +feebly. He was evidently exhausted. + +"Come, hurry up, Haviland," said Cap. He felt a brutal impatience to see +what the barrel staves had done to the fellow's back. "Get bathed and +put on your dry clothes and be ready for the feed." + +The initiate raised his hands slowly and untied the bandage. He blinked +a moment at Smith, then he said huskily, "I am not Haviland, Mr. Smith, +nor do I want any 'feed.' I want to know what this means." There was no +anger in his voice, only great weariness. + +The freezing truth dawned on the horrified student. His first impulse +was to rush out of the house and to keep running. He managed to stammer: + +"Where's Haviland?" + +"I don't know where Haviland is," muttered the tired instructor. "I +don't know who Haviland is. If I have taken his place I am ready to +change again." He looked down upon his clothes, stuccoed with tarweed +burrs and wet mud. + +Then Jack Smith laughed aloud. + +"Professor, when we've found Haviland, and you've seen him, you'll +understand the whole horrible mistake, and----" + +"There was no mistake," said the other, coldly, "you called me Professor +while you were beating me." + +This only set Smith off again. + +"That's our name for Haviland. You see he looks like you--oh, I can't +explain it to you, Professor; but when you've seen the man you'll +forgive us, I know you will. And you've simply got to stay to our feed +now, if we have to tie you up again to keep you here." + +Professor Lamb, of the botany department, smiled wanly. + +"I think I will take a bath, anyway," he sighed. + + + + +THE SUBSTITUTED FULLBACK. + + + + +The Substituted Fullback. + + + "Shadows, you say, mirages of the brain! + I know not, faith, not I; + Is it more strange the dead should walk again + Than that the quick should die?" + ALDRICH. + + + "Frank Lyman, Football Manager, Stanford University: + + "Blake died three forty-five. Body going East. I return five + train. DIEMANN." + +When he had sent this message to the University, the instructor in +Psychology went gloomily down to the Third and Townsend Street station. + +There was nothing more to be done just then. He had telegraphed to the +dead athlete's parents; the undertakers had their instructions about +shipping the body to Ohio, and the hospital bills would be arranged for +later. He slipped into a single seat at the back of the car to avoid the +chance of a travelling acquaintance. Now that the business part of it +was over, he could not talk to anyone. + +The whole thing had been so sudden that it was hard to feel the truth. +Barely a week ago he had stood on the practice field at the University, +following Blake's splendid play and listening to the shouting of the +crowded bleachers, who idolized their great fullback with the absolute +idolatry of a college crowd. It was not easy to believe that all this +physical manhood, all this intellectual promise, had been snuffed out +like a candle before their very eyes. + +Diemann pressed his face against the car window and stared out at the +terraced produce gardens slipping dimly by in the early November dusk. +Between him and the dead fullback there had been such companionship as +comes now and then to an instructor under thirty and a man nearing the +end of his college course. When Diemann, just home from Germany, came +West to teach Psychology, he found young Blake the college hero. The new +instructor had himself been a noted back; he still hovered somewhere +between enthusiast and fiend. At Stanford he at once identified himself +with the football men, and they welcomed him gladly as assistant coach. +During that first season, two years ago, he had come to know and like +Fred Blake. Later, the fullback took Diemann's course in Psychology, and +to the elder man's gratification, developed a passion for the subject. +The instructor recognized the quality of the athlete's mind, and before +long the two were working together, reading and discussing along the +line of the teacher's special interest. + +Coming home from the sober materialism of Leipzig, Diemann had realized +more fully than ever how thoroughly the interest in matters occult had +pervaded the mind of his native country. To this department of +Psychology he turned with an admitted interest in things unseen and a +confidence in the restraint of his University training. He felt that he +stood barely upon the threshold of the subject, held back by material +prejudice and the conservatism of little faith; yet his enthusiasm grew +daily. He weighed the evidence of phenomena with an impartiality that +other people pronounced belief. The attitude of those about him was for +the most part unsympathetic. Some to whom he had made furtive +confidences called him "spooky," a spiritualist; but he was merely an +investigator, trying to be fair. It was an alluring study; perhaps he +ran the risk of over-enthusiasm--he had known people who had +spiritualized the palpably material--but he was guarding against this +danger; it would take an exceptional impulse ever to get him to that +point. + +It might be that some such temptation was coming to him now. He had just +seen his friend pass into perfect knowledge. Blake had said something to +him at the last that still ran in his ears, above the rumble of the +train. "I will come back, if there is anything in it all." + +Diemann, peering out into the deepening gloom toward the bay shore +faintly white in the luminous mist, thought over this last interview of +theirs; he was finding it hard to realize that their friendship had +ended. + +Only eight days before, he remembered, Blake first complained. It was at +the practice, and Diemann had given him a shot about his listless work. +Fred had answered: + +"I can't help it, Die; I feel dead, somehow. I'm afraid I'm going stale, +after all." + +He recalled the drawn look on Fred's face. But the boy would come out +the next night, for there was only a week before the team would leave +for the Springs, and so much had to be done that the captain simply +couldn't lay off. Toward the end of the practice, he collapsed. With his +arm over Lyman's shoulder he had gone back to the Hall, dragging his +feet heavily, while the crowd sat on the bleachers, quiet and +frightened. Then the pain came, tearing its way into the heroic body, +and the specialist hurriedly summoned from San Francisco had said that +they must get him to the hospital. + +Now it was all over, and Diemann was following his melancholy telegram +to college. He could guess the effect of the news. A week ago the +knowledge of Blake's illness had staggered them; the college had grown +sick at heart; the city papers published details and the hopes of +Berkeley bounded to certainty of victory, for there was only one Blake. +Without him the Stanford team was nothing exceptional, and common +estimate gave the chance to California. The Stanford management did the +only thing they could do by putting in Ashley, the scrub fullback; but +this did not help matters materially. Ashley was a man of beautiful +physique, and the most conscientious player on the field. There he +stopped. He utterly lacked the head-work that Blake put into the game. + +For the star fullback had possessed the football instinct. Beyond his +quickness and dash, he had the mysterious faculty of staying with the +ball. If he were breaking the line, he placed the hole the fraction of +an instant before anyone else perceived it. They used to put him at +quarterback in defensive work, and he knew by inspiration where the play +was going, so that the line felt confident with him at their backs. + +Tom Ashley had nothing of all this. He punted as well as the 'Varsity +man, generally better, at the beginning of the season; but was slow with +his kick, often fatally slow when the 'Varsity broke through the scrub +line. He was late in starting, too, though a strong runner when out in +the field. The chief beauty of his game was a quick and certain +straight-arm. At another time he might have easily been the 'Varsity +fullback, for he put up a hard, steady game from one end of the season +to the other; but he had come to college with Blake, and the position +had been out of the question. Besides, there were a couple of star +halves; he was not good at end, either. So he staid on the Scrub eleven, +and worked doggedly for three years. + +Diemann lay back in the car seat and aimlessly thought of his work with +the substitute the week of Fred's illness. He had done his best with +Ashley, trying to instill into him something of the other's style and +dash. He had talked with him long and carefully, showing him the subtle +points of Blake's game. During the few practices following the star's +departure he had watched the new man faithfully through every play, +giving him all his time. He was sorry for the sub. A man could be placed +in no more exacting position. + +Ordinarily, such a chance would have been a god-send to a scrub player, +for the second-eleven man is the type of the Great Unthanked. Diemann +thought of the three months through which the scrub trains religiously, +sacrificing beloved pipe, or sorority dance, or week's end trip to +Mayfield, or to the Orpheum in town; leaving the "gang" singing in the +moonlit Quad, while he turns in at ten according to pledge; faring day +after day on the same service of rare beef and oatmeal water; getting +pounded and battered about over a hard field every afternoon. Ashley had +had three years of this sort of thing--and all for what? At best, to +squat in football clothes on the side-lines, Thanksgiving day, with +Blake's or Smith's sweater around his neck, waiting for the accident +that may give the game to Berkeley at the same time that it lets him +trot out on the field, while the crowd calls out to him encouragingly, +although they are sick at heart. He goes through each season borne up by +the excitement, working breast to breast with the honored 'Varsity, but +lost in their mighty shadow. When the big day comes he slips back into +the great, wild crowd that lifts the team to its shoulders; worship is +not for him, no, nor remembrance either, in that hour of homage. Such +men, to the bleachers, are but working material for the 'Varsity; the +scrub player is part of an inorganic thing--until his chance comes. + +Yet, when fortune gave Ashley his chance he was not to be envied. To be +put suddenly, at the last moment almost, into the shoes of the college +hero, when the hopes of the University had been centered in that one +man, this was too much for any fellow. In his docile way the substitute +went into the trying place, working along as faithfully, and to all +appearance with as little concern, as in his old position. Secretly, the +responsibility wore upon him. It was a hopeless undertaking to be like +Blake; but everybody expected it of him. He tried his best to grasp the +patient coaching of Diemann and to put it in play at the right time, but +he never seemed quick enough; that cursed slowness of his came in to +show how futile it all was. Everything he did or could do as a football +man was made negative by the fact that he was in Blake's place. It was a +hard graft. + +Diemann had known all along what the fellow was suffering, and he pitied +him. According to Ashley's room-mate, the boy talked in his sleep, all +night sometimes, chiefly about Blake and the play. If they did not look +sharp, the coach said to himself, there might be another stale man on +their hands. + +Diemann had been thinking of this that very morning when he got the +doctor's telegram. The shock had driven out every thought of Ashley and +the team. All through his work with the sub it had not occurred to him +that anything fatal could come to Blake, he had been doing so well; +then, without warning, came the message saying that he was sinking. He +had got there just in time. Now it was all over and he was going back +to college, where Fred would never hear them shout for him again, never +feel an arm about him in the long walks over the hills. + +When the train drew into Palo Alto, Frank Lyman, the football manager, +quiet and sober-faced, stood under the station-light. + +"Can you come to dinner with me?" asked Diemann. + +The two rode along under the oaks to the instructor's Palo Alto +boarding-house. When they were alone upstairs, the manager said: + +"Will you tell me about it? You got up there all right?" + +"Yes," said the other, slowly; "not any too soon. The boy was conscious +at the last, and knew me and talked a bit. It was all football, pretty +much. I don't think he was quite clear enough to talk about other +things." + +"What did he say--that is, anything special?" + +"No; he said he was more than sorry that he wasn't going to get in the +game; it was his last and he wanted to play, but, of course, it wasn't +his fault, and the college wouldn't think he had thrown them down. He'd +never been a quitter, he said." + +"No, never," said the manager. + +"He went on in that strain a good deal; said that he wished that he +could have stayed longer, just to play for them again. At the end he +pressed my hand and said: 'I'll come back somehow, Die, if there is +anything in it.'" + +The Psychology instructor had spoken half in revery. He added quickly: +"He was pretty well gone then, poor old chap, and wandering a little, +and soon after that, why, he went over the line." + +He was sorry for having let that sentence slip out. The student would +not understand it; he could not know what those last words of Blake's +had meant to him, who saw their meaning. Lyman would only think it a bit +of ghastly humor that need not have been repeated. But the manager did +not take it so, evidently. + +"That reminds me of something, Diemann," he said. "I haven't talked it +over with anyone yet, because everybody is sour-balled enough as it is. +It's about Ashley. I'm afraid he is going stale." + +"Yes?" said Diemann, with dull interest, "I've rather been afraid of +it." + +"Of course, I knew he was up on his toes about his job, but I didn't +know just how bad it was until this afternoon. You see, you weren't +here, and after practice there were things to speak about, so I walked +over to the Hall with him. Then I thought I'd rub him myself, because +Billy is overworked, you know. He didn't answer questions for a time, +but lay quite still and looked at me, yet I don't think he saw me at +all. He began to talk away, speaking of himself, in the third person, +mind you, and about his poor play and all that. He was as clean nutty as +any man you ever saw; as near as I could make out he thought he was +Fred." + +Diemann faced the manager. + +"What time was this, Frank?" + +"About five, I think. Shortly afterward I got your telegram. He went on +giving the straightest kind of football talk; but he was no more himself +all the time than I am he. This went on for several minutes; then he got +clear again. Pretty soon he rose and said he was faint, but guessed he +was all right. I didn't know whether to speak to the doctor or not. Now, +that sort of thing won't do; the man can't have such attacks and keep in +shape. If he goes stale, where will we be?" + +"He talked like Blake, did he?" + +"Yes, really he did. He had even Fred's little way of sliding over his +r's. Being troubled about having Fred's place has unstrung him. You've +noticed his absent-mindedness out on the field? I know Ashley pretty +well; he's always been sensitive as to what people think about him; he +likes to feel that he's doing what you expect of him. He was struck on +the head to-day; I don't doubt that's what made him a little off. +Still, his nervous condition must be bad." + +Diemann rose and knocked the ashes out of his pipe. + +"Yes," said he, thoughtfully, "we must watch him. Perhaps we ought to +speak to Dr. Forest; but I'll look after him a while first." + +"Very well. We won't have any practice to-morrow, out of respect to +Fred; we couldn't stand it, any of us; that will give Ashley a rest, +then Friday we have the last practice before going to the Springs." + +"I am going up there with you. I think I'll turn in early to-night; I'm +pretty well knocked. I'll see you in the Quad before noon to-morrow." + +Lyman went, and the Psychology man, refilling his pipe, stared at the +fire and smoked until midnight. + +"I don't know," he thought, as he settled into bed, "it may be only a +case of dual personality, it may be something greater. I've got where I +must guard against myself." + +With an intensified interest, the coach resumed his work over Ashley. He +waited for a recurrence of the phenomenon which Lyman had marked and he +yielded again to the general excitement over the approaching contest. +Absorbed in the two unrelated interests, he gradually came to connect +them. This he kept to himself. + +The last campus practice was half over, the bleachers were crowded. +Across the field the confirmed fiends were standing along the ropes to +get a nearer view of that tangle of human bodies, not a movement of +which escaped them. On the side-lines the privileged advisers, from +rubbers and Freshman manager up to associate coach, squatted on the +adobe, careless of their clothes. + +The whole University had come out. An air of sorrow hung over +everything, the rooters were silent, and the teams played listlessly. + +Frank Lyman went over where the wildest howlers usually sat. + +"Boys," he said, "we can't send the men away like this, it would take +them a week to get over it. We must have some yelling. We're not +honoring the memory of Blake this way. Do you know what his last words +were? He said to Professor Diemann, 'They know I never was a quitter.' +Do you think he would like a practice like this?" + +Then the crowd started up and gave the yell as one man, and the others +joined in until something like the usual demonstration arose about the +field, and the 'Varsity, feeling the inspiration, bent down and hammered +away at the Scrubs as they meant to do against the Blue and Gold on +Thanksgiving day. Here and there a fraternity dog, showing his head +between a pair of golf-clad knees, joined the quick, sharp yell of the +people about him with an imitation that raised a laugh. When the +bleachers were still just before a big play, one could hear in the +breathless silence the slap of the canvas suits, the thud of heavy +shoes, the sniffling of men just out of a scrimmage. Far across the bay, +the hills that were cool and blue when practice began, grew luminously +red in the level light of the dying rays; against the fading color of +the west, the power-house chimney rose picturesquely dark; the swift, +elusive twilight of California settled down on Santa Clara's broad +acres, so that Diemann had to stare hard to follow Ashley's play. Then +the whistle sounded, sharp in the still air, and the teams came trotting +to the side-lines to take their sweaters and caps from devoted admirers +and to stroll off, arm over shoulder, with people who minded not in the +least the campus dirt those heroes had been gathering. + +Diemann took Ashley's arm. "Let's walk together," he said. + +The substitute fullback had been playing hard ball. The gloom hanging +over the first half of the practice had affected him strongly and he had +flung himself into the game, trying to forget, to cast off the foolish +sense of an implied reproach. Diemann could see that he was very tired. +He made him lean upon him, and they started for the Hall. Suddenly he +realized that the football man was not answering questions, that the +weight on his own shoulder was growing heavier. He glanced up into +Ashley's face; there was an absent look in the man's eyes. + +"Fred!" whispered Diemann sharply in his ear. + +"Yes?" answered the fullback; then he shook himself and said: + +"It's chilly, Die, I'm wet. Let's get in." + +Some fifteen minutes later, the two came down the corridor toward the +training table. + +"Good-night, Ashley." + +"Won't you stay to dinner, Diemann?" + +"No, I must go down, and you are late as it is. Hurry along in." + +"All right. I'm not going stale if I can help it. I just felt a little +faint over there; I got pretty tired." + +Diemann stepped up closer to him beside the curving balustrade and +looked the football man steadily in the eyes. + +"You are playing more like Blake every day," he said. + +"I wish I were." + +"We are going to the Springs to-morrow," went on the coach, "and you can +rest. By the way, if I were you I wouldn't say anything about your +feeling faint just now. It would only trouble Lyman and the rest of the +boys." + +"What does it all mean?" Diemann mused as the palms bordering the +bicycle path flashed by him. "There was something about him like Fred, +in his way of speaking, and some of the things he said about the game, +but it stopped there. With all my questioning, I never got a word that +belonged to us two alone. I suppose I must admit that it is merely the +memory of the subjective mind, a case of dual personality brought on by +hyper-æsthetic conditions. Oh, if it were only the other thing, if I +only could know! But it can't be; he would give me some clue, some sign. +Then again the substitution has not come at a critical time, only after +the practice, when Ashley is tired. If it were Fred, he would appear in +the play, he would come at a time like that, if there is anything in +it." + +Diemann gripped his handle-bar tightly as he shot through the sandstone +gates. + +"Oh," he thought, "whatever it is, if it would only come stronger, if I +could only be sure!" + + * * * * * + +On Thanksgiving morning when the long special runs up on the University +track and stops between the Library and Encina, the flaming bunting +looped along its sides starts the excitement of the day. Everybody is +out on the walk, bristling with the College cardinal, from Professor +Grind and his wife to the Jap who cleans house Saturdays. If there is +anyone who cannot or does not want to go up to town to-day, he has +hidden himself in grief or shame. The President wears a ribbon in his +coat, and talks gravely with Professor Diemann, who has been at the +Springs with the team. A knot of students have already determined to get +the Doctor to lead the yell when he comes in to the grounds. They know +he will do it; he is as full of the spirit of the day as any of them. + + "Rah, Rah, Rah, + Rah, Rah, Rah, + Rah, Rah, + Stanford!" + +The engine whistles it, the crowd shouts it, and the +hills give it back again as the laden train slips down to the main line +and starts on its way to town. Streaming with cardinal bunting, it looks +like a burning thing as it rushes over the marsh land, sending the +horses in the field snorting away, and bringing women to the doors of +cottages along the tracks. In their excitement the delirious Sophomores +and Juniors hang out of the windows and throw kisses wildly to these +women, who grin and wave back, doubtless saying something about "them +crazy students." A placid red cow is greeted with cheers, the scarlet +under-flannels of hard-working South San Francisco, flapping merrily +from the line in the November breeze, fan the frenzy, while the engine +toots the yell and the car-windows are aflame with gleaming flags. + +From now on the students besiege the city, and the town is theirs as +surely as if the Mayor had met them at its entrance with a symbolic +golden key. Shop windows are brilliant with the rival colors, the +streets are a shifting riot of red and blue and yellow, with a +plague-spot here and there where some fanatics have striped their derby +hats with blue and gold ribbon, or a color-blind Stanford man flaunts a +villainously purple chrysanthemum. On the curbing, fakirs are selling +shining red Christmas berries and violets and great bursting carnations, +and chrysanthemums like yellow ostrich-plumes. + +Through all this splendor you keep close to Professor Diemann, for you +know he is going to the hotel where the team is, and that stalwart +lineman you are thinking of most to-day is up there with them. You slip +upstairs under the protecting shadow of the associate coach, passing the +suspicious eyes of the trainers and the hurried, unsympathetic glance of +Lyman, the manager, and you find your particular hero lying on his bed +in all the glory of his new sweater with its clean white S, a great +fresh specimen of the lustiest student-body in the world. You take his +hand, almost afraid to squeeze it tightly, lest you cause some harm to +the big frame in which your hopes are centered, and you tell him how +glad you are he has made the team and that we are bound to win. And if +this is his first game, or if some man has pressed him dangerously for +the position he had last year, he will smile and say, "We'll do our +best." Then the rubber comes in and you slip away, wondering why the +beneficence of the Creator to man on earth should have made one fellow +like your idol up there on the bed and another like you, crawling +unnoticed into the street, throwing out your thin, incapable legs in a +quick walk to join your crowd at the restaurant. + +Diemann found Ashley quiet in his room. The fullback was in splendid +fettle; the week at the Springs had done him a world of good. There was +no staleness about him now. It had helped him to be away from the +College, away from that excited crowd that sat on the bleachers and +watched him play, demanding that he be like Blake, who had died. He +breathed more easily in the quiet air of the mountains where the team +had secret practice. People stopped urging him to be like Blake; only +Diemann went over the thing again and again, explaining, reminding. Now +Thanksgiving had come, and the substitute fullback had never felt better +in his life. He would do his best, and they could not say he had not +tried. + +The manager was radiant over Ashley's condition, and the other men +slapped Tom's big shoulders and said that he would put up a good game +for the College. Diemann alone seemed sour-balled. The rest of them knew +how Blake's death had broken him up, but that was no reason, Lyman said, +why he need keep nagging the new fullback about Fred. The College +realized that the two men were hopelessly different, and they were +fairly reconciled by this time. If the boy played the best that was in +him, the team might make it in spite of the odds. It was too bad to take +the spirit out of him by constantly suggesting that he play like Blake. +The manager said this to Diemann, but the coach only shook his head and +answered: + +"It won't do any harm, Frank, and it may possibly work him up to +something like Fred's game." + +But a week's watching at the Springs had made Diemann despondent. The +phenomenon he had witnessed the evening of the last practice had not +appeared again. He had allowed his theories to lead him away into +impossible hopes. The man on the bed was Ashley, slow, normal, in +perfect condition, hopeless, and Ashley he would remain. The chance for +a psychic manifestation ceased when Ashley's football worry was over. +Opportunity had come and gone, unfruitfully. + +That afternoon, the athletic grounds were banked with great flower-beds +of people, where red and blue and yellow blossomed and faded and burst +out again as the teams swayed back and forward on the white-lined +gridiron between. The wild noise of the college yells greeting the +teams, the taunting horns that shattered the music of the rival bands, +the shrill treble of gamins who had climbed over impossible fences, the +hoarse bellow of the brown paper megaphones,--all this tumult had hushed +suddenly into a tense, aching silence in which fingers dug into board +seats and College hearts stopped beating when the teams faced each other +for the kick-off. + +The uproar boomed forth again, and presently the Stanford bleachers +became silent from breathless watching. The first five minutes of play +meant most to the cardinal. In that dozen rushes, they could tell +whether there was a chance of winning or whether the hope of victory had +died with Blake. The first Berkeley play went at the line and crumpled +up without gain; again it held and again, until the crowd felt that +there was more than hope, that the Stanford stone-wall defense would win +out once more. Yet so closely were the teams matched that they swung +back and forth without score for a good half. + +When the game was almost at the end of the second half, the score was +tie, 6-6. But Berkeley was sure of the day. She had forced her +adversaries to their five-yard line, and there were only six minutes +left to play. Stanford took a desperate brace and Berkeley lost the ball +on downs. If only Stanford could gain ground now, or if time could be +called. Nobody wanted a tie, to be sure, but defeat was hard to +accept,--the first time, too. + +Diemann of Stanford crouched on the side-lines with a heart of lead. The +game was lost. What he had looked for, hoping against hope since play +was called, had not happened. Ashley had played his usual hard, +consistent game, straining every muscle, punting longer and higher than +ever before, but missing stupidly some golden chances, the chances Blake +would never have let slip by. Diemann had talked to him between halves, +a few eager words, urging him to quickness, reminding him of Fred. The +substitute had only shaken his head, and muttered that he was doing his +best. Toward the end of the second he had shown the severity of the +strain. Playing his hardest, with despair in his soul, it had told on +him. In the last scrimmages his work had been very ragged. Indeed, the +whole team seemed to have slumped, and the Berkeley line had hammered +them down toward their own goal while precious seconds slipped by. + +Now the men lined up rapidly. Stanford tried an end play. No gain. +Diemann stood back of the team at one side of the goal; he was +struggling hard to be calm, but he did a strange thing. He seized a +small megaphone from the hands of an urchin beside him, and just as they +lined up after Stanford's unsuccessful trial at end, he stepped to the +white goal line and raising the funnel to his lips shouted in a voice +audible to every man on both teams: + +"Now, Fred Blake, play your game!" + +Lyman heard and looked back, wondering. + +Ashley heard. He stared at the grandstand with a bewildered, appealing +face. Then the signal was given. It sent Ashley through tackle. The boy, +feeling as though he had lost the game for his College where the other +man would have won, went into the line with the energy of a forlorn +hope. The Berkeley men gathered their superior force, and the Stanford +team was lifted up and borne back, a gradually shifting mass, to its own +goal line. + +Were they over? The Berkeley crowd yelled, and an exultant sub threw +his sweater in the air. No, the teams were up, and the ball was almost +on the line, not quite. There remained a chance to punt it out of +danger. Could Ashley do it quickly enough? He had been punting too +slowly; the other line could surely get through and block his kick, and +there were only two minutes to play. + +Diemann, rigid with anxiety, saw that a Stanford man still lay on the +ground. Straining his eyes through the dusk, a glance at the team told +him that it was Ashley. The drawn muscles of the instructor's legs +trembled, the blood beat in his temples. Was it coming, at the last +moment? + +As the trainer shot out from the side-lines with bucket and sponge, +Diemann saw Ashley spring up, slap the grimy moleskins of the men +nearest him, and get back into position to kick. Stanford was standing +on her own goal line. He saw the ball snapped back; the fullback kicked +it, in time; then, instead of the long, curving drive that was to save +the day, he saw the ball rise almost straight in the air above the +teams, and he groaned aloud as the Berkeley men broke through, and +people with delirious laughter waved the blue and gold frantically about +him. + +The ball comes down among the struggling players. Suddenly, out of that +jumble of men darts a red-sleeved figure, dashing through the scattered +field, bounding like a stag toward the Berkeley goal. + +The expert eye of the associate coach tells him that, by a marvellous +piece of football instinct, Ashley has found his way through the +confused teams, realizing that he is the only Stanford man on side, and +has caught the ball on the fly and got clear with it. Though they +understand nothing of this, the vast crowd goes shrieking to its feet. +The bewildered teams turn and follow close upon the flying figure, the +speedy Berkeley right-half leading them. Back in the field stands the U. +C. fullback, grimly waiting. The two collide, and the chasing halfback +gains; but the Berkeley back drops to the tackle a fraction of an +instant too late and runs fair against a straight-arm. Tom Ashley, with +the ball clutched tight against his breast, his set face gleaming white +in the half-light, sprints down the long barred space toward victory, +keeping the distance between himself and the straining pack, running as +only one man has ever run for Stanford. + +And Diemann, tearing along the side-line, knows that Ashley himself +never could have done it. + +The fullback falls across the line, the ball gripped in his convulsive +hold, just as the linesman's whistle blows. Diemann is there almost as +soon. He keeps back the frenzied men crowding about them, and bends over +the unconscious player, calling him "Fred" irrationally, while the place +catches fire with the cardinal and Stanford goes mad on the field. + + * * * * * + +Ashley came to consciousness at the hotel. Diemann sat beside him, and +Lyman and Dr. Forest stood by the window. The substitute fullback sat +up. + +"I felt faint just then," he said. "I couldn't help it; you know about +it, Diemann." He looked at the other men. + +"Did they get it over?" he asked. + +Lyman ran across the room. + +"Tom, old man," he said, choking, "you won it for us, and you'll never +be forgotten, you and your run!" + +The fullback looked at him blankly. + +"My run?" he faltered. + +Diemann came between them. + +"Better lie down and rest a bit, my boy; you can talk later." + +Then, turning to the others: + +"You see," he whispered, "he's wandering a little yet." + + + + +TWO PIONEERS AND AN AUDIENCE. + + + + +Two Pioneers and an Audience. + + "The Mother sits beside the bay, + The bay goes down to wed the sea, + And gone ye are, on every tide + Wherever men and waters be!" + + +On the Sunday night following the Game the smoking-room at the Rho house +held the greater part of the Chapter. As a rule, there were not so many +loafing there Sunday nights; that time was generally given either to +sentiment in other places, or to digging out Monday's work upstairs, +while the fire burned for the two or three who seemed never to have any +work more important than magazine reading or solitaire. To-night, +however, nearly every one was gathered there, for two "old men" were +visiting. + +These old men had been out of college for two whole years. One of them +was Ralph Shirlock. If you were at college in his days you knew him by +sight, at least, though you were the mossiest dig that ever kept bright +till morning the attic window of a prof's house on the Row. If you have +come up to College since then, and are sufficiently posted to know that +there have been other annuals before this one just issued by your +friends the Juniors, you have found his picture or his name on every +other page of the earlier editions. Harry Rice, who came with him, was +not half so well known, save to the Faculty and the circle of the +chapter. He was doing very well in business, people said, better than +Shirlock, probably. Rice was a keen fellow, the new men could see that +at a glance; but they did not put an arm about him instinctively in the +after-dinner stroll, as they did about Shirlock. + +The two alumni had spent Sunday calling upon the Faculty in Palo Alto +and the Row, and in post-mortems with some of the football men in +Encina. After dinner, the fellows sat out on the porch, strumming +mandolins and singing. Shirlock had been a star on the Glee Club two +years before, and he sang again the songs the college hummed after him +in those days, while the upper-classmen looked at the Freshmen with a +"now-you-see-what-you've-joined" expression, or nudged each other +reminiscently, until the live-oaks in the pasture almost blended with +the long shadows under them, and hoarse-throated frogs were tuning up in +the irrigating ditches. Then they formed four abreast and went down for +the mail, humming a march song and lifting their hats in concert to +Professor Stillwell and his wife, smiling from their porch. At the +post-office the lines broke and the entire body, except the alumni, +struggled into the over-crowded room ("the daily press" Pellams called +it). This was hardly necessary, since one man could have opened the +fraternity box and distributed the letters; but this is a distinct charm +of Sunday evening at the post-office. Moreover, you never know who may +be standing inside, and if you have forgotten to arrange things ahead it +is sometimes well to be first. + +The pleasant uncertainty of the evening mail being over, the fellows +mixed a while with the sundry groups about the low red building, then +joined forces again, and marched once around the Quad, arm in arm, a +line of sixteen, while Bob Duncan, who had been prepped at a military +school, shouted, "Change step, march," and "Left wheel, march," then +home together, all but two or three, who were called the "Incurables," +and who had plunged back into the shadow of the Quad for Chapel, +perhaps, or some other form of Sabbath evening devotion. This breach of +hospitality the alumni forgave, made indulgent by a sweet sympathy. + +Alas for you, old worshippers at empty shrines! Those divine presences +are gone, new and unknown deities queen it in the ancient temples. Go +back to the hearth where some still know you and talk to the few who +gather around you there, of the old days when you, too, placed your +offering at celestial feet. These men of a new generation, sitting in +places that once were yours, will listen indulgently to your stories of +the past, and hear with patience the odious comparisons you inevitably +make; they will thank you for the advice you give them, and say +something pleasant about your college spirit; then in the morning when +you have taken the early train back to the World, they will go down to +the Quad with their books under their arms and something in their minds +that is anything but your talk of the evening before; the College life +will go on very much as if you had not been back, O wise fossils, and +there will be new graduates going out to learn your lessons and new +undergraduates who will pay no attention to them in turn. So be thankful +for this brief hour before the fire, with its chat as light as the +tobacco smoke floating over "old" man and Freshman lounging together, be +glad of the fellowship that welcomes you, and be content. + +Each couch in the smoking-room had its load of sprawling figures. The +lights were out by this time and the Incurables had come back to the +house and ferreted places for themselves among the tangled golf suits +and 'Varsity sweaters. Duncan had a lamp on the table where he was +"bossing a rabbit"; Pellams said this was the only kind of lab-work in +zoology in which Bob could get credit. A pile of plates warmed before +the fire where Smith was toasting crackers at the end of a sharpened +stick. At the piano, Pellams was softly playing "barber shop" chords. It +was all very lazy and comfortable. The alumni grew reminiscent. + +"This noon while we were walking up from Palo Alto," said Shirlock, +"Mrs. Stanford passed us in her carriage, coming from Chapel, I suppose. +I asked Harry if he remembered how they used to drive about the place +inspecting things, when the Senator was alive." + +"Of course I do," spoke up Rice, "it seems odd that there are so few in +college now who remember them together. To you fellows, I suppose, Mrs. +Stanford is the source of the University. To us who saw them stand +together on the platform that day in October, '91, it is the two +always." + +"Harry, do you remember our serenade at the residence, after they +returned from Washington the first time?" + +"No," answered Rice, "I remember, but I wasn't there. We played a game +somewhere that day and I stayed over and missed the fun." + +"Tell us about it, Ralph," said Duncan, as he emptied the cubes of +cheese into the chafing-dish. + +"Well, you see," said Shirlock, unbraiding himself from two affectionate +under-classmen on the couch and sitting up in the light, "the story +really begins with the first football game, which came off in the spring +of '92, and was ours, as every Freshman can tell you, even though he +doesn't know just what is meant by 'Pioneers.' The day of the game, +Whittemore, the captain, got a telegram from Washington wishing us luck +in our first encounter, and that afternoon we sent back answer in much +the same style that Cæsar used on one occasion--I suppose the little man +to my left here can give me the Latin words?" he added, rumpling the +hair of a horizontal Freshman. + +"Not long afterward the Senator and Mrs. Stanford came back from the +East and someone over in the Hall proposed that we give them a welcome +home. We could get a bigger demonstration there in those days than you +can now, I'll bet; you know everybody who was anybody at all lived in +Encina then; that was the center of the College life, politics began and +grew up there, and it was over there in the old lobby that we started +the Stanford spirit. Things were great, that first year. It's all right +enough here by our own fireside, with our own little gang, but I tell +you honestly if things could have lasted as they were that first year, I +wouldn't have wanted to come over here. We were all together, right in +line for everything, wise or foolish." + +"It was the student body then, all right," put in Rice, "and we had the +Faculty with us too whether we were around the gridiron, where they +first had it, east of the cinder path, you know, learning the yell and +incidentally getting the team into condition for that 14-10, or whether +we were crawling by our lonelies through the fence over in the +vineyard." + + "The days of grapes, + The days of scrapes," + +sang Pellams from the piano. + +"Were there any profs on that flat-car?" interrupted Duncan. He had come +into College while a memory of that pioneer adventure yet lingered. + +"It's unkind to remind us of that affair! No, I don't think there were. +The Faculty had their fun later, and we put mourning wreaths on several +chairs in the dining-room." + +"And you came mighty near getting a bouquet of the same kind, yourself," +said Rice. + +"What was it about the flat-car?" inquired a voice from the pillows. + +"Oh," said Rice, "that was about the first of those senseless +ebullitions of youth that the Shirlock person usually identified himself +with. There was a flat-car standing outside Encina on the track there, +just about where it turns and slopes down crosslots to the main track. +This is just what Ralph and his precious gang wanted, of course; they +thought it would be a bit of innocent, boyish play to have a little free +railroading, so they piled on and turned her loose and slid down to +Mayfield. They barely stopped the car before she switched into the main +line, and they all fell off into the gopher holes along the side and +made for Mayfield, red-eyed. The Faculty raised Ned when they heard +about it, which was proper." + +"I hope the Freshmen will pay particular attention to Mr. Rice," said +Shirlock. "He is a noble influence to any sweet, unfolding soul. I feel +that I should have escaped a great deal of enjoyable sin had I only +known him better those first few weeks." + +Ralph got up for some cigarette tobacco from the skull on the +mantelpiece. + +"Well, the Faculty were with us in about everything," he went on, +rolling a cigarette; "many of them lived in the Hall then." + +"Yes, a number did," put in Rice. "Do you remember, Ralph, the night +that Professor Torts had his little beer-and-skittles party in his +lair, and Burns, who roomed across the passage and who was the worst +bummer in Encina, went down to Fessler, and complained that he couldn't +study because of the noise in that number? And Fessler forgot who roomed +there and came up and gave them Tartarus through the keyhole and nearly +dropped when Torts opened the door?" + +"We all enjoyed that," answered Shirlock. "Why, the profs used to come +to our feeds and jolly up with the crowd. Often they were the best fun +there. It's different now." + +"Oh, I don't know," said Duncan, "they come over off and on, now. Doc +Jordan was here last Sunday to dinner, and Diemann drops in sometimes; +last year he came a lot." + +"Oh, they come over all right," sighed Pellams from the piano. "I had a +report to make one day. I didn't have it done, and I bribed Ted to go +down and tell Engbee I was sick in bed. I was playing cards in here when +Sniffles rushed in and told me the old boy was coming up the street. I +smelt danger and tumbled into bed like a six-day bicyclist, and fixed my +face up with some grease paint and magnesia. Sure enough, he came in, +darkly suspicious, thought he had me all right, but he found a wreck +that melted him. His wife sent me a bunch of violets next morning. For +my part I don't like the Faculty for intimate friends," and Pellams +played "Comrades" with the soft pedal down. + +"It's not the same thing, though, really," persisted Shirlock. "They may +come over here to dinner or perhaps to a smoker, but it's always +Professor So-and-So; his chair is a little higher than any of yours, and +he never forgets the family waiting for him in the Row; in those first +days the family was in most cases beyond the Rockies, or as yet a dream, +and it wasn't always easy to pick out the professor from the jumble of +story-tellers on the bed. + +"Of course, it was all too good to last," the alumnus went on +thoughtfully, "and it wasn't natural it should. We weren't so many then. +When the number increased, I suppose the relations had to change and the +different cliques must separate. I'll admit that there is more in the +life now, it's more complex, there are more institutions and more ways +of having joy; but those were good old days, those first days in Encina +when the crowd was one. + +"I can see them now, can't you, Harry? out on the veranda and the steps +of the Hall after dinner, with the fellows playing ball on the lawn, and +other men sitting up on their window-ledges. The night I started to tell +you about, when we went to serenade Mr. and Mrs. Stanford, we got the +mandolin fellows, the beginning of your present club, and fell in +behind them and started off down the road, past the mausoleum and +through the vineyard--never broke ranks there, either, we were on our +good behavior, besides, it was Spring--and so on over to the house, +where we drew up, and the mandolins played their piece, then we gave the +yell--it was only a few months old, that yell, but it had been loud +enough to knock out a twenty-five-year-old one we met up in town not +long before, and we were proud of it. + +"During the pause that followed, the front door opened and the Senator +stepped out on the porch; a lamp shone on his gray head and on us +fellows in a big black crowd on the gravel below, looking up at him and +cheering. When we stopped he said, very much as though a friend had +driven up, "Gentlemen, will you come in?" and the whole two hundred of +us piled over the piazza, getting a grasp of his hand as we came into +the hall, and a word from Mrs. Stanford, who stood beside him. They took +us into the library; we formed a hollow square, two rows deep on the +sides, and the Founders came into the square and talked to us. I +remember that Mrs. Stanford said, 'We were very glad, young gentlemen, +to hear of your success in baseball,' and what a chill it gave us, just +convalescing from the football fever; but we forgave the mistake when +she asked, a minute later, 'Which is Mr. Clemans?' That blushing hero +with the other ten we forced into the center to be congratulated, and we +sang the new song, 'Rush the Ball Along,' until the bric-à-brac +trembled. + +"When we were quiet again, the Senator talked to us informally, as +though we were in reality his children as he had said we were to be. It +was an earnest talk, about his ideals of what the University was yet to +be, and his hope for their fulfillment; of economy and judicious living; +and of endeavor to be of use to the world. It was a privilege to stand +there listening. He appealed to each one of us individually. We could +not know then how few more such opportunities we were to have. When he +had finished, the dining-room doors slid back--it was a put-up job, that +serenade--and it was Mrs. Stanford's turn. After the supper, we gathered +for a little personal talk with both of them, then we had some more +mandolin music, and Baker sang 'Suwanee River' to Capron's +accompaniment. + +"That evening brought the Founders pretty close to the crowd. It was a +good thing to have happen, it began things right. Then, you know, he +died suddenly, in vacation. I was in Yosemite. When term opened, it was +hard to get used to seeing her driving around the campus alone. I don't +think any of the people who came after those early days can ever be so +loyal to the Founders, to the person of one and the memory of the other, +as we are. I'm sure none of us who went over serenading that night will +ever forget it. It's one of the Pioneer memories." + +Both graduates were looking into the fire. Freshman Haviland snored +softly in the window seat. The eyes of the rest of the chapter were +fastened on the chafing-dish. Shirlock's story had seemed pretty long +and the rarebit sent out a tantalizing odor. + +Duncan called out, "Supper's ready, children," and the heated plates +came clattering up from the hearth, bringing the visitors back from the +far echoes of their own beginnings to the noisy unconcern of a Freshman +year that knew a kind, white-bearded face from pictures only, and never +could understand. + + + + +FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT. + + + + +For the Sake of Argument. + + "For we are frank and twenty + And the spring is in the air!" + HOVEY. + + +"Well!" said Miss Meiggs, spreading across her lap one of the Beta Rhos' +new monogrammed napkins, "I must say _your_ being here is a surprise." + +Pellams answered in vague interrogation, not a little surprised, +himself, to be caught at a "girl-supper." Now that he was cornered, it +would be uselessly impolite to tell her how the Chapter had reasoned and +pleaded with him until at the last minute "Cap" Smith ruined his clever +escape by catching him midway down a porch pillar. Smith, sitting on the +other side of Katharine Graham and wearing the smile of satisfied +revenge, would doubtless enjoy telling it. There was so much of genial +malevolence in that smile that Pellams, the woman-hater, who knew only +enough of the co-eds to avoid them, wondered what sort of a girl he had +been placed next to at supper. He had an intuitive idea that she had +been given him by general consent. An experienced society man would have +scented this at once in the company of Mrs. Perkins, for when there is +a choice of tables, chapter-mothers are apt to sit where there is the +least sentiment; but this was the Junior's début, practically, and he +was conscious of little more than that the fellows had it "in" for him, +and that this girl had begun the conversation by a personal remark. + +"I judged," the girl was saying, not having waited for any explanation, +"that in the milder forms of social entertainment you were somewhat out +of your element." + +Pellams had missed his guess. On sitting down to their small table, he +had decided that the conversation would naturally split into two +divisions of three rather than into three couples, for Mrs. Perkins, +Professor Grind and this Meiggs girl would enjoy themselves together, +leaving him to share Smith's talk with Miss Graham, whose eyes had +somehow an engaging twinkle. The idea was rudely dispelled by Miss +Meiggs's immediate and decidedly personal attack. At least, he would +have preferred to talk about other people, but he faced the music. + +"Oh, I disapprove of them only for myself," he replied, "not for +others." + +"And why for yourself, particularly?" + +The face of the Glee Club's comedian had assumed just the right +seriousness. + +"Because I'm more than susceptible and I don't want to run risks." + +"Your time has come at last, then," put in his captor, Smith, with a +gallant look at Miss Meiggs. + +"Not at all," retorted Pellams, whose combative sense was less rusty +than his skill in compliment. "If I'd been afraid of one exposure like +this, do you think I'd have suggested being on deck to-night?" + +Smith, with a fresh memory of their struggle, laughed at this blocking +move. Katharine Graham, although she did not laugh, enjoyed Pellams's +unconscious "like this." She was a Theta Gamma with Miss Meiggs, and of +late there had been a little rift in their sisterly love. + +The older girl was not disconcerted. She had her estimate of Pellams +Chase, and he was not disproving it. There were certain things she had +long wanted the chance to say to him. + +"I admire your self-restraint under temptation," she said; "it is +characteristic of you in other circumstances, I believe"--this with +discreet emphasis--"but, really, why should you dread letting _this_ +susceptibility get the better of you?" + +Pellams caught the faint sneer in the words. He hoped that Mrs. Perkins +had been talking just then to her Faculty partner. Increasing his +affected earnestness, he replied: + +"Because, when you get gone, it is bound to knock scholarship." + +Here Smith giggled audibly, for Katharine and he were really feigning +talk, being more entertained by the couple across the cloth. Katharine +knew that by this last statement Pellams had sounded a dominant note in +the soul of her opinionated sister. She was not surprised, then, when +Miss Meiggs turned more fully toward the woman-hater. + +"Tell me, are you one of these people who think co-education an evil?" + +"I'm afraid I am." The speech gave Pellams a certain pleasure. There was +nothing about this partner they had given him that tended toward +converting him to the Chapter's point of view as to the advantage of +girls at college. + +"Of course," continued she, "I do not take your remark about scholarship +as worthy of consideration in your case, because I am in one or two of +your classes, when you attend them," and Pellams, listening, gave thanks +that he and Professor Grind opposite had no such relation; "but +monopolized time is really the cry of a good many who would wish to +work, and it is all wrong. There is no reason why we should not come +here and work with you, combining friendship and study. Our presence +here is, in a way, preventive of many worse things." + +Pellams turned his empty salad plate between his fingers. + +"Well," he drawled, "I'm not sure I know what you mean by the worse +things, and I've never been to another college, except Berkeley but I +can't believe as much time is spent on them as some people here give to +girls," this with a dreamy look over Smith's head; "the cigarette heart +can't be much worse than what takes men out of college here, and if you +refer to beer----" + +"I _do_ refer to beer," said Miss Meiggs, in an iced voice. + +"Oh, no!" expostulated the Junior, spreading his hands, "they couldn't +do it!" He looked at her frankly. "You get a head after too much beer," +he went on, reckless as to pronouns and listening professors, "and you +stay sober and work, for awhile, any way. In co-education you don't get +any such call-down until the Committee meets." + +"Don't let him tease you, Miss Meiggs," put in Mrs. Perkins, frowning +mildly at Pellams because of Professor Grind's sphinx-like smile; "he's +making it all up out of his inner consciousness, like the German +philosopher and the--elephant, wasn't it, Professor Grind?" + +"Yes?" answered Miss Meiggs, with a world of irony packed into the +syllable; "your inner consciousness, then, Mr. Chase, proves rather +forcibly that in one case the influence is against refinement, while in +the case of co-education it is all for it. You will grant that, I +think?" + +Quite by accident, Pellams caught Miss Graham's eye. The twinkle there +was a sort of glorified "sic 'im!" + +"On the contrary," said he, perfectly composed, "I think it's the girl +that's refined." + +Miss Meiggs's "_What!_" was almost a shriek. Foo, the table-boy, brought +her just then a plate of creamy rarebit. He had a jacket of luminous +green silk, with the fraternity monogram in white, and he wore his cue +hanging. But the fragrance of the rarebit and the splendor of Foo's +toilet were alike lost upon the aroused Miss Meiggs. Such a statement, +from this man of all others! + +"You are judging us with yourself as a basis of contrast, I fancy!" + +Not displeased at having put her in ill-humor, and refusing a gentle +attempt on Mrs. Perkins' part to lead the conversation elsewhere, he +went on with aggravated seriousness: + +"But there is hope for me here, with the Faculty and with books"--he +choked a little over this; "a man doesn't need to go through from one to +eight love-affairs." + +The champion of co-education sniffed. + +"Nothing was further from my thoughts," said she. "The association of +men and women in an atmosphere of study does not mean sentimentality. +The relation should be normal and helpful, not spoiled by extremes." +Katharine had heard these views before. + +"But they can't dodge the extremes, you see," persisted Pellams. "It's +the place here, the walks and drives in the country and all. Your theory +might work all right at a city college or even at Berkeley, but on this +campus, not so!" + +"The reasoning of inexperience. There are stronger interests in nature +than boy-and-girl foolishness--unless one is idle. Where it results in +that sort of thing, I agree that it is all wrong and prejudicial to +scholarship and thoroughly unnecessary and inexcusable"--with these +words a slow glance at Katharine that spoke of arguments in the past. "A +man does not have to fall in love purely because he and a girl are in +the country at the same time." + +"But all the girls are not like you," began Pellams, and stopped at the +sound of the words. They were not in the least intended to be taken as +he felt that the table-full had taken them. Miss Meiggs put her fork +viciously into the neglected rarebit. In the uncomfortable pause, Mrs. +Perkins flutteringly passed her the cayenne pepper, but Miss Meiggs +ignored the courtesy. She turned to Pellams. + +"Even a love-affair," she snapped, "would benefit you more than the +substitute you have chosen! You are a nice one to argue the refinement +of the college girl! Are you refining yourself, your fraternity or your +favorite side of the student-body by carousing at Mayfield and carrying +the viciousness of that town to others where you may represent the +University?" + +"Oh, I say!" protested the Glee Club man, uneasily, for Grind was on the +Committee; "don't be too hard on me." + +"I'm sure you're unjust to Pellams," said the Chapter-mother, with a +troubled look at her black lamb, who wondered what was coming: "I don't +believe he----" + +Miss Meiggs, peppering her rarebit deliberately, interrupted, with a +little toss of the head. + +"I will ask Mr. Chase one question then." She gathered some of the +cheese upon her fork, and, balancing it midway to her mouth, went on +with a gloating clearness of enunciation. "Please tell us why you came +to the afternoon concert at the Chico Normal School this summer in a +colored shirt and your dress suit, and why you did not sing your part of +the program?" + +"That's two questions," murmured Pellams. He could not look at Mrs. +Perkins, to whom he had made certain solemn promises before that very +trip; but his adversary had turned toward her with a look of righteous +triumph. So deftly that even Pellams barely saw it, Katharine reached +across him and peppered the forkful of rarebit just before the lips of +Miss Meiggs closed over it. His answer was overlooked. + +Mrs. Perkins took the sufferer up to her own room and Katharine vanished +somewhere with Smith. When the tables were removed, a girl sat at the +piano; her song finished, she struck briskly into the "Hot Time," and +every one turned to Pellams. He sang the rag-time as though he were +bursting with fun, while the Chapter sat before him, beaming its +innocent gratitude. But the Glee Club man was singing to one guest +alone, and he could not see her, or Smith either. When two songs had +failed to bring her into view, he stole off upstairs unmolested and lay +for some time with his door locked, grinning before sleep. + +They hammered at his door next morning with appeals for his appearance +at first-hour recitation, and fraternal reminders that he hadn't +sufficient stand-in to cut. Foo went clanging the bell through the +halls, dodging the shoes that flew at him through the door of a man who +had nothing before the fourth hour, and the rush and hurry of late +breakfast-time filled the house. But Pellams lay smoking in his narrow +bed, engaged in the novel task of solving a point of etiquette. The +affair of the night before was to be his final appearance in local +society. His experience in small-talk with Miss Meiggs confirmed his +decision to live a college life into which co-education did not enter +outside his class-rooms. Yet, having once departed from the mode of such +a life, he found himself under an obligation. A co-ed had found him in +trouble and had done the "white" thing by him at a critical moment; even +Jimmy Mason, over at the Hall, could not have stood by him any better. +In an obligation to Jimmy there was no problem--only the matter of time +to do his part--but with a co-ed, Pellams felt that it was different. +She was not a feature of his life. To the woman-hater's mind, if a man +has become indebted to a girl, honor bids him pay the debt, the sooner +the better. He need never see the girl again, once the score is even. +This philosophy evolved, it took another cigarette to decide just how +the balance could be struck, and then Pellams went downstairs to wheedle +a remnant of breakfast from the indulgent Foo. + +Applied to the new element into which he had ventured, something of the +keen observation which the Junior devoted to football practice might +have made the payment of his debt to Katharine Graham a transaction of +less public note. He would have waited, probably, with the brazenness +that characterizes local courtship, at the door of the library and +caught her as she emerged. Or he would have learned what mails she +usually waited for at the post-office and would have lingered until she +had opened her box and had started back toward the Quad pretending to +look over her correspondence. Or else he would have watched her classes +and happened along by accident just as she was coming out for a vacant +hour. But these established forms had escaped his notice. Instead, he +did what he considered the "proper," and drove dashingly up to Roble in +Paulsen's best single rig and his own new fall suit. + +Roble caught sight of him beyond the flower beds, over the heads of the +tall pampas. The news electrified the dormitory. A Freshman stopped her +experimental lab-work with the piano, and joined the others behind the +lace at the parlor windows. A group of girls, chatting on the yellow +railing of the steps, watched the approach of the apparition. Pellams +Chase coming to Roble! Not since the morning Mt. Hamilton was covered +with snow had there been such a phenomenon. + +"I believe he's coming to take Florence to drive!" said a mischievous +Theta Gamma, looking toward Miss Meiggs, who sat frowning at the +approaching buggy. + +"He ought to," laughed Katharine Graham's roommate, "for not telling her +how much red pepper she had put on her rarebit while she was absorbed in +talking to him!" + +"If he's coming for me," said the Senior grimly, "I shall not disappoint +him." + +"What!" cried Katharine; "you wouldn't go with him, Florence! Why, we +none of us met him until last night." + +"Last night I was unfortunately absent-minded," answered Miss Meiggs, +"and I did not say all I wanted to. It wouldn't be a pleasant drive!" + +"He would have you at his mercy--you shan't go!" laughed another girl, +"it would be flying in the face of Providence as well as of Propriety!" + +"I can't imagine whom he's coming for," said Katharine, who was sure +that he was coming for her. She thought out the severe little refusal +she should make him when he had drawn her aside. + +The stranger scraped his buggy wheels delicately along the curbing of +the Roble walk. The group of girls on the steps was an unexpected +ordeal. He caught sight of the amused faces behind the curtains above +him and almost lost his nerve. + +"Rubber!" he growled. He had made many a clever entrance in the student +theatricals, but to-day in climbing out of the buggy he got badly +tangled in the reins. In spite of his desperate will, his face was +growing red. With painfully fixed gaze he came up the steps toward the +Theta Gammas; standing uneasily before them, he blurted out, with no +preliminaries whatever: + +"Miss Graham, would you like to go driving?" + +Katharine straightened and looked at him coolly. One of the girls gave a +little gasp at his impertinence. + +"It isn't customary, I believe," said Katharine, "to ask to go driving +with a girl you have met once, at a supper." + +"Isn't it?" faltered Pellams. There was not a vestige of his usual +bravado about him. Katharine met his honest gaze, hesitated, then said: + +"But I shall be delighted to go, just the same. Will you come in and +wait till I get my things?" + +They curved round the Dormitory lawn and away toward the La Honda +redwoods, leaving the astounded young women on the porch to discuss, as +women sometimes do, the peculiar behavior of their departed sister. + +She explained it to Pellams during the drive. To his surprise, he +learned that he had been hopelessly ill-bred to ask her at all; that had +the invitation not been given before the other girls he should have +driven away alone. As it was, she was in for no end of criticism. She +discouraged any conversation upon the subject of cayenne pepper. +Furthermore, she declared herself in full accord with Florence Meiggs +as regarded love affairs; she believed in them as little as her elder +sister; good-fellowship, without sentiment, was possible and quite +sufficient. Pellams, having resolved upon the utmost good-nature during +the drive, put the pride of the livery stable through her best paces and +allowed his companion to declare her views unquestioned. Toward the end +of the afternoon, he deposited her at the Roble door with a pleasant +feeling that he had done his duty and was through with co-eds forever. + +A wild uproar filled the Rho dining-room when the gallant came in to +dinner, late. With an exasperating readiness of conclusion, the crowd +congratulated him upon his change of heart, they welcomed to their +ranks, with much clinking of water glasses, another true lover, and +Smith sang derisively an adaptation of his own: + + "Pellams Chase, the Glee Club Man, + Swore upon the book + For wife he'd have a cider-can, + For bed the ingle-nook-- + Petticoats he thus forsook!" + +Instead of raising the expected storm of denial, Pellams looked guilty +and uncomfortable. In spite of their knowledge of the man, they did not +divine that their teasing had given him an inspiration. + +[Illustration: THEY DROVE AWAY TOWARD THE LA HONDA REDWOODS.] + +His idea for a josh involved Miss Graham. So he waited for her +deliberately outside the door of the French class next morning; she had +stopped to talk to the instructor after the class had left. Jimmy Mason +and four or five of the regular Quad loafers were talking football on +the curbing. Pellams joined them. Then the gravity of the step he was +about to take came over him with a sense of oppression. He felt much as +on that Easter morning, years before, when his mother had dragged him +out to be confirmed. + +"The Berkeley faculty won't let Dudley play," Mason was saying. "He +hasn't--where are you speeding in such a rush?" he added and then +stopped, paralyzed. + +It is probable that if her eyes had not laughed at him with that twinkle +of good-fellowship which he had noted on the night of the supper, +Pellams never would have had the nerve. That look hauled him over the +Rubicon; they went down the arcade together, in the face of Jimmy Mason, +the loafers, the whole crowd shifting between lectures. Yet the sun +shone as brightly on the palm-circles, the Quadrangle pillars kept their +perpendicular. A little later Mason saw the couple sitting under the +'Ninety-five Oak. He whistled to himself with a look that meant: "You +wait, old josher till you get into the Knockery again!" + +"Now," said Pellams, under the Oak, "you have about the same ideas on +love-affairs as I have and you'll sympathize with me in this thing. When +I got in to dinner last night, the gang gave me the hottest jolly of my +misspent life. They're all alike; they can't understand having a +straight friendship for a girl without it's being a puppy-love. So they +tumble at once that my driving you means I'm yours for keeps. That sort +of a thing makes me tres fatigué and I've a scheme." + +"Not your first, is it?" + +"In what way do you--" + +"I know something of your 'schemes,' young man; that fake fraternity and +the snipe-hunts and an examination in English 1 c." + +"Oh, those!" Pellams did not blush at the record. Instead, he smiled. +His smile was always worth seeing. It was the point of one of his Club +stunts. Every muscle got into the interference and his round face grew +rosy into the roots of his thick brown hair. + +This grin was not lost upon Katharine. + +"What am I to do, pray?" asked she; "pose as Professor of Domestic +Economy?" + +"This is a bird of a josh on the house," he cried. "You'll come in on +it, won't you?" + +"Plans first, before I commit myself. You might want me to elope in a +buggy." + +"Never again!" declared Pellams; "my idea is, why can't we pretend to +have a case on each other--not any passing fancy, but a real peacherino, +like the best of them?" + +Somewhat to his surprise, the girl was not visibly enthusiastic. + +"Just how do I profit, please, if I butcher myself to make your Roman +holiday?" + +"You can die happy, knowing we've pulled their le--bluffed 'em +beautifully. You're down on love-affairs yourself, you told--" + +"Your philosophy of heaven includes a josh on the other fellow, I verily +believe," returned Katharine, smiling; "but it is just possible, you +know--shall I be very frank?" + +"You have been, before!" + +"Well, then, I might, you know, prefer the society of some other men in +college to the exclusive privilege of yours, even with this wonderful +josh thrown in." + +"Who, Smith?" + +"There are others." + +"I know I'm not much of a sq--ladies'-man," he persisted; "but I can +learn, can't I?" + +"Your manners are not very dreadful when you think about them; but oh, +you have lots to master, the little things, you know." + +"I let you carry your books this morning--" + +"Bravo!--if you only learn to think of them sooner--all the little ways +a girl--" + +"Sure--you can teach me and rap my knuckles--" + +"That would be a pleasure. I've wanted to do it for months." + +"And, you see, you'd have the distinction of being the only one I +couldn't hold out against." + +"Oh, above all things, don't be conceited, or I can't think of it." + +"That means you will think of it?" + +"You're really not half bad! You caught _that_ on time. Yes, I'll help +you in your joke, to punish their silliness, but only for a week, on +trial you understand." + +Pellams, gratified, put out his hand, not in fashionable wise, but as he +would grip a man's. Yet in doing so he noted, looking at her fully for +the first time, that the light hair on her temples came down low on the +sides, as his mother's did. + +On the way up to her room, Miss Graham stood for some moments smiling at +an irrelative picture of Westminster Abbey, hanging in the parlor. +Having gone driving before their faces, it was more presentable not to +be dropped. Also, there was an undeniable pleasure in refuting any of +Florence Meiggs's arguments, the one concerning love-affairs and +scholarship, for instance. Besides, he was a dear, amusing thing, and a +perfect novice. + +During the week that followed, Pellams learned a few things. The +experiment was by no means a bore. He discovered that it is easier to be +joshed than to josh--when you know in your heart you have the joke on +the other fellow. He learned the revengefulness of Perkins' nature, old +Ted, who was ragged to death when his case on Lillian Arnold developed +and who now paid him back with interest. He found how great an object of +interest to the co-ed element a man becomes when he is in love. All this +was good for the woman-hater, giving him new views of things and +teaching him patience. Many times during the ordeal he blessed his +dramatic talent. It helped him to pretend a chap when he did not feel +it. It served him in assuming an air of "the game is worth the candle," +when the whole tableful at the house requoted to him certain scathing +remarks on the girl-habit which, in the day of his single blessedness, +he had made to each one of them separately. It was more than useful to +him when he rolled into the "Knockery," the second evening after his sad +condition had become patent, and the assembled company rose to smother +him with sofa cushions and lecture him, with decided seriousness, on the +evil effect of girling. There were times, indeed, when he didn't have to +assume any chap at all, when it came of itself; for example, when the +crowd punned on the girl's name, "Graham gems" was a favorite. Somehow, +he wished that they wouldn't drag in names that way. + +The week ended. He had done beautifully. Looking it over, he was proud +of his achievements. Two evenings at the library; a brazen walk every +day at the 10.30 period, which both had vacant; a stroll in the moonlit +Quad, planned to interest the crowd at the Tuesday evening lecture; two +calls at Roble--that was going it pretty heavy. The whole college was +smiling at them, and the foolish Rho house hugged itself in the blissful +silence of his sarcastic tongue. + +This review of the week delighted Pellams. He hunted up Katharine the +last afternoon and asked for a renewal of the contract. + +She laughed. + +"Are you sure you can help the extremes? You know the Quadrangle and the +walks in the country--" + +"Listen to the Mocking Bird!" gurgled Pellams. He was feeling very well +pleased with things in general. + +[Illustration: A STROLL IN THE MOONLIT QUAD, PLANNED TO INTEREST THE +CROWD AT THE TUESDAY EVENING LECTURE.] + +"The product of the means is a bully good josh," he laughed, "and I'm +not afraid of the product of the extremes; it's only equal to the same +thing--now there's higher mathematics for you!" and Pellams danced the +and she made him be serious and take up his work. The first quarter of +an hour she called him to order twice--first for trying to trap with a +lariat of grass an inquisitive gray lizard spying at them from a +fence-rail; second, for enticing into conversation the huge Danish +hound, whose bark is so much worse than his bite, and who, having been a +pup with the University, knows something of every Stanford "case" ever +developed in the pleasant shade of his domain. After fifteen minutes of +impeccable behavior, Pellams whispered: + +"Say--" + +"Silence!" + +"Well, I'd like to have _some_ attention paid me. Call me down just to +show that you're alive." + +She pointed to his History and subsided into her English Poets. When she +came to earth again, the sun was low beyond the eucalyptus trees. There +was a regular sound near her which she realized having heard for some +time in her sub-consciousness. She peeped over the high-growing root +between them. The man whom she was helping slept peacefully, his book +closed and his mouth open, and only the suspicion of a snore stirring +the quiet autumn air. + +"I shall never have any trouble with him!" thought Katharine, with just +the faintest discontent, as she dropped a twig on his face, by way of +waking him without embarrassment. + +The autumn rains came and the dry, sniffly dust of the campus lay flat +under the quiet air; the clear, fall weather that is mixed in one's mind +with the pungent smell of tarweed in the pasture lands, and with long +exciting afternoon practices, hung cool over the land, and still Pellams +went girling, with his beautiful joke on the college. Katharine's secret +joke on him had succeeded equally well. The woman-hater's class work had +undergone a transfiguration. People noticed it. At the opening of the +term he had put Professor Leyne's course in "Renaissance Poets" on his +schedule card, because it was a proclaimed snap and because two of the +three Rhos who took it the year before had kept their set-papers. +Professor Leyne loved to draw covert allusions from what he called "the +ocean of young life that swells around us." One day he threw out a +direct allusion. Stopping in his remarks about chivalry, he sunk his +voice to an impressive, confidential tone, looking almost directly at +the impassive Pellams in the back row. + +"And I think sometimes," he said, "when I see the youth feeling the +uplifting earnestness of first love--when I see it taking him gently by +the hand and saying to him 'my son, there are higher things'; when I see +him putting his spirit with new zeal to the tasks that are laid before +him, when I see him realizing that life is indeed serious and its end +the fulfilment"--and so on until the bell rang, while the subject of the +eulogy, outwardly calm, grinned fiendishly in his secret soul, for only +himself, the professor and one other knew that he had scored an A on his +last two papers as against a D earlier in the year. The professor +himself did not know that these same papers were a good part Katharine +Graham, who had suggested the ideas to Pellams and had then stood over +him while he put them into his own turgid but interesting English. + +Similar results ensued in French, which they prepared together, and he +so endeared himself to the History professor that that worthy expanded +to the point of a hint at an entrance to the seminary the next semester. +The superior Miss Meiggs, pondering upon the remarkable change in her +classmate, saw with concern this renegade disproving an argument with +which she had enlivened many a Theta Gamma meeting. She never guessed +with what patience Katharine was training his wandering attention. She +was not present during the afternoons of real, quiet study which were +forced out of him between luncheon and football practice. + +By the time their contract, renewed from week to week, had been +operating for two months, Pellams began to wonder just where the point +of the joke came in. People had become used to the condition. The House +could rely on him and his singing, and girls came oftener than ever to +Sunday supper. The Knockery took his affairs as an accepted fact. They +no longer had any new jokes on it. Jimmy Mason grumbled now and then +because his chum was queening "like all the rest of the frat-men," and +their jovial expeditions to Mayfield were over, "because _she_ wouldn't +understand" (most conclusive proof!), but he ended by taking it as he +might have taken an inequality of temper--as a flaw in character to be +overlooked in a friend. Then again, Pellams found it positively uncanny +to be getting on so well in his work, an uneasy feeling as though he +were walking along the edge of a steep place. As for the joke itself, he +could laugh over it with Katharine, but there was no way to spring it. A +josh that has not a public end lacks art. He realized that the idea had +seemed very rich when he conceived it and that he had plunged into it +without considering its finish, and of course an impractical girl +wouldn't look so far ahead. Now, he saw that it had ceased to be a josh +at all, where other people were concerned. + +When he came to the thought of dropping it, he suspected that it was no +longer a josh where he himself was concerned. The realization of this +quite stunned him, the afternoon it came to him. They were sitting below +the Sphinx, at the back of the Mausoleum, and the quail were calling +among the pines. Katharine was reading to him from one of his +text-books. He heard very little of what she read. To him the book kept +repeating that she had the most attractive mouth and chin he had ever +noticed; that the low-drawn hair on her forehead was made to be smoothed +back, very gently, from her clear skin. The consciousness that he could +not give up these study-afternoons came over him with a stab, and told +him that he had not been listening at all well lately; that this was why +he could not remember the stuff in recitation and why he had not dared +to tell her his recent marks. She trusted him so thoroughly now that she +did not stop him so often when he talked, instead of working. If she had +guessed the real reason of his laziness, she would have been honestly +disappointed in him. This was the tragedy of it. He could never let her +suspect that he was not still fooling the Rho house. She was a girl +entirely without sentimentality--this was what he liked in her at first, +and now it was his overthrow. If she should so much as dream that his +feeling toward her was anything more than the friendship he had outlined +in the beginning, she would shut her book with a slap and declare the +compact at an end. He must keep on acting, only his audience had changed +and the people he had been joking with were now behind the scenes, +though they didn't know it. So he would put his chin in his hand and +gaze at her as though the peculiarities of the Renaissance Poets were +his greatest concern. He laughed, too, about the joke itself, finding a +sort of painful relief in _double entendre_. Sometimes his mind +wandered, and when Katharine failed to reprove him, as in the earlier +days of the compact, he felt as though he had betrayed a confidence. +Once they had forgotten all about football practice, and it frightened +him; but she seemed not to have realized the gravity of the thing, and +he laughed the alarming incident away. During lectures, he tried to +reason himself out of the predicament. It was entirely possible that +this feeling toward her was but another instance of habit, a natural +affection for a chum, with some subtle influence of sex combining to +frighten him into thinking it more serious. But he was not entirely +comforted. + +Crises occur properly at the end of a semester. On the evening of +Friday, the closing day, Roble gave an impromptu dance. Katharine made +Pellams come; it would be final evidence in their joke, since he was +known to dislike dances. He agreed to attend, adding his own emphasis to +the reason as stated. Katharine filled out his card for him, allowing +him three dances with herself. The evening began in misery for the +woman-hater, and ended in perturbation of spirit. There were girls, +oceans of them, and not one of them had any sense. Katharine was +different. These girls didn't know when they were joshed, and they +couldn't josh back. They were an uninteresting lot. She had filled his +card with them and he had to hunt them up and dredge his head for +conversation. It was an awful bore. Katharine was the only girl whom he +had ever seemed able to talk with easily, and he had only three little +dances with her. He was savage. + +During the third dance, he was floundering through an absent-minded +conversation with a Freshman girl, whose eyelashes were pale pink, when +Cap Smith glided past him, waltzing with Katharine. They looked as +though they were having a very good time. Pellams felt that Cap, fine +fellow as he was, generally grew too familiar with girls. He noticed +with disapproval the man Katharine drew for the fourth dance, and she +had Cap again for the fifth. He went over after that dance and asked for +her program. Cap was down for two more dances. Pellams gave her back her +card. He laughed a joking sentence on another subject, then he slipped +down stairs and blundered out into the rainy night in a towering rage +at Katharine, at Smith, most of all at himself for being a certain +Thing. + +Jimmy Mason had not attended the Roble dance. Instead, he sat at his +table in the Knockery, going over his accounts as laundry agent. He was +deep in these end-of-semester figures when Pellams burst in at the +window, like a storm-driven creature. People never stand on ceremony at +the Knockery. It is the corner room on the ground floor. The place has +always been the Knockery ever since Mason roomed there, just as the big +room over the old dining-hall will be the "Bull-pen" forever. It is the +universal avenue after the lights are out, and the doors locked. You +open the window as gently as you can and slide in. If the tenants are in +bed, you get through into the hall on tiptoe, if possible; if awake, you +stop and chat a bit by the way of courtesy; no one ever has to study in +this enchanted bower. Moreover, if you do not live in the Hall, if you +are an Alumnus visitor from town, if there are girls at your frat-house, +or if you dwell off the campus and are belated, there are extra blankets +under the lounge in the corner. Make up your own bed and turn in, +without waking the sleepers. You are not crowding anybody. Once a whole +baseball team, with the help of two extra mattresses, slept comfortably +in the Knockery--but that is history. + +When Pellams slammed in and flopped disconsolately into a chair, Mason +looked up, knowing that there was trouble somewhere. + +"What is it?" he asked. No answer. Jimmy rose, locked the door and +closed the ventilator. Then he disposed himself on the lounge. + +"Tell your dad. Is it the girl?" + +Pellams's affirmative was put in language unrepeatable in a book for +young persons. + +"Something gone wrong?" + +"Yes," _etc._ + +Jimmy wished to offer consolation. "Can I do anything?" + +"Yes," growled the man in a dress suit. "You can give me a sweater and +take me to Mayfield!" + +Now Jimmy was a true friend. He would have gone anywhere for Pellams. + +When the dance music at Roble had ceased, and the quiet of the December +night was broken by only the patter of raindrops and the sound of +singing in the Mayfield distance, punctuated by sharp whoops, Jimmy had +got Pellams back to the Knockery pretty well consoled. It might not have +made much difference just then, even if the lover could have known that +over in darkened Roble, Katharine Graham, who did not approve of love +affairs, lay crying herself to sleep. + +Pellams rose late next day, and ate his lunch mournfully at the House. +He was in an exaggerated state of repentance and resolve. After +luncheon he made a sorrowful pilgrimage to the Quad. Here he learned +that he had lost five hours and that the Glee Club would tour the South +without him. + +Chastened in spirit, he asked for Katharine at Roble. She had gone to +Mrs. Stillwell's on the Row. He went again at night, calling late that +she might have her packing finished for the morning steamer. + +By diplomacy, arranged beforehand with the door-girl, he got her +downstairs. There was only a trace of reserve in her manner when she +told him that she had all her packing yet to do, and that she couldn't +walk about the Quad even once; there was more than a trace of +embarrassment about him when he pleaded something very important. + +"Perhaps I know what it is," said she. + +"More than likely you don't," he persisted; "anyhow, I deserve a chance +to explain." + +Katharine went down the steps with him. + +"Well?" she said, on the walk outside. + +"What do you think I want to say?" He was not so brave now. + +"The same thing that I have in my mind, that our little arrangement +would better end. I have got my very first condition through wasting +time on a foolish josh, and I don't believe you've been doing good work +lately." + +"They gave me two of 'em." + +"Indeed? Then Florence Meiggs was right, wasn't she?" + +"Dead right." + +Silence for awhile, then she said: "But you mustn't blame me. I did my +best, and if we both failed it's proof positive that it has to end." + +Another pause, with the whirr of distant machinery breaking the +stillness. No speech on either side until Pellams felt that he must say +something or the blood in his throat would choke him. + +"Do--don't you really know what I wanted you out here for?" + +"Perhaps to insult me further. Pellams!" impetuously, "why did you do +it?" + +"What? flunk?" + +"No. Cut those dances." + +"You ought to know!" + +"Yes; I _do_ know, and your wanting to go to Mayfield was a good, +gentlemanly excuse, and I ought to accept it, I suppose. Of course, it +shouldn't make any difference to me; you have humiliated me enough +already, but you might have considered the other girls." + +"Yes, and you are blaming me for cutting down there when you and Cap +Smith were floating around----" + +"You will please leave Mr. Smith out of the conversation;" she turned +toward the Hall. "I have to go in, the shades are down already." + +Pellams' courage came up with a flash. By blind instinct, he reached out +and caught her hand. She did not struggle, though the moment he released +his pressure she drew her hand away, and quickened her pace. He followed +close, and she turned upon him. + +"This is what I might have expected when I cheapened myself with you! +Will you let me go in?" + +"Not until I have said what I came to say; Katharine, can't you--can't +you guess it? Oh, I know--Kathie, you _must_ have seen it--you know why +I cut the dance--you know"--and again words failed him and he reached +for her hand. + +But she put him off this time. "I am sorry to spoil such a beautiful +piece of acting; but our arrangement is going to end, and this is a +worn-out joke." + +They had come by now to the corner of Roble, where it is indiscreet to +talk over private affairs, and neither said anything until they reached +and mounted the steps into the shadow of the porch. Then she said: + +"After all, since it is over, I won't be unkind. Good-bye. We've had a +pleasant semester, haven't we?" and this time she gave him her hand. + +A girl raised one of the hallway curtains just then. The sudden flash of +light came upon Katharine where she stood with her hand in Pellams'. +She had meant that look, that softening of the eyes, that little quiver +of the mouth, for darkness and concealment, and he caught it all before +she could blot it out with a smile. + +And, having argued to a conclusion, it mattered not to either that Miss +Meiggs stood looking out at them with supreme contempt. + + + + +AN ALUMNI DINNER. + + + + +An Alumni Dinner. + + "And it's we who have to rustle + In the cold, cold world!" + + +Dr. Williamson's landlady would not listen any further. She stood on the +threshold of her lodger's combination of bedroom and office and said, +with an offensively clear enunciation: + +"You haven't any patients, and no more have I any longer, and I want +that money to-morrow or I rent the room." + +The door closed. + +Williamson listened to her footsteps, as hard and uncompromising as her +voice, and when they had ceased he got up from his chair, a despairing +soul. After all, this was the rope's end. He would have to own up to a +failure. + +If Williamson had been a man of more force he would not have +acknowledged so much, perhaps; but he had been conscientious and +faithful to the limit of his understanding, patient to the verge of +philosophy, and the result discouraged him. + +He drew out his last clean collar and put it on, with the vague idea of +going somewhere and doing something--what, he could not have told. His +eyes fell on a framed document hanging near his mirror, a small but +ornate instrument, setting forth that the Faculty and Trustees of the +Leland Stanford Junior University, by virtue of the authority in them +vested, etc., conferred the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry on +Philip Howard Williamson. + +His thoughts turned back toward a morning over four years gone, when he +walked down the platform bearing that "last of his childhood's toys," +and in imagination P.H. Williamson, M. D., held conversation with Philip +Howard Williamson, A. B. + +Williamson, A. B., standing just the other side of the mirror, spoke and +said: + +"It looks as though you were up against it." + +Williamson, M. D., arranging his tie so as to hide his soiled shirt, +answered: + +"I am up against it. And it's your fault." + +Williamson, A. B., did not seem to see it. But he was a conceited +creature, anyway. + +"It's more than half your fault," went on the man on the real side of +the mirror. "You dug and worked, and you thought that if you only kept +ahead of your class in Physiology you had a clean card to success. How +many fellows did you know in college?" + +"Some. I never went in for being popular. There were Trueman, and +Miller, and Rodney--" + +"And how many of them were of the sort to help you? Trueman, without +family or brains, and Miller, who lived in the East, and little Rod--" + +"They were the best I could meet. They were the only ones who understood +that I really wanted people. No one understood how I loved the college +and wanted to be in things. I wasn't good at telling; and besides, I had +my work to do. They knew the way I used to look across the campus on +Spring nights--" + +Williamson, M. D., checked him at this point. That impractical creature +thought that they were talking of friendship, when it was only a +question of Pull. He conveyed that point to the Bachelor. + +"Why didn't you find some friends who would be of use to Me?" he asked, +savagely. "While you were following out sutures and involuntary +reactions, what was Marshall doing? Running for class president and +making the Mandolin Club and getting acquainted with people of some use +to him. He isn't one-two-six with me for ability and never was; but he +has patients to give away, and I--" + +Williamson, A. B., came to bat. + +"You do mightily well to reproach me with all this. How have _you_ done +in making friends? Did you work up any connections at Columbia those +three years? Have you tried to find anyone here in town? What friends +have you except Stanford men? What have you done for yourself, anyway?" + +The other weakly quoted what the Head Demonstrator had said of his +surgery. + +Williamson, A. B., held him to the point: "I also was called the keenest +student of my time," said he; "but it isn't bringing you patients." + +The M. D. broke sullenly away, leaving the A. B. frowning back of the +mirror. These dead selves are so crude! He ended the interview by +slamming out of the house. + +For the twentieth time that week he cast up accounts with himself, as +the electric car sped toward civilization. Assets, one dollar and five +cents, just reduced by a grinding monopoly from a dollar-ten; +liabilities, a laundry bill and six weeks' rent. Truly, a squalid +failure. If he could only hold out a little longer! There was in sight a +situation as consulting physician to a lodge in his father's Order, +which would mean a living at least. He had the promise of it in a +month's time. A loan of twenty-five dollars now would save him, but no +good angel occurred to him, think as he might, and he had nothing he +could afford to pawn. + +Troubled in spirit, he sauntered listlessly up Post street from Kearny. +The mid-day rain had not yet dried from the pavements, and the air was +clear and fresh. Against the last of a January sunset, the tops of the +city were growing indistinct. The personnel of the crowd on the streets +had changed; the promenaders and the cocktail-route procession had +dwindled to a few stragglers. There was less of a press now, and most of +the people were of the class that work until six, belated bookkeepers +and girls from shops and sewing rooms. He watched these toilers with a +vague feeling of envy; he dragged the feeling to the light and found +that he was coveting the day's work just passed. What would not he have +given to be tired at the end of a day of profitable toil? It was the +hour when comfortable people sit down to dinner. + +In front of an art store he saw Lincoln, the _Chronicle_ man, idly +studying the pictures. Williamson had known him as well as he had known +any man at Palo Alto, but he walked by without a word, feeling in no +mood for companionship. A few steps further he turned, and went back and +stood behind his friend. + +"Hello, Phil!" said Lincoln, in cheery surprise. "Well, you are a +stranger! Been keeping pretty close to your office, haven't you?" + +"Yes," answered Williamson, without going into particulars. + +"I haven't happened to get a detail out in your direction and my health +has been unfortunately good, so I haven't seen you for moons, not since +the night at the Zink, last Thanksgiving." + +"You newspaper men see more of the fellows than a man in my profession +can hope to do," said the physician. "It isn't ethics for me to hunt +them up, you know." + +"How is the practice, so far?" + +"Well," answered Williamson, hiding the bitterness of it with a laugh; +"the practice is about all I have got out of it." + +"Not so bad as that, I'll bet," protested Lincoln. "Are you going down +for Commencement, or the Ball, or anything?" + +"No, I shan't be able to get down," answered the other, turning in his +fingers the lonely dollar in his pocket. "That's the worst of the +medical profession," he added, equivocally. + +His thoughts came fast as they stood there in the fading daylight before +the picture-shop. It was entirely probable that Lincoln would lend him +the money he needed, and would lend it gladly. Their college friendship +had been sincere, and a few years do not change a thing like that. He +knew that the man had a good position on the _Chronicle_ and that he +saved a large portion of his money--he had been economical at the +University. Fortune could never smile upon Lincoln sufficiently to work +any material change in his dress; he had always looked like a pauper; +to-day, poverty showed in the journalist rather than in the +carefully-dressed physician. + +Williamson's heart grew lighter. This Stanford man, rising before him in +his hour of desperation, should tide him over his temporary trouble. Of +all the men at the University there had been none who had spoken so +often and so sincerely of the Stanford spirit as Lincoln. Here was a +chance to put it to a test. He knew his man. Williamson felt himself +filled with a faith in Divine Providence. + +But it was not easy to ask the loan. To suggest such a thing is less +difficult to some people than to others. To Williamson it was anything +but a simple thing. He could never broach the subject there on the +sidewalk. The matter must be led up to in some way; to brace in cold +blood was impossible. He moved his fingers in nervous irresolution, and +the dollar touched them significantly. + +"Say, Lew, let's not stand here all night; come to dinner with me, can't +you? We'll have a good Alumni chat; we don't bump into each other very +often." + +He felt horribly hypocritical, yet this was the only way. + +"You haven't had dinner, have you?" he went on, when Lincoln hesitated a +bit. + +"No. I'll be glad to, thank you, Phil. Where do you go?" + +"Let's try Sanguinetti's for the fun of the thing. We can talk down +there, and it won't break us, either." + +They found a corner table in the restaurant. The room wore the quiet +look of Monday evening, the calm that follows the storm of Sunday, when +the place rocks with post-picnic revelry. A squat negro, perched on the +edge of a serving-table by the wall, sang vociferously to a resonant +banjo. Now and then a party of swarthy Latins joined in mildly when the +selections incurred their favor. + +The two college men found it easy chatting. Williamson's dollar had +brought a very good dinner, particularly the chicken and the tortillas; +the claret was abundant and not half bad when jollied with seltzer. He +was trusting to Lincoln for tobacco. + +Still the physician could not bring himself to the point toward which +the dinner was intended to smooth the road. The "Dago red" had mellowed +them both and they talked merrily of the days at Palo Alto, bringing up +one good memory after another, drifting gradually to an exchange of +Alumni personals of which the newspaper man furnished the larger part. +They talked of the men their young University had sent into the distant +parts of the world, youngsters running mines in the Antipodes, with fat +salaries to keep up their courage; of the little Stanford colony in +Western Australia and the Pioneers in China. There were a good many for +so new a college. Then there were the commonplaces who were doing well +at home. The thought of bringing the serious side of his own case into +this chat gave Williamson a chill. It was a foolish bit of pride, but it +was getting harder every minute to down it. He deftly turned the subject +his way. + +"It isn't all prosperity, though. I've noticed that some of them seem to +be up against it lately--just hard luck stories, I suppose. There's +Rawdon, for example." + +Lincoln leaned back comfortably in his chair. + +"Let me tell you a case that has come under my notice lately and see +what you think of it," he said. "I won't mention names, but it's about a +man we both knew at College. He had a place on the paper, the +_Chronicle_, and during the political season did very well; after that +there came a slump and the city editor let him out; the other papers had +no room for him, of course--they were dropping men--and he couldn't get +a thing of any sort to do, though he rustled hard. You know Coles and +Harrison, the boys call them the Stanford Employment Bureau, they have +found quite a number of places for the fellows; but this particular man +was evidently up against it, and there wasn't the smallest symptom of a +job. He managed to get something in the Sunday supps, but barely enough +to keep him alive, and nothing certain. Meanwhile he pawned his things +gradually and grew pretty well discouraged. I remember I heard him say +once, and his laugh covered more than I guessed at the time, that Jewish +holidays ought to be prohibited by state law, since closed doors under +the three balls meant some Stanford man's going hungry. He got down to +bedrock and finally reached the point where he had gone without three +successive meals. Pretty rough, wasn't it?" + +"I should say so," answered Williamson. His own distress was trivial +beside a trouble like this. + +Lincoln fed the alcohol flame burning around the omelet just brought +them. + +"It seems to me," he went on, "that there is a case in which a man is +justified in asking help; he ought to ask it long before he gets to such +a pass as that; if he lets his pride prevent him it's his own fault. We +certainly have carried away from the University something of the spirit +we learned there. I know for my part that such a man has a claim on +whatever help I can give him, and as a Stanford man he has a right to +seek it. Don't you agree with me?" + +Williamson had been waiting through the course of the dinner for a +chance to advance an identical theory. He could not have hoped for a +better opening. + +"Indeed I do," he said. "You have the old Stanford spirit as strong as +ever, haven't you, Lew? Now I want to tell _you_ a story." + +At a table near them a woman who looked as though she had a history, one +that dated far back at that, began to sing--one of those ballads about +home and the wandering boy. The two men tipped back in their chairs and +listened to the song. Williamson was planning what he should say as soon +as it was ended. It would be better to tell the whole thing. + +During the applause that followed, Lincoln dropped his cigarette into +his coffee cup and started to speak. Williamson, unwilling that another +subject should follow the last words they had exchanged, interrupted +him. + +"I have a story, too, Lew, and it's about myself. I don't doubt this is +rather a surprise to you," he went on, noticing the look on the other's +face, "although you know the way of the young physician is hard. The +fact is, I have got to the point where I must get a little temporary +lift or give up the struggle for a while, and I can't bear the thought +of that." + +Then he went on swiftly, ignoring his friend's attempts at interruption, +until he had told the whole story of his uphill work and his defeat. + +"You asked me just now, Lew, if I didn't think one Stanford man should +help another who really needed help, if he could. I put up my last coin +for an opportunity to ask you the same question, but with a different +purpose." + +Lincoln's eyes were moist as he reached across the table and grasped +Williamson's hand. + +"I think you know me well enough, old man, to know my answer to that +question. But you did not let me finish my story. You see, I--er--I'm +the man I was telling you about." + + + + +BOGGS' ELECTION FEED. + + + + +Boggs' Election Feed. + + "Oh think what anxious moments pass between + The birth of plots and their last fatal periods!" + + ADDISON. + + +It would never have happened if Boggs hadn't dropped in on Jimmy Mason +and Pellams when they were cramming for an examination, for, although +Pellams had long "kept an axe" for Boggs, he needed the inspiration of +the moment to swing it like this. It was always so with Pellams' best +things. + +The inspiration in this case came one evening when he and Jimmy were +doing genuine work. People who have seen it declare that the spectacle +of Mason cramming for an examination was one of the show sights of the +University. He generally let things go until the last day of grace; then +with sundry fellow-victims and a motley collection of notes, syllabi, +books, reports--anything on the subject--gathered on the green cloth of +his table, he would start in. Raps might come from time to time on the +locked door; Jimmy would hold up a warning finger for silence, while the +outsider shot through the keyhole such remarks as "Jimmy Mason, loosen +up. You've mixed my clothes again;" or, "Hi, Jimmy! give me the +markings;" or, possibly, hurled a mass of unrepeatable terms at the +unresponsive door. Perhaps his roommate, Marion, would come in when the +lights went out; then Jimmy would call a breathing-spell, during which, +while "Nosey" went to bed behind the portieres, he drew his lamp from +its hiding-place and made strong coffee in the coffee-pot or +chafing-dish, whichever had been washed the more recently. Somewhere in +the small hours the seminary would adjourn with "international +complications," "tendencies of the age," "sub-head B," heating their +brains. Out of bed at seven for a final swift review of the subject, +Mason would sail over to class with a great unbreakfasted hollow beneath +his sweater, to pass freely and gloriously, and to forget the whole mess +by the time he had finished his afternoon nap. + +And to see Jimmy in the seminary itself! How masterfully he kept track +of headings, sub-headings and modifying circumstances! How he could +scent at a day's distance the things which the professor was going to +ask, as well as those he was going to skip! When he said, "Now, old +Morton is heavy on this," the seminary digested the subject in all its +bearings and ramifications; and when he said, "No use looking that up," +they skipped the heading, though pages of syllabi were slighted +thereby. When the wandering mind of Pellams slid off the work, it was +beautiful to see Jimmy lead it back with a word and a look; when he sent +some sleepy Senior to bed with the remark, "You're no more good. Sleep +it off and be fresh to-morrow," Jimmy touched the sublime. + +The glory of it all was that upper-classmen as well as Freshmen put +themselves absolutely under the Sophomore's rule when it was a question +of an examination. Thus does the elective system level all ranks and +give genius opportunity. + +On the night that Boggs dropped in on them, Jimmy and Pellams were +cramming alone. Two seniors who were usually in the group had gone +somewhere to mix up in a complication over Student-Body treasurer. A +Junior seldom out of line was a candidate for the Executive Committee; +he had put his head in at the door to say, "Dead sorry, fellows, but +can't get in it," and then gone down to Palo Alto to make himself +agreeable to a dig girl who had "influence." The popularity of some +people waxes strangely the latter part of April. A Freshman who was +taking the course when he shouldn't and who stood on the dizzy brink of +flunking it, had gone off with a Junior who wanted to stand well with +certain Freshmen of importance, and who had overjoyed the youngster +with an invitation to Mayfield, an event which made flunking clear out +of the University a thing of small moment to the Freshman's mind. + +Pellams alone showed up. He was not in politics; further, he knew the +value to himself of these evenings with Jimmy; not that the syllabi made +much impression on him, but he carried enough to class next day to +shadow forth an apparent knowledge of the subject. This he supplemented +with two or three original reflections that interested the instructor +and slipped him through. It was these flashes of intelligence that made +him worth the labor to Mason. Sometimes he could set the whole seminary +right on an obscure phrase; this made up for an hour of imperfect +attention. + +To-night the two men were hard at it. They sat at opposite sides of the +table, the electric drop-light illuminating the papers between them. + +"Say," said Pellams, "Bob Duncan's the luckiest baby in the bunch. He +doesn't know as much about this course as I do, and he's got +appendicitis, the doctor says--no fake." + +"Now, Pellams," said Mason seriously, "you have to remember Cromwell. He +did all this in sub-headings four to eleven. You've placed him, haven't +you?" + +"The guy that made them keep the powder dry?" + +"The _minister_ Cromwell; you remember _him_--the one who was bald." + +Jimmy had learned that Pellams needed a concrete peg on which to hang +his memories. + +"Oh, sure, I've got him; that throw-away-ambition boy. Hadn't a hair +between him and heaven." + +A knock came at the door. + +"That's it. Sh--sh!" + +"Let me in, Jimmy." The room was still. + +"I know you and Pellams are digging. I won't say a word to either of +you, only give me a smoke." + +"Haven't any," said Jimmy, rapidly transferring a sack of Durham and a +package of papers from the table. + +"Well, let me in, anyway. I want to read by your lamp. Oh, say, open +up!" + +"It's Boggs. If we don't let him in he'll stand and plead in outer +darkness all night." + +The door rattled. Jimmy howled "Ye-e-es!" in a tone of provoked +affirmative, and Boggs was opened unto. + +It would be hard to tell in what way Boggs did not block the seminary. +He found the tobacco by invading Jimmy's sacred drawer during an +absorbing discussion on land tenure; then he rolled and consumed exactly +fourteen cigarettes. Pellams kept count out of the corner of his eye. +Boggs was making smoke in the sunshine of free tobacco. He put his feet +on Mason's laundry packages, freshly stacked in the corner. He broke his +word by talking politics steadily, and finally, when he drew out of the +room just ahead of ten-thirty lights, a double sigh of relief went up +from the crammers. + +"That article needs fixing," said Pellams, meditatively, as Jimmy got +out the chafing-dish and prepared the black coffee that makes additional +pages of syllabi possible before sleep comes. + +"I wonder," said Jimmy, "if he ever bought an ounce of tobacco since he +came here. He's smoked mine every time he could find it since I've been +in college. I remember," here Jimmy stopped to laugh, "that when I was a +Freshmen--you'll bear witness I was a fresh one, too--I used to be +pleased clear to the red at getting all that attention from an +upper-classman. The satisfaction cost me a good many pounds of tobacco, +though." + +"His opinion of himself politically is what kills me. Lyman is his +ideal. He loafs in Frank's room until Frank has had to give up smoking. +It's fun to see him. I was in there the other night. 'How are you going +to stand on the election, Frank?' says Boggsie, as though it were a +conference of the powers. 'Oh, I think Higgins is pretty good,' says +Frank; 'what do you think?' Not that he gave a whoop; he was trying to +be polite. 'Well, I may use my influence for Castleton,' says Boggsie, +with his pet air of mystery. His influence consists of his roommate. +'The deuce you will!' says Frank, with sarcasm. All wasted though, for +Boggsie fairly chapped at the compliment of having surprised him. 'Yes,' +said Boggs, 'that's what I like to see, the office seeking the man; you +know, a fellow ought to wait and go about his business until people +recognize him. I don't like to see a man going around with his hand out, +raking the Freshmen in.' Then he looks around for applause and slopes +out, smoking the last of Lyman's Durham." + +"He rake in the Freshmen! It would cost too much! Boggs wants the office +to seek him, so as to save expense. When he was small I think he must +have been the sort of kid that won't play his marbles for fear that +he'll wear them out. He'd do anything mean to get office, but he won't +spend money for it; he has enough, too; he doesn't have to pinch as he +does, but he hates to spend a nickel when he can worm it out of other +people. I'd love to get a feed out of him in some way; oh, it would +taste good!" + +Pellams' ruddy face glowed fire-red with the dawn of an idea. His +inspiration had come. + +"James Russell Lowell Mason, I'll bet you the price of--anything you +name--that I can get a feed, a genuine, +Mayfield-with-all-accompaniments, a Mayfield +beer-beefsteak-Swiss-cheese-wine-and-song feed out of Boggsie!" + +The aroma of the coffee filled the room. Jimmy polished his stein and a +tumbler and poured for the two of them. + +"But for my principle never to bet on a sure thing, I'd take you," he +answered calmly. "You exclusive frat-men over on the Row" (Pellams was +always loafing around the Hall) "haven't lived long enough with Boggsie +to know him. He's a lobster, Pellams." + +But the fat Junior sat there with mirth shining from every line of his +face, and drank his coffee; then he rolled on the floor in joyous +delirium and beat Jimmy's rugs with an Indian club until the man +overhead jumped out of bed and shouted uncultured things down the +elevator. + +"Jimmy, darling!" cried he, waving a leg in the air for pure rapture, +"Boggsie will treat, sure. We'll get him on his one big weakness; we'll +play politics against pinching; you watch the office seek the man." + +"I don't--" + +"I do. Look here; to-morrow we nominate him. You have a mob on the back +seats applauding like fiends, and I'll be the power behind the throne to +such a campaign of blood, beer and boodle as you never saw, old +Laundry-bags. We'll make Boggsie think he's ahead all the time; we can +get him _some_ votes, you know; and then he's to go away election day +for the sake of the proprieties. I telegraph to him, 'Elected by one +vote. Feed!' We have the feed business all properly worked up by that +time, of course; just sizzling in his brain, and when he gets off the +train we'll meet him with a mob and a brass band, run him to Mayfield or +Menlo, and there'll be a sound of revelry by night at his expense." + +The ruin of this particular cramming seminary was accomplished. The +"coffee hours" were spent in a conference broken by smothered laughter, +and by "Nosey" Marion's sleepy protests from behind the curtains. + +Next day, after Higgins and Castleton had been duly placed in +nomination, Pellams rose from his seat in Chapel and nominated "Lorenzo +Boggs, gentleman and student; a man who has let college politics alone, +never having sought office from his fellow-students until now, when the +office seeks him--Lorenzo Boggs for Student-Body president," amidst a +storm of applause half ironical, half worked up by Jimmy Mason. + +Pellams flunked in the examination; his co-conspirator passed meagerly; +but Pellams' heart lost little of its wonted buoyancy. This was about +the last class of any kind he attended in the week between nomination +and election. From the Row to the Hall and from the Hall to Palo Alto he +moved with an energy rare to his rotund body. It was a new sensation, +politics with a josh behind. He revelled in it. + +"We have to put up some show of constituents, you know," he said to +Mason; "and, as Higgins and Castleton have no strings on me, I might as +well help Boggsie out. Too bad my personal magnetism isn't being +diffused for a more likely candidate." + +"Looks curious," said Jimmy, "the fight Boggs is putting up. Yesterday I +struck the Women's Debating League; they won't vote for Higgins because +they have been credibly informed--by the Castleton people, of +course--that he's bad, and--" + +"You and I should have been nominated, St. James," interrupted Pellams, +crossing his hands on his breast and looking at the gas fixture. + +"And they won't vote for Castleton because they have found out that when +he fixed up the open meeting between his society and theirs he was only +playing for votes." + +"Do you know that Boggs has a girl cousin in Palo Alto? He has worked +her to whoop it up for him down there." + +"His literary society will go for him all right. They are tired of the +way Castleton and Higgins have been waiting for the job to drop down +like a ripe plum. Those two marks have worked the thing too long." + +"Jimmy, you don't mean that Boggs has any chance?" + +"Not a ghost. But we don't have to work up the whole thing; there'll be +enough to make a decent showing and lend an air of truth to that +telegram of ours. What have you done?" + +"Got the Rhos, anyway. We won't vote for anyone as a frat; the fellows +hate Castleton on account of that Annual-board election last Christmas, +and Higgins has thrown mud at us that we know of. I've about signed them +all, except Duncan. Bob knew Higgins' wife's cousin in some dark corner +of the country. Say, it's funny how tired people in general are getting +of Higgins and Castleton and their gang politics. At Palo Alto yesterday +I heard a crowd talking about it. 'Down with organized politics,' they +said, and one of them who works in the laboratory with Boggsie said he +was going to vote for modest merit." + +"Keep it going, Pellams, it won't hurt. Soothe his feelings beautifully +after the banquet. I have it all fixed up to get him off the campus." + +Higgins' stock went down wonderfully in the next few days. Higgins, said +the Castleton men, had pulled wires and worked combinations ever since +he had been in the University. It hurts a College politician to have it +known that he has been in politics. They pointed to his rather doubtful +record as a member of the _Daily Palo Alto_ board. The sins of his +Freshman days rose up against him when they touched on the fact that he +had been elected class-president on a barb ticket, and had immediately +gone over to the enemy in a fraternity house. Finally, to fill his cup, +a Freshman, who had withstood fraternity blandishments for a year, +glided through the hands of the Gamma Chi Taus, who fully believed they +had him, and appeared on the very Sunday preceding election in all the +glory of Higgins' frat pin. It was a bad slip; right there it cost +fifteen Gamma Chi votes with a large girl following. + +"It isn't the swell girls that count for numbers, anyway," reflected the +Higgins' supporters, wisely, and they turned to the cultivation of the +dig girl who trails up the cinder paths mornings at eight, and who lives +in the library during football practice. But the girl cousin of Boggs +had been there to good purpose when they turned in that direction, and +Roble only showed Castleton still ahead. Then a not over-scrupulous +Junior in Higgins' trail started a story on Castleton, a tale calculated +to put him in the same category, so far as being "bad" was concerned. +Wednesday evening the anecdote reached Roble; a girl who had a brother +heard it spreading at dinner, and by noon next day half the girls in +Roble had their opinion of a crowd that would start such a malicious +libel on Mr. Castleton "just to get votes." The Encina politicians did +not know Roble girls for nothing. + +So it happened on Thursday that Pellams clumped breathlessly into +Jimmy's room with a still wet copy of the _Daily_ and tragically pointed +to the notice: "_Withdrawal_: I hereby withdraw from my candidacy for +Student-Body presidency in favor of Lorenzo Boggs. Andrew Higgins." + +"Ye gods," gasped the Sophomore, "he can't win, Pellams, he can't! +Castleton gets it sure. For heaven's sake, don't put the gang on to this +until after to-morrow, though. I wouldn't have the double-cross worked +on us for a cool ten credits." + +Fair dawned the day that was to float or to wreck so many little hopes. +There are two periods of the year when the professor who has been young +forgets the roll-call, and the one who never has been, remembers it. The +first period comes in late November; the other is the morning of the +Student-Body election. + +With consummate tact, Jimmy had come to an understanding with Boggs as +to the propriety of his leaving the campus during the election. + +"You see, you stand a splendid show of getting it," he explained, "and +the appropriate thing for you is to keep out of sight. When Pellams +nominated you he made a point out of the fact that the office was +seeking you; that has been a leading feature of the campaign, and it has +won you lots of votes. You must not spoil the impression you have made +for yourself and which we have emphasized all along. See?" + +Boggs saw, or thought he did, and went to town, ostensibly to carry out +a commission for Pellams, but not before he had rallied some of his +constituents and given them final instructions. It was wonderful to see +what a variety of tastes and interests were represented. An older +politician would have scented danger from the fact that so many of them +had never come out into the arena before; but Jimmy only looked with +smiling curiosity on the Ethics major or the Education "shark," dug up +somewhere from their abstruse speculations. + +It was on their way to the station that Jimmy touched on the remaining +issue of the campaign which he was managing. + +"You remember my speaking about a feed the other day? I ought to have +spoken more fully, but I've been busy with other details." + +"Oh,"--began Boggs. + +"You know the custom," cut in the conspirator; "it will be expected of +you if you get the office; it ought to come off to-night to be done +properly." + +"That will all be attended to," said Boggs calmly. + +"You've seen about it?" + +"It's all fixed." + +"There'll be a lot of them; they will meet you at the train and you'll +have to do it in shape. I can lend you a little." + +"Thanks, old man," said the victim, squeezing Mason's arm, "but just you +leave that to me. It's all arranged to do the square thing by the people +who have stood in with me. So long. Look out for me, won't you? I'll be +down on the Flyer." + +When Jimmy got back to the Quadrangle there was a shifting mass about +the polls. Encina politicians were there, Palo Alto politicians, +serious-looking fellows from the Camp, and spruce ones from the Row. +Castleton's followers stood in groups, looking smug and confident, while +sour-faced Higgins people were revengefully putting in all their work +for Boggs. + +Every election has its Mark Hanna; this time it was Jennie Brown, whom +Pellams knew as "Boggsie's dig girl cousin." She was the silent spirit +of the whole Boggs campaign. Mason, in telling the story of it +afterward, said: + +"Pellams and I were there when the polls opened. That girl was on hand, +too, with a gang of Palo Alto girls all ready to start things for +Boggsie. Well, you ought to have seen her. Heaven help us and our +masculine schemes if they get women suffrage and the Brown lives. At +ten-thirty in the first rush she steered a whole Education class, worked +them beautifully past Castleton's hungry heelers, right up to the +ballot-box. _She_ wasn't working combinations; it cut no ice with her +how they voted for managers, and treasurers and editors, so long as they +were solid for Lorenzo Boggs. + +[Illustration: ... THEN A LULL DURING CLASS.] + +"I numbered them off as they voted, and I could see that things were +going darkly and suspiciously for our friend the Lobster. 'What do you +think of it?' says Pellams. He was getting excited. 'We didn't know our +power, did we? Look at the votes he's rolling up. Say, we're corkers and +never knew it!' A few classes from the respectable part of the Quad, +where they do Political Science, came drifting along then with votes for +Castleton, and it went Castleton for awhile; then a lull during +class, followed by a scattering vote for Boggs. It was about an even +thing during eleven-thirty break, with Castleton still ahead. The frat +votes fell in bunches in the biggest rush at noon; I could catch old +Boggsie's name marked on most of them, but Castleton was full fifty to +the good then. I bolted lunch with Pellams at his house and came back to +the Quad. Things were beginning to happen. People I never heard of, the +kind of bird that floats in and out on the train and probably doesn't +know there is a Student-Body with troubles of its own; digs, crawling +out into the light, blinking away at the line; Laboratory fiends in +squads, actually losing twenty minutes of precious credit,--the darndest +crowd of resurrected stiffs the Quad ever saw, strung out from the +registrar's office to the polls, every last one of them squeezing a +ballot properly marked ahead, all looking as if it were a conferring of +degrees, serious as hell, you know, and the eye of the Brown girl or of +one of her crowd fastened on each of them. Poor Castleton, he was a +goner! His heelers got up against this line of sphinxes and fell back, +done up. It was two o'clock and after; still the vote rolled up. At +two-thirty they closed shop, and Pellams and I fell on each other's +chests behind a pillar, and busted at the josh on ourselves. + +"Then we went over to get the figures of our triumph. 'Boggs, 402; +Castleton, 375,' and the biggest vote in the history of the office. +Well, you bet we went down to the train! Couldn't freeze _us_ out! We +were going to pry open the Lobster's claws and use them for a corkscrew. +So we piled into a 'bus. But, honest, we were paralyzed. + +"Down at the station was the conquering Brown with her people, all +watching for the train. Say, when Boggsie saw the whole gang of us, he +was a balloon. He got up on a truck and made us a speech of thanks. +Pellams and I yelled 'Hear, Hear,' right along. Oh, it was awful! He +gave us the whole history of the Student-Body from the days of +'Ninety-one up. Finally Pellams couldn't stand it any longer and called +out, 'Good boy, Boggsie. How about that feed?' and Boggsie waved his +hand like a Tuesday evening spieler and said, 'I have provided for that, +ladies and gentlemen. Miss Brown, my cousin, invites you all down to her +home in Palo Alto for a little refreshment. Everyone is welcome.' + +"I had to pick my fat friend up. Boggsie's getting out of the whole +thing without spending a bean knocked him cold. But he got his wind +later. You ought to have heard his speech down there at the house, with +a plate of melted strawberry muck in one hand and a glass of sour in the +other, replying to Boggsie's vote of thanks to us two, and skinning his +face at the Brown girl. Oh, it was a peach!" + + + + +IN THE DARK DAYS. + + + + +In the Dark Days. + + + "Mrs. Leland Stanford has decided to sell her jewels to keep + open the doors of the University." + + ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS, 1896. + + +Bonita, mother of racers, stood just beyond the shadow of an oak tree, +leisurely cropping the new pasture grass. Occasionally, she lifted her +head toward the red roofs of the University buildings as though she +expected somebody. The chimney sent up a stripe of black against patches +of cloud and sky, and the even hum of the shops came across the pasture +with a distinctness born of the motionless Spring air. Bonita, putting +her pointed ears forward, could catch the upper notes of the chorus, +rehearsing in the Chapel. + +Such a day as this should bring Craig into the pastures. He could lean +on the fence and pull at his pipe to his heart's content. The brood-mare +did not fancy the smoke, but she liked to have him talk to her. There +were a number of interests they had in common; the smell of the new +grass, the tempting silver-green of willows budding along the lake +beyond the fence, delighted him, too, while Bonita herself was deeply +interested in his University. + +She could remember perfectly the days when the ranch spread undisturbed +from her paddock in the stockfarm yard to the deep shadows of the +Arboretum. Then she was only a colt, to be sure; but the world beyond +the paddock fence interested her. The grooms in the yard were not more +sorry than she herself that the last colt from a famous sire should be a +filly with an imperfect ankle-joint. When they took the other colts out +of the paddock to put them through their morning lessons around the +little ring in the kindergarten, she wished mightily to follow. She +turned about the corral at a good speed to show them that she had the +proper spirit of her blood, but they always shut the red gate too soon +and the others went on up the road impudently flicking their fuzzy tails +at her. + +A gray-bearded man with kindly eyes, whom they called the "Governor," +used to drive up under the blossoming eucalyptus trees every now and +then; he stopped one day by her paddock and came to look at her. Bonita +liked him at once, and she paid him the most delicate attention she knew +by trying to eat his clothes. The Governor laughed as he put her off, +and said that it was too bad about her ankle. Then he drove over to +watch the kindergarten learn the alphabet of race-winning. + +Later, she watched her fellows go lightly down the road to the stock car +and rumble away over the track to the main line and on to the great +world where men put trust in them and sent them back to the Farm with +newspaper clippings and horseshoe wreaths made of immortelles with the +figure 2-and-a-fraction in the middle. + +When she was grown and they had put her out in a side pasture, there +were some new stables there, with a lot of men thronging round them who +did not look like grooms. The knowledge that something of importance to +the world was about to happen the other side of the fence made her feel +more contented. If she could not travel in a box car to see such things, +it was good to have some of the excitement of it brought in to the +ranch. + +At first she did not notice much, being deeply interested just then in +the early education of Fenelon, 2.10-1/4, who was a fretful infant and +took up most of her time. When he had passed out of her immediate care +and was cropping sweet alfalfa with the rest, she watched curiously the +foundations sinking into the grass, the crowd of people who came one May +morning to hear things said round a block of yellow sandstone, the +fitting of the red tiling above the stone walls. By this time she knew +the reason of it all; the dead heir, the monument, the boys and girls +who were coming to be taught in this great kindergarten. Finally, when +these had poured into the place, some of them straggled out into the +pasture and made friends with her. From them she learned more definitely +the great things that had been done and were about to happen; they told +her of the wonderful endowment, of the strangers from corners of the +world never reached even by the lucky horses who had rolled away in the +box cars, of the numberless buildings that were to surround and dwarf +the structures she had seen grow up in the sun. + +"The Governor" had driven less often through the yard since the yellow +buildings were up, and the boys and girls playing among them. After +awhile he ceased to come altogether. Then Bonita, the brood-mare, +understood that something had happened. It was more quiet everywhere +after this. Most of the horses and mares, her colts among them, went off +in the cars, not to come back, they told her. She stood under the dark +oaks for hours at a time, fearing lest they would send her, too. Her +longing for the world was past now; she wished to be left in the quiet +pastures with the students to talk to. + +It was during these days that Craig, who taught something to the younger +people, used to lean on the fence and smoke during the afternoons. He +was not much older than many of the students she knew, and she liked +him particularly. He had lumps of something white and sweet, and he +rubbed her head in exactly the right spot. When she had won his +confidence, he told her many things about himself and the College. Once +he had been at another place, a college older than this by a long time +but not so famous. The Overseer of this one had written him to come and +teach there, at a better salary. He explained to her what this +meant--money for the support of his mother, and in a few years the study +in Europe of which he dreamed, and for which he worked and saved, and +beside this the growing up with a new university, from an instructorship +in the present to a full professorship in the wonderful future. He told +her what was promised him, and showed her a picture once of the plan of +the completed university, with its arch and chapel tower and the great +mechanical shops spreading back across her shady pasture to the borders +of the lake. + +Then she learned what the death of "the Governor" had brought upon them; +why the horses had been sold and why there were no more hammers nor +chisels ringing against the stone. The farm was losing a thousand +dollars a day, and the Government had seized upon the money they were +building the monument with and was trying to wrest it entirely from the +woman who had stopped once to pet the brood-mare when "the Governor" +was driving in the yard. These things were hard to understand. There +had never been any question of money here that Bonita could remember. + +One day she had nosed vainly for the sugar he used to bring; Craig told +her that for two months he had had no money to give his mother; that if +it wasn't for a grocer in Mayfield who was kind to people in trouble, +they would have had nothing to eat. Bonita, remembering the students she +had seen gathering mushrooms, suggested grass; but he told her, +laughing, that only one man to his knowledge had ever lived that way and +he was a king, long ago, in the holy times. He, Craig, would have to +have money. In an old vest he had worn in the East, his mother found a +few pennies and had walked to Palo Alto and spent them for stamps for +the sake of paying for something. After this explanation, Bonita did not +hunt for sugar. + +Although things grew easier after a time, Craig was gloomy enough during +the afternoons when they talked across the fence. Once "the Governor's +Wife" had been given five hundred dollars to pay her servants, and she +had given it to the Overseer for his teachers. But the Overseer had +begun at the houses where there were the most children, and he had not +got around to Craig, who had only a mother. When temptation came to +him, he told Bonita about it and asked her advice. A letter had come to +him with an offer from his old college; it meant a full salary and the +hope of Europe. It was everything to him, he said, but he couldn't bear +to go away. The brood-mare had put her nose affectionately against his +arm. She understood little about the salary, but she knew how dreadful +it would be to leave the pasture. The man must have understood, for +after being quiet a long time and smoking harder than ever, he said that +he was going to stay. But many times after that, when other offers came, +he told her how hard it was to decide and how black everything looked +for the University. The Government was pulling at the fund, and the lady +who was building the monument was going to sell her precious things to +get money. + +The last time Craig leaned on the fence and whistled to her, he had been +very unhappy. Since then Bonita had not seen him. She was afraid that +he, too, had gone, after all, as the horses and grooms had gone, without +even a good-bye. She felt that if he had finally decided to give it up, +the smoke must fade away above the top of the chimney and the voices +cease altogether. + +But to-day, when the clouds were breaking and the clear blue of +summer-time looked down between them, the chimney-smoke was blacker than +ever and across by the lake fence some young people were pulling +mushrooms and laughing. Bonita looked over toward the buildings. Then +she cropped grass again, for only a gurgling meadow-lark broke the line +of the fence-rail. + +Suddenly she heard Craig's low whistle. He had come out from the +Wood-shop and put his elbows on the fence, his pipe sending up clear, +white smoke. Stopping now and then for a blade of grass, to show that +she was not too eager, the brood-mare walked slowly up to him. He was +not happy, as she had expected to find him. His brow was puckered and +his lips shut tightly on the stem of his pipe. Bonita put her nose over +the fence. The instructor took his pipe from his mouth and rubbed her +cheek slowly with the back of his knuckles. + +"Well, old girl," he said, "I'm afraid you and I won't have many more +talks over this fence." + +The brood-mare looked at him with questioning eyes. + +"I plead guilty," he went on, "I oughtn't to have kept the secret from +you, I know. The minute I got the letter I should have come out to tell +you about it, but it was raining; honestly, it was." + +He gave her a lump of sugar by way of conciliation. + +"You see, I couldn't resist this one," he continued, while the sugar +crunched under her teeth; "it's a big honor and three thousand a year, +and I've got to do something; now, haven't I?" + +His tone was doubtful, as though he were hardly sure of her opinion. The +meadow-lark which he had disturbed was releasing the joy of its full +throat under a shaft of sunlight further down the fence. The air hung +over them, sweet with the fragrance of the freshened pasture, charged +with the mysterious power of a Santa Clara Spring. No man, or horse, who +has caught that smell, ever forgets the valley of the Saint. Bonita was +looking across the green to the mushroom gatherers. + +Craig spoke, a little petulantly. + +"You never agree with me about my going, anyway. You seem to think that +the beauty of this campus and the freedom of everything here is argument +enough. But it's all too uncertain. I've told you that my salary is cut +away down and I'm not any too sure of ever having it made up to me; as +it is, we assistants are here only because the heads decided to cut +their own pay and keep us for the sake of the departments. If the suit +is lost, it's good-bye, anyway. I can't believe you have much idea that +we're going to win it to-morrow. It went for us in the lower courts, +here in California, but do you think that the Supreme Court of these +selfish and United States is going to decide for us just because they +were gallant enough to Mrs. Stanford to hurry the case up in the +calendar and cut short her suspense? You don't understand things, if you +think so. Out here where you live, the rains may be late and the grass +seem never coming, but you know it'll rain sooner or later, and you're +getting hay right along and it doesn't take much water to bring up what +you want. But with me it's different. We're going to get a weather +prediction from Washington to-morrow that'll tell us definitely whether +it's to be winter for keeps around here or summer and a good crop." + +The instructor leaned on the fence and puffed on at his pipe. Bonita +endured the smoke that clung around them in the still air, for she felt +that they were at a crisis. She drew up closer to the rails and put her +head against the instructor's shoulder. Suddenly, the man let his pipe +fall into the grass and he laid his face against her soft, gray nose. + +"You're a good old girl," he said, "and you know more about it than +anyone. But you haven't any money question to worry you. You don't love +the place a bit more than I do; you don't love it as much, because you +only know the nature side of it, and I know the bigness of the rest of +it, too. But the hope's almost dead, old lady; I can't tie my ambitions +to a corpse, you wouldn't ask me to, and you know I'm not the only one +to be looked after. But, oh, it'll be hard to go, won't it! There's +something that grips you where you live--you understand it." + +The brood-mare did not pull away, although he was holding her head +tightly in his hot hands. + +"If it all goes smash to-morrow and I can ever raise the money, I'm +going to send back for you, my beauty. You're getting too old to bring +much now, and you'll have to go sure if the Government wins." + +Bonita lifted her head suddenly. A drop of cold rain had fallen against +her face. The clouds had drawn together sulkily above them. Across the +intervening turf hastened the mushroom gatherers, their baskets full of +the brown and white trophies. Craig picked up his pipe. + +"Good-bye," he said, with a caress. "I'll come over to-morrow and tell +you the final news." + +Bonita had never shown him how much she really cared, true to her +feminine reserve; but to-day, leaning her slender neck far over the +fence, she whinnied after him until he stopped at the corner of the +Power-house and waved back to her. Then she cropped grass slowly while +it began to sprinkle. + +Next morning, when the second hour was about half through, a feeling of +excitement filled the Quad and penetrated the classrooms. Craig's +students were not paying very creditable attention to his lecture. He +himself was keeping his mind on the syllabus with considerable +difficulty. When someone passed the window and the eyes of the entire +class, including even the enthusiastic dig on the front seat, were +turned that way, Craig let his own wander and hesitated the least bit in +his talk. + +All at once, like a thunderclap, a half-dozen voices somewhere in the +Quad gave the yell. Craig stopped speaking and looked at the class, who +gazed back at him. A man with his back to the windows stood up and +looked out. The seats creaked ominously. Then, like grass after a +breeze, the whole class rose and craned necks at the window. + +The instructor, coming to himself, began feebly: + +"If you please--" + +Again the yell, not the desperate cry that is wrung out to cheer a +losing team, but the voice of victory, of joy and of great relief. + +Professor Craig went out of his classroom like a shot, the class after +him. + +There was a triumphal parade to the station, with flags and the entire +population of Roble beating time with dust-pans and brooms, to meet the +President who had sent the happy telegram. There were songs and speeches +and demonstrations in front of Xasmin House, with fellows hugging each +other or swinging round in side-line fashion, girls crying, and the +President's parrot incidentally learning the yell. Then, at night, the +alumni poured in on the trains from north and south, stirring the tumult +anew. Gay lanterns jewelled the porches of the Row, the Gym blazed with +light for more speeches and football songs, with no thought of football +in the singing of them, and round and round the shadowy Quad, where the +yell flashed in electric letters, went a wild carnival procession of men +and women, with torches and noise-machines, and Instructor Craig at +their head. + +The gleam of the unusual lights, the happy shouts, and the clamor of +firecrackers, came in mingled confusion across to the dark pasture where +Bonita stood by the fence with her head raised and her pointed ears +forward. Craig had not come that afternoon to tell her the final truth; +but, listening and watching from the shadow, she did not feel that he +had gone away. + +When she did see him again, he wore a new suit and, what was more +important, its pockets bulged with sugar. She was very glad to see him, +of course, but her greeting was an indifferent one after all; for she +was preoccupied, just then, with the infant needs of Pronto 2:17-3/4, +and could not stop to interest herself in the fact that the youngest of +the universities had been saved for all time. + + + + +CROSSROADS. + + + + +Crossroads. + + "Oh see ye not yon narrow road + So thick beset wi' thorns and briers? + That is the Path of Righteousness, + Though after it but few inquires. + + "And see ye not yon braid, braid road, + That lies across the lily leven? + That is the Path of Wickedness, + Though some call that the road to Heaven." + + THOMAS THE RHYMER. + + +I. + +The regular after-dinner crowd was smoking in Frank Lyman's Encina +boudoir, lolling over his sofa, their feet on his table, their legs +tangled on his iron bedstead. The steam heat was coming "Clank! clank!" +into the radiators, for it was a cold, clear evening in the time between +rains. Outside the fog was thick upon the hills, sending gray +ghost-fingers over toward the valley. You could lean from the window and +smell its clean moisture, mingling with the scent of young plants in the +fresh-turned earth. Frank himself sat close to the window and looked out +toward the gymnasium, because he had discovered a new amusement. There +was a section of the board walk between Encina and the gym which was +flooded just to its top by a pool from the late rain, so that if you +stepped heavily thereon the plank gave a bit and dropped you into the +water. The diversion consisted in betting with "Pegasus" Langdon on the +style of crossing adopted by chance wayfarers. The stakes were five +cents a corner. Frank backed the class who took the thing at one bound; +"Peg" laid his coin on those who went over on their tiptoes, trying not +to spring the plank into the water. For every one who did neither, but +walked around the puddle, five cents a corner went into the tobacco +fund. It was just as good as matching nickels and involved less +exertion. + +There is a theory in the Hall that you can tell a man's habits by the +rooms he occupies there. The nearer he gets to the corner fronting on +the baseball field, the more sociable is his nature. Those who hold the +rooms at that corner or on the second or third floors, so as to be in +easy hail of anyone coming in at the back entrance, are Public +Characters. Their apartments are reception rooms in very truth. It has +never been explained why Encina does not sag at that end, like an +excursion steamer on the side toward a boat race. If, on the other hand, +you believe you have a Mission, or if you are a Dig, rooming in the Hall +because it is convenient to the Quad, then you dwell in "Faculty Row," +away off to the east, where the early sun pulls you out in time to put +the finishing touches to your Latin, and where there is no trafficking +to and from the Quad to disturb your evening study. + +It was said that Frank Lyman was the only man at the Quadrangle end of +the Hall who ever made much pretense of studying. By the same token the +keepers of the college tradition alleged that he alone of all the gang +stood high in the opinion of the Faculty. It was a way he had. He stood +well with everybody. + +If they had taken the trouble to investigate, those who wondered at his +ability both to loaf much and to study much, at his scholarship dwelling +alongside of his popularity, they might have found that he kept the two +things in harmony by a marvelous system. The gang dwelt in his room, +made it their hang-out, but only just so long; when the hour arrived for +Lyman's study-time, they vanished away mysteriously, took the hint +conveyed in some fashion, no one ever knew how, and were gone. + +To the under-classmen, Lyman was an object of healthy awe. Older than +the average senior, he had been already in the larger world. His opinion +of things had especial value even in his Junior year. After the football +season, when he had been acknowledged the keenest manager the college +had ever found, the under-classmen had a blind faith in his +infallibility. The older students relied on him in much the same way, +though there were some who said that self lay at the bottom of Lyman's +system of morals, that the watchword of his philosophy was "Does it +pay?" These men were sentimentalists who had ideals. Langdon, the +Sequoia editor, would have told you that he thought more of Lyman than +of any two men in the class; it is a question, though, whether he would +have recommended Lyman's advice in everything. Frank was a good man to +keep a Freshman's money for him, to listen to his class-room troubles or +to stand between the luckless youngster and Faculty wrath; but when it +was a case into which something deeper entered, perhaps the Senior's +worldly philosophy was not of the best sort. This was the idea of +dreamers like "Pegasus" Langdon, who said things about "sentiment" and +to whom Freshmen seldom came for advice. But Lyman continued to hold his +after-dinner receptions, and his admirers piled themselves comfortably +on his bed and believed in him implicitly. + +The psychological moment came for the regular withdrawal. Frank opened +his windows with care, donned the old bath-robe which was his armor for +the battle intellectual, put on his eye-shade over his straight brown +hair, and opened his Pollock. At this hint the others slipped out; only +Jimmie Mason lingered, his gaze on the shadowy hills with their faint +fringe of dark green, the dregs of his pipe purring in the stillness. +Lyman's room-mate was somewhere queening. Lyman himself, pretending to +study, looked up from time to time, waiting for the Sophomore to unbosom +himself. Frank knew the symptoms. + +"Well, Jimmie?" he said at length--one couldn't study with that going on +and Frank had his stint to finish. + +"It's about my father." + +"Drinking again?" + +Jimmie only nodded. The smoke went out in his pipe; he knocked the ashes +from it and put it away mechanically in the common pipe-rack over the +radiator. + +"Tell me about it." Frank had closed his book, and was leaning back in +his tilted chair, his feet braced in the shelf beneath, his hands +clasped over his knees. + +"Not much to tell, I guess, no more than you know already. I got a +letter from the old lady." + +"Your grandmother, eh?" + +"Yes. She says something must be done. 'In low saloons,' she says, and +I've been sizing it up--and Frank, don't you think I ought to go home?" + +A silence again, with Lyman's alarm clock ticking placidly on the table +between them. + +It had come, the moment to bring the boy around; Frank had waited for it +in the weeks since he had known the story. In this silence he mapped out +his argument, as he would have prepared a brief. + +"How much has your father ever helped you, Jimmie?" + +"Not much. We've always been poor, you know." + +"Because he drank?" + +"Yes, he never could keep a job but so long." + +"Not even when you were small?" + +"I wasn't with him then. When my mother got--when she left him, she took +me with her. Then she died, and I was with my grandmother awhile, then I +lived with him until I came here." + +"Are you very fond of him?" + +"No, Frank, I'm not; not a bit. He never did anything for my mother or +for me, to make me." + +"I don't see why you lived with him then." + +"He'd behave himself better. I had a sort of influence over him. He was +afraid of me, or ashamed, or something, and I stuck to him to keep him +straight. But, oh! I hated it, and when he got going all right, I cut +loose and came here." + +"What sort is the old lady? W. C. T. U. and all that kind of thing, I +suppose?" + +"Something on that order." + +The Oracle leaned forward until his chest came almost between his bent +knees, as was his wont when he clinched his arguments. + +"I suppose you've never figured it out that people of her way of +thinking would call what little drinking you do at Mayfield 'drinking in +low saloons?'" + +By his silence Jimmie admitted that there was something in the position. +Frank followed up his lead. + +"So it may be nothing very bad after all. But let's suppose it is; +suppose he has slid back into the worst of his old ways, is it going to +pay to go on and break things all up for yourself, for the purpose of +trying to bolster him up? It seems to me you would let your enthusiasm +get away with your common sense. But it's your business, Jimmie. Only +the thing that gets me is the blooming uselessness of it all. What can +you do?" + +"I can work." + +"You could do that before you came here. You see, it was all right +before, when your plans weren't formed. Now it means not only his +sliding back, but yours too. You know as well as I do that a half-baked +man isn't worth a whoop, not a solitary whoop. You've got to drop down +into mediocrity just when you are on the way up to something. And after +sacrificing yourself, perhaps, it will have been for nothing. You can't +cure that thing in a month, nor a year, nor two years. If he is +drinking, regular and hard, you've got to catch him and stay with him +just about as long as he lives. You can't leave him after you get him on +his feet, or he'll go right back. You know that from experience, don't +you?" + +"Yes," said Jimmie. The Senior's words came to him as a relief. He had +begun the conversation with the feeling that the thing for him to do was +to go home, and dreading lest Lyman should think so, too. Now Frank +showed him the folly of such a step, and Frank knew about things. + +"It means a knockout to your ambition," went on Lyman, "the spoiling of +yourself, and you propose to do this for a man you don't care for? I +don't understand." + +"He is my father," said the Sophomore. This reason had seemed ample, +when he was thinking it over alone; it did not sound so convincing now. + +"And suppose he is, do you have to pay for that? No, Jimmie, that's a +fine sentimental view of it that won't help either of you. Let him wait. +You have the right to do it. He can wait two years, till you've had your +chance. If it has been going on all this time, two years won't be long, +and then when you're through and ready to do something, there'll be +sense in it; there isn't now.--" + +Just then Freshman Halleck, who had a genius for poking in where he was +not wanted, knocked and entered with Encina abruptness, for Frank had +not locked the door. He made his stay so long that Lyman, with his +thoughts on his unfinished work, said: + +"Well, good-night, you fellows," as a gentle hint, and Jimmie withdrew. + +The fog had not yet come into the valley when the Sophomore opened the +window, down in his own room; it was reaching out, still driven before a +lazy wind. Indistinctly the singing of the Glee Club, rolling home from +practice in the Quad, came through the damp twilight. Jimmie had been +with them on the Christmas trip, tasting a social life he had known +nothing of till then. Now they were going to run him for leader next +year. He sat on his window ledge listening. The side of the Hall +stretched away from him, four tiers of light where the fellows were at +work or were bumming away the week-night. Through the opened windows +came the low tone of many conversations, stirred now and then by a +"rough-house" note. A coyote barked somewhere among the hills, a +reminder of the nearness of our higher life to the life universal. +Jimmie took a long, deep breath of the moist air, as though he would +draw it all, all unto himself. This was his life, he had made it for +himself, and he loved it, he loved it! He had no part any longer with +what had come before it. All these were in shadow, the people and things +of his bitter childhood. The fellows up there in the lighted rooms had +homes somewhere; there was a feed-box being opened even then, perhaps, +at some study table; they were thinking of vacation, most of them, and +of other places. But this was home to Mason, this wide, soft campus, +with the sandstone arching over it and bounded by shaggy hills, the only +place he could call his own. Most of the laughing people who lived here +with him were in a dream from which some Commencement Day would wake +them. To Mason it was reality. Yes, Frank Lyman was right. Jimmie was +glad he had asked him. The idea of going away had been a thoughtless +impulse, an immature judgment. He would stay--for the two years. + +He took off his coat and opened a book under the lamp; but a face came +and settled between him and the page, a bloated face with irresolute +lips that would not move from the black and white before him, but +flickered there and mocked him, until finally he closed the book, and, +without looking out again on the campus, turned into bed. + + +II. + +It was a quiet night outside. The last spring rain was over; the dry, +deadening California summer had begun its advance on the land. Already, +the green of the hills had faded into a lighter hue, a forerunner of a +yellow June and a brown July. The campus was astir with the movement of +a Friday night. Shadowy figures, in couples, came and passed down the +fairy-land vistas of the Quadrangle; the 'busses deposited the élite of +Palo Alto at the door of the Alpha Nus who had said that they would be +at home; noises of all kinds, from not unmusical singing to plainly +unmusical whoops, exhaled from every pore of the Hall. The piano on the +lobby was groaning out a waltz from its few attuned keys and the little +space between the big rug and the rail overlooking the dining-room was +packed with forms in various conditions of negligée, dancing earnestly +and painfully. + +Only one room, and that generally the center of disturbance, "sported +the oak." Jimmie Mason sat in the knockery, with a book cocked up in +front of him, and made a pretense of studying, but his thoughts +wandered. Finally he threw his work aside altogether, and looked at the +little patches of starlight visible between the branches of the tree +outside. It was so plain, the thing he ought to do, in justice to +himself, that he had thought the dream of the other thing a fancy that +had passed and had been put away with the notions of his prep-days. And +yet he had found no peace in his new decision. His plans for next year, +his work in class, his new success with certain ventures which after two +years of the hardest, closest pinching, had put within his reach the +means to gratify a few little whims, to indulge in a few things his +poverty had hitherto forbidden him--a few common things the men around +him enjoyed, and the lack of which he had ever concealed even from +himself--all these were made footless by the ache in the bottom of his +soul. And, as he sat and pondered on it, a hard, dull resentment which +he had hitherto kept down by sheer will power rose above his other +thoughts and claimed admission as a reality. His father had no right to +do this thing to him. He was an old man; his chance was past, given up +for a few barrels, more or less, of distilled spirits. It was for this +that the something inside was asking him to forfeit the chance he had +made for himself. The University was his home. His father had done +nothing toward this. The laundry agency had provided a living, and the +broad democracy of the college had done the rest for him. He was one of +the "prominent men" now, a somebody, as he had never been and never +could be in the travesty of home that had been his father's giving. Upon +his life here rested the possibilities of the future toward which he +looked dreamingly sometimes when his notes were written up, and the +laundry accounts checked. Assuredly, his father had no claim on this; to +admit it would be an injustice to himself, to his ambition, and to his +work. And yet this face which had come between him and his book the +first night the fight had been on must haunt him always in the hour when +his tide was turning. + +A thump on the window which opened on the front piazza recalled him from +his reverie. A dozen feet were shuffling on the stones outside, and a +ruddy face glowed over the sash. + +"Go away, Pellams. Got to plug," said Jimmie, hastily resuming his book. + +"Relate your predicaments to a constable," said Pellams. "There's going +to be a Thirsting Bee at the----" + +"Can't go. Got to work on my thesis." + +"Relate _that_ to your Uncle Adderclaws. Tumble out, now." + +Jimmie only shook his head. There was a conference outside in whispers; +then the gang withdrew with suspicious alacrity. Two minutes later, the +lock grated with the cautious insertion of a key, and the mob rushed in; +Jimmie had forgotten the passkey, for whose possession Pellams had held +up the Jap. + +"Ah, say, get out of here, you fellows. I'm digging." + +"I know it. And you're going to stop. Gentlemen adventurers"--here +Pellams mounted a chair--"James Mason, our small but thirsty friend, has +sourball. Now, I ask you, gentlemen, what is the universal cure for his +affliction?" + +"Beer!" The unanimity of the response would have done credit to a Roman +mob. + +"Quite right ye are, my merry retainers. And will ye, in loving kindness +to him, apply that remedy?" + +"We will! We will!" + +"Well said, me liegemen. Jimmie, move along!" and Pellams fell to +strolling around the room and criticizing its collection of stolen signs +with the air of one who has discharged his business and stands at ease. +The rest threw themselves on the man with sourball and were for tearing +off his outer garments and forcing on his sweater, but Lyman by some +occult means of his own got the boy aside. One never knew how Frank +managed the gang; it was always that way; his methods never obtruded +themselves, all one saw was results. + +"I wouldn't if I were you," said he; "they won't understand it, and it +doesn't do you any good--this sort of thing. Better jolly up." + +The Sophomore did not speak; he only shook his head. + +"I know what you're holding back for," went on the other; "but going +down there isn't the same sort of thing; really, it isn't." + +Jimmie started a little, inside, as he realized for the first time the +base of his aversion to dragging himself out on the trip. He turned, +half-mechanically, and began tugging at his collar. That Phantom should +never come between him and one single thing he wanted to do. It might +embitter it all, but it could never prevent him from the outward act. He +threw his tie over a chair and took off his coat with unnecessary +emphasis in the movement. Ten minutes later he was treading the primrose +path of dalliance with an arm around "Nosey" Marion. + +There was a cool breeze off the bay, bringing the scent of salt water +along with the odor of spruce-trees. A voice from the upper regions of +the Hall called out to the cavalcade, crawling through the half-darkness +along the road: + +"He-ea, you! Bring some back for me!" + +A dozen windows slammed open at that, and twenty throats took up the +noise. Pellams was for answering, but Lyman discreetly checked him. + +Presently they swung out into the traveled road, until the noises of the +Hall were only a composite buzz. The squad was lounging in twos and +three, talking athletics or humming under the breath march-songs from +the Orpheum. "Peg" Langdon stopped at the white gate, and took off his +hat to the cool air. + +"This road down is the best thing about Mayfield!" + +"Drop the Sequoia!" cried Pellams. "Here, you fellows, hold him! We'll +have that in a rondeau or something, next week, if you don't hobble the +muse!" + +The editor laughed. It is better to be joked about your own special +forte than not to have it mentioned, so he was not displeased. + +"That's what the bard gets," said he, "for secreting the noxious fluid +known as the 'Sequoia' verse. But you can't stop the secretion. Some +day, I am going to write a Ballad of the Road to Mayfield--just to be +original." + +"And you'll kill the traffic." + +"Chain the poet!" + +"If you don't choke him, he'll get reminiscent." + +These from half-a-dozen voices at once. + +"Certainly I shall!" declared Langdon. "A reminiscent mood is the proper +one for the road to Mayfield--just as you have to have an argumentative +one on the road back." + +"Did you ever notice," observed Dick, "that every Mayfield time has a +sort of motif? You have a central idea, and you expand on it, like +writing paragraphs for English Eight." + +"It's up to you, Mr. Langdon. Give us a motif and we'll do the +expanding," said Marion, shying a pebble at a gate where there was a dog +he knew. + +"How would Jimmie's sore-head do?" + +Pellams took it up at once. "Death to the sore-head! _A bas_ Mason!" And +then, being safely away from the Hall, he caught up the old nonsense air +that has split student throats this century long, + + "To drive dull care away!" + +And Jimmie, a chum beating him on either side to exorcise the demon, was +singing as lustily as the best of them when they swung through the town +of buried ambitions and into the shrine of Bacchus. + +"Gentlemen, remember the motif!" cried Pellams, when they had made their +way through the barroom loafers, playing with dingy cards at the dingier +tables. The expedition was safely stowed in the back room around the +rough table with its carved patch-work of initials, Greek letters, and +nicknames, significant or obsolete, according to a man's perspective. +Pellams assumed instant control. + +"We will now turn our attention to the serious business of the evening. +Get your places. Hands on your bottles! Open--_corks_! And away we go." +The party drank in silence. + +"Do you begin to improve, James? There is a trace of a smile in the +left-hand corner of the patient's mouth. Ruffle up his hair and give him +another while we have him going!" + +Someone started a song, and they had another drink to punctuate the +pause between verses. A ruddier shade was creeping towards the roots of +Pellams' hair; Lyman, who smiled but seldom, was grinning across the +table at a Sophomore trying to flip cracker crumbs into his mouth. + +"This is a tryout," said Pellams. "The first man that balks at his beer +will drink raspberry chasers for a month. Hey! look at 'Nosey' Marion +trying to shirk!" + +Sure enough, Marion, who tried to keep up a reputation for capacity with +a naturally slim endowment, was slyly pouring his last potion into an +empty beer-case behind him. They fell upon the offender forthwith, +whipped him into the ranks again, and resumed their seats, laughing and +panting. + +"And now that our erring brother is punished and forgiven--that's as +good a phrase as I ever saw--punished and forgiven--stick that in the +Sequoia, Pegasus"--Pellams rambled on, "we've got to have the motif. I +move from the chair that the guest of the evening gives us 'My Old +Kentucky Home!' Punish your glass and tune up, Jimmie!" + +The cry went on until Jimmie had to respond. He began with the intention +of singing it quite carelessly, because there was much in his soul that +night that he dared not show before them all; but Jimmie had the gift of +song in his heart as in his voice, and he threw himself into the music +before the first stanza was half done. Only once before had he sung the +song as he did to-night; it was at last Commencement, when he sang it +for the Seniors going out on their adventures, and when he was done they +had all been still and quiet like men who have seen ghosts--as perhaps +they had, that night, the phantoms of men and times haunting certain +low, arched buildings they were to see no more. + + "Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!" + +Jimmie's tender baritone floated up from the table wistfully sweet, and +shaken a little with feeling, for the trouble of the week just past was +sweeping into it. Lyman, listening, knew of what place the boy was +singing, and mentally noted that he had better be thoughtful of the +youngster during the rest of the term. + +The fellows were quiet for a moment after they had droned out the +chorus, each one putting his own meaning into that sweet old song of +farewell, and then, to break the charm, a small voice with a Spanish +roll in it, piped "Tamales!" at the crack in the door. + +"Hey!--Lupe!--make him sing!" + +They raided the stock first, and rendered happy with the jingle of +silver the quaint little remnant of the race who named their valley for +the blessed Santa Clara. Then, when he had counted it and put it safely +away with the officious assistance of Pellams Rex, they set him on the +table in his blue overalls and over-sized hat and made him sing for them +in his pathetic treble, "La Paloma," and for encore, "Two Leetle Girl +een Bloo." Pellams removed him after that, claiming that Langdon was +about to tell the story of his life, which could not be published in the +Sequoia. + +Jimmie Mason had sat there all this time, taking it in and drinking with +the others, but there was never a cloud on his brain nor a waver in his +movements. The rest of them wandered from the motif; each was composing +a fugue of his own, according to the mould of his nature. Scraps of +their conversation floated in on him between songs--"Got him just below +the knees--now!"--"and the difference between me and a tank is in the +inferior receptivity--ain't that a peach?--of the receptacle"--"Now, the +fallacy of the original proposition, as Herbert Spencer hath it, lies in +the expression of the component particulars"--this was Langdon--"that +proves that if I had a board Pellams would be summarily chastised"--"Put +it down and order up another, here's good drink going stale"--"Whoa, +Pegasus, old hoss, that's my tamale you have designs on"--"and cut his +name there"--"sing it down! This is to break training for the third +time"--"What's the matter with ----ty-eight?"--All this came in on him, +as he watched them grow from geniality to hilarity and then on toward +enthusiasm. They had forgotten him; only now and then someone shied a +cracker at his head and told him to "jolly up." + +Another drink, and the patriotic stage was upon them. The King ordered a +glass, standing, to the Team, and one with a foot on the table to the +Captain, and one with both feet on the table and glasses to the ceiling +to the Victory next fall. Someone started the yell; it went round the +table. Then they joined in on "Here's to Stanford College," with a verse +for every class and its yell at the end, and before they were done there +were three howling factions, each trying to cry the others down. + +Frank Lyman, he of the steady head, who was quiet or hilarious as he +willed, but was never beyond the point where he willed to be, sat +watching good-humoredly from his corner, and noted that Jimmie Mason's +voice had risen the loudest, and that he, too, had forgotten the motif. + +Pellams had wandered into the outer room "to bust the proprietor's +blamed old nickel-machine and get even," leaving the disturbance to +subside of its own weight. Coming back suddenly to the door, he cried: +"Hey, I've got 'em! The raw material and the finished product! Let's +have a temperance lecture from Lyman." + +It was a queer group at the door. The half-gone Pellams, with his face +flushed and his hair dishevelled, in one of his hands little Lupe, +hanging to an empty pail and between laughter and tears; the other hand +tight on the collar of as dirty, as unkempt, and as drunken an old +loafer as ever hung over a Mayfield bar. Pellams swung the ruin in. + +"Now, tell us how you got that fine, large tee!" said the tormentor. +"Orate to us, General Jackson!" + +The old man braced himself, with drunken dignity, against the door. + +"You young fellows c'n make fools o' yourselves," he said, "but you +can't make fool o' me." + +"That's all right, pardner--Nature saved us the trouble in your case," +said Pellams, the thoughtless. + +The clear head in the room--Lyman's always--took it all in; Frank made a +step to come between the Junior and his victim. Then he turned, +half-unconsciously, toward Mason. Jimmie was standing with his hands on +the table, looking straight before him, and in that look Frank read the +certainty that the case was out of his control. For the Face was rising +before Jimmie Mason once more; it had twisted itself in with the +relaxed, foolish features before him, until he saw his father there, a +mock and a shame. It was not his father, of course--he passed his hand +before his eyes as though to clear them--but suppose that somewhere else +a crowd had his father--and he not there to---- + +The Angel of Pity, or the Universal Conscience, or whatever it is that +you and I have learned from our books and our teachers to put as our +symbol of the belief in the higher things, wrote upon his records that +night that a prayer had gone up, for the first time, from the dingy back +room of the Hotel Mayfield. + +Pellams had the old man singing now, in a cracked, maudlin voice, and +his keeper was beating time with a billiard cue. Then the amateur +conductor had one of his inspirations. + +"Hey, a trio! The event of the evening! General Hardshell Jackson, +Señor Lupe de Tamale, and the renowned lyric barytone, James Russell +Lowell Mason, will combine in a grand farewell concert. Ascend the +platform, Señor!" he cried to the Mexican lad, who stood, wide-eyed, in +a corner. Then he gestured wildly toward the door. + +"Hey, Jimmie, come back here," he called; "don't let him out, boys!" + +Jimmie had reached the door when Lyman caught his sleeve. + +"Where are you going?" + +"Home." + +"You mean the Hall?" + +Jimmie pulled free of the Senior's hand. + +"No!" he said. "Home." + + + + +A SONG CYCLE AND A PUNCTURE. + + + + +A Song Cycle and a Puncture. + + "And I learned about women from 'er!" + + KIPLING. + + +Six Madonnas, from their places on the Chapel walls, gazed at the +spectacle of a student with long hair and energetic manner drilling a +chorus of young men and women from behind the preacher's desk. There was +no visible sign of agitation on the part of the six Madonnas, though an +operatic rehearsal in Chapel might be considered reason enough. To be +sure, one of them, with her feet upon a crescent moon, kept her eyes +fixed religiously on the ceiling, but this had become a habit. The +Madonnas were not surprised. + +The early years of the University, when there was no assembly hall and +the temporary chapel was used for everything that did not demand the +superior accommodations of the men's gymnasium, had prepared them for +anything. They had looked calmly down upon student farces and Wednesday +evening prayer meetings, professional impersonations and baccalaureate +sermons. Once, there had been a German farce under the protection of +the Germanic Language department, by a company from town, a boisterous +play with a gigantic comedienne in a short skirt. Beside this +performance, Lillian Arnold's singing a love duet with Jack Smith was +nothing very shocking. + +Connor, the man who was getting up the opera for the benefit of the +Junior Annual, waved his baton gracefully and looked pleased. The +rehearsal had gone well that afternoon, and now Cap Smith was singing +with creditable expression the love song in the last act. The experience +of Connor told him that this song would make even the bleachers at the +back of the gymnasium keep a respectful silence, which was saying a good +deal. Smith had a very pretty tenor, redeeming its lack of volume by a +sympathetic quality that was decidedly pleasant. In a song like this, +his voice came out well. There was a high note at the end to be taken +pianissimo with something else that signified "as though you meant it." +Smith could make it sound so, at any rate. One girl at the back of the +chorus always said, "Ah," under her breath when the song was ended at +rehearsal. + +Lillian Arnold, who played opposite Smith in the opera, did not conceal +from herself the pleasure she took in the part. Long before rehearsals +began, she had spent her smiles upon Connor with a view to that very +rôle. Miss Arnold was a young person who knew the things she wanted; +one of them was Smith. 'Varsity end, champion pole-vaulter, Glee Club +tenor and Sophomore president, which means principally leading the +cotillion, he was well worth a girl's trouble. There was the more glory +in the winning of this capital prize because he was not very +enthusiastic about Roble. There was somebody up in town who took a great +deal of his blue fraternity-paper. Lillian Arnold knew about the girl in +town, so she accepted gracefully what the gods gave and was outwardly +content. + +The gift of the gods was Ted Perkins, whose vest was decorated like +Cap's and who had no entanglements. When the approach of the Sophomore +cotillion set Roble agog with a pleasant but hardly strong-minded +excitement, he "asked her." Peace of mind comes naturally after such an +invitation is given and accepted; on rare occasions this does not last. + +The first thing that occurred to ruffle Miss Arnold's complacency was a +chance remark dropped one noon by Perkins as they were strolling home +obliquely from the Quad. + +"Cap isn't going to lead with Miss Martin, after all," said he. + +"Indeed!" exclaimed Lillian. For some remote feminine reason the +announcement was interesting. + +"Her family has gone South suddenly, a death or something. Cap is all +broken up about it. He was going to show her off in style that night." + +"I wonder whom he will ask, now," she said, as though it didn't matter +the least bit in the world. + +Down somewhere in a girl's heart lies the gambler's instinct. Lillian +would have thrown away then and there the certainty of Ned Perkins' +timely invitation for the torturing suspense, the alluring chance, that +attended the Sophomore president's second choice. Perkins, in his simple +masculine dullness, never guessed this. + +"I don't believe he knows yet; he wouldn't tell over at the house if he +did. Another plum for unengaged Roble." + +Perkins would have been less at ease over the condition of engaged Roble +could he have looked into the little east music-room where Lillian +played accompaniments, and Cap Smith, leaning over a wicker chair, went +through the music of his part. These cozy rehearsals in the quiet +afternoons had resulted in Smith's asking himself, during a cut home +through the Quad, why he had never noticed Lillian Arnold in particular. +Connor, the director, had a keener eye, evidently. She was pretty, +dashing and real good fun. Perkins was entitled to respect for his +selection. Lillian was "all right;" this is a masculine term which may +mean anything from mild approval to the rapture of "just one girl." The +mild interpretation, of course, is to be put upon Smith's use of the +term, even after he had been to Roble two evenings. Their talk was about +the opera, nothing further, and when he had taken his high note with +just the proper emotional slur, they both laughed. To be honest, there +had been one chat on the moonlit steps of the Museum, but all of this +went down on the blue fraternity-paper among other confidences. + +One afternoon, in the middle of a Spring-time walk, Smith gave utterance +to a decision concerning which he had already written, dutifully, to an +interested party in the South. They had passed the willow-fringed bank +of Lagunita, the red boathouse, the double avenue of young pines, and, +crossing into the back road, strolled down to the low gate opposite the +Farm; this they climbed and came into a little hollow where knowing +people find yellow violets. He had just given her a frank compliment. + +"You are the best fence-taker I ever saw for a girl." + +"That's one practical result of an hour's credit in gym-work," she +laughed. "Sometimes, on lovely days like this, I feel almost as though I +could pole-vault the way you do. It must be glorious to go sailing over +the bar." + +"And hear it come clattering down after you?" + +They sat on the soft, new grass, and Lillian caught, one after another, +the shy yellow faces peering at her through the long leaves. She looked +so spring-like, so much a part of the fresh, young landscape in its +robes of early February, as she half reclined to reach out for a blossom +larger and yellower than the rest--a pose that she knew was good--that +the Sophomore president put an end to suspense. + +"I had expected to lead the cotillion with Miss Martin," he began, "but +she has gone South, so I'm badly left. I'm afraid you are engaged for +it, aren't you?" + +Lillian gazed fixedly at the white cupola on a stockfarm building. Her +heart was somewhere deep in hill-grass. She was the most luckless girl +in the whole college! The opportunity of her Sophomore year had come too +late. It was bitter enough for tears. + +"I had promised it to Mr. Perkins," she said, irresolutely. + +"I was afraid so. Of course, it was awfully late to ask you; but I would +rather go with you than with any of the others, so I ventured." + +It was a desperate moment for Lillian. + +"I would rather go with you, too," she said, gazing up at him. + +"I'm sure I wish you could," he said, with sincerity. She was at her +prettiest that day. + +"I will anyway," she declared. + +"But Ted----" + +"I don't care," she went on, "it was only that he asked me first. +Couldn't I cut it and go with you? He ought to understand that I have a +right to change my mind." + +Smith watched the antics of a gopher for a full minute before he +replied. Although Perkins had said nothing to him of his intentions +regarding the dance--the two had few confidences--Cap had held his +theories. Still, he deemed he had a chance. Being a Sophomore, he +believed that he was thoroughly acquainted with the co-educated sex and +all their wiles and guiles; but a feeling of repulsion toward this frank +readiness to throw down another man, one of his own, too, drowned his +sense of self-satisfaction at finding himself preferred. + +"Of course, you and Ted must arrange all that," he said, and turned the +conversation. + +Cap's lack of confidential relations with Perkins did not stand in the +way of his mentioning the affair to him that night after dinner. + +"I thought you ought to know it, Ted," he concluded. "Of course, you +will do as you please about the matter, only I shall not take her." + +"You don't think for a moment that _I_ still intend to, do you?" asked +Perkins, fiercely. + +"I don't believe I'd blame you exactly if you backed out," said the +complacent Sophomore; "but, of course, it's none of my funeral now; I'm +only sorry I happened to ask her myself, and start the trouble." + +"I think I'll walk home with her after rehearsal," said Perkins. + +"Well, I shan't say anything about it one way or the other," said Smith, +and he started toward the Gym with a pleasant sense of having galled +somebody a bit. + +Meanwhile, Lillian had eaten her dinner with relish. The prospect of +trouble with Perkins did not worry her in the least. Perkins had been +rather a convenience, and to lead the cotillion with Jack Smith was a +delight that entirely divested the other man of all importance. The +rehearsal went through with a dash; Lillian was all animation and +witchery, and the love-scene was perfectly acted, though Ted Perkins sat +glowering in the privileged audience. Cap Smith took his high note with +a tenderness of voice and gesture that moved Connor, the leader (he was +also stage-manager and chief electrician), to call out, "Good boy, Cap," +and to shake his carefully untrimmed hair in approval. + +After rehearsal, the tenor slipped away just as Perkins, with an +artificial smile, approached Lillian. + +The Sophomore was in bed when Perkins came into his room. + +"What did you do about it?" Cap asked, to start things. + +"I simply said I wanted to be excused from taking her to the cotillion." + +"What reason did you give?" + +"None." + +"But you had to give some explanation." + +"She didn't ask for any. She guessed it, probably." + +"What did she say? Try to smooth it over?" + +"No, nothing, except that she was sorry, and that she would have liked +to go with me." + +"Humph," sniffed Cap. "I'll bet she was afraid I hadn't said anything to +you about it, and she wouldn't give herself away as long as you didn't +kick up a row. Now I suppose she expects me to take her." + +"That's where she was keen, all right; she never breathed a word about +you; only made me feel like two-bits in a fog for having turned her +down." + +"If I had been you I would have roasted her right there, fired the whole +string at her." + +This was the point for which the jilted man had come into Cap's room. + +"No," said he, "you said you wouldn't take her either, and I thought +that would punish her better than having any scene with me. She'll know +I have had my innings." + +This took Smith where he lived, but he put on a cheerful front, +perforce: + +"Well, I'll crawl gracefully out of it, to-morrow," said he. "I suppose +she'll be hopping when she thinks it over." + +Perkins went up to his room satisfied. + +When Cap Smith caught Miss Arnold at the post-office, he began to find +that it was easier to plan a graceful crawling out than to execute the +movement. + +"I shall have to take back what I said yesterday about the cotillion," +he began, cleverly, guiding her toward Roble, "because, you see, it +wouldn't be just square to Ted, would it? He might feel hurt, and I +wouldn't have that. We must have six dances, though, anyway." + +This, assuredly, would show her. Unfortunately, Lillian was either dull +or desperate. + +"But he released me last night." + +"Did he?" said Jack. He had started all wrong. + +"Yes, we settled it all very well; he didn't seem to care in the least, +he is so good-natured." She looked as serene as the sky above her, +although she was beginning to have biting suspicions. "So it's all +right." + +Cap Smith's feet had become tangled in crawling; he kicked out +recklessly. + +"No, it's not all right. I don't believe in a girl's treating a fellow +like that, and I won't be a party to it." + +"Why did you ask me, then?" she challenged. "To tempt me because you +happened to be president and a girl loves to lead?" + +"I'm not so mean as that. How could I know Perkins had asked you. He +hadn't told me." + +"I suppose you told him about it?" + +"Yes, I thought that I ought to." + +"After telling me that I might arrange it. It was my business." + +"I knew how you would do it, and I wasn't willing that Ted should be cut +that way." + +"What a lovely friendship!" said Lillian. She was much vexed. + +Smith did not reply at once. The beauty of his friendship with Perkins +did not strike him very heavily at the moment. + +"At any rate, under the circumstances I don't feel that I can take you +to the cotillion." + +"Don't flatter your--" Lillian was too angry to speak without crying, so +she went into the Hall abruptly. + +With the approach of Washington's Birthday, the rage of Miss Arnold +grew. Inasmuch as everyone took it for granted that she was going with +Perkins, it was not likely that she would be asked again, instead, late +beginners, running cards for themselves and other people, asked her for +dances, and rather than admit her predicament she let them fill her +card. + +The afternoon of the cotillion she went to bed and was ill for a day; +then she appeared at the final rehearsal with a smiling face and a soul +full of wrath. She had very little to say to Smith, but otherwise she +showed no resentment, and her acting was as good as ever. One wiser than +Cap Smith would have augured ill from her fair seeming, a less confident +man would have been on his guard; but he had forgotten all that he had +ever read about the fury of women scorned, and he went to his doom +unconscious. + +The Gym had never held a bigger audience, and the opera, as usual, was +proving itself the greatest success in the annals of Stanford +theatricals; the show was so inoffensively proper, Connor declared with +a sigh, that it was disgusting. No hitch or jar marred the perfect +running of the performance, and the conductor, directing the +scene-shifting between acts, stopped now and then to shake hands with +himself. The borrowed scenery almost fitted; there was no wait of more +than half an hour; very few of the chorus got out of tune; the costumes +had been expunged by a board of lady managers and declared officially to +have no _Said Pasha_ tendencies; the leading ladies were actually +keeping their tempers; things moved on as smoothly as though the Fates +were deadening suspicion in order to make the coming catastrophe the +more overwhelming. + +The third act drew on. The low comedian had just finished joshing back +and forth with the bleachers, whose chorus work had equalled, in some +respects, that on the stage. A soft light began to illumine the painted +heavens, and a three-hundred-candle-power Luna, the pride and joy of +Connor's heart, rose in wavering majesty. The house was quiet now, +listening to Smith's solo to Lillian in the moonlit garden. The music +swept softly on to the close of the song. As Jack took a deep breath for +his tender love-note, the note that was to make men sigh and women +quiver, Lillian leaned closer to him, as if drawn by the caressing +sweetness in his voice, and one round, white arm stole about his neck in +the prettiest gesture imaginable. No one knew that with the other hand +she had quickly drawn out the big black pin that held the flowers on her +breast. One wicked jab, and the precious high note broke in a wild +"ouch" of pain. + +The bleachers laughed uproariously. + + + + +ONE COMMENCEMENT. + + + + +One Commencement.[A] + + "Within the camp they lie, the young, the brave; + Half knight, half schoolboy, acolytes of fame; + Pledged to one altar, and perchance one grave." + + BRET HARTE. + + +There is one Wednesday morning, the last in May, when the sun, peeping +over the observatory dome on Mount Hamilton and flooding the wide valley +of Santa Clara, wakes unfeelingly a reluctant set of mortals to the +realization that this is the last of their mornings. + +The girl in Roble who has lived four happy, independent years where the +winds of freedom blow, and who is going back this afternoon to the +household duties and narrow sympathies of a not over-interesting home, +leans thoughtfully on the foot-rail of her iron bed; the dear, familiar +view blurs as she gazes out beyond the dormitory room and its +reminiscent treasures of program and photograph, out where the warm +light brightens the concrete pillars of the museum and the arboretum +with its waving tops, and makes the whole fair landscape one Field of +the Cloth of Gold. + +The Encina student who has slaved his uneasy way, with no resources save +his willingness to do anything that may help him from one semester to +the next, springs exultantly from his alcove, for to-day he has finished +the struggle, and there is a good job waiting for him. + +Over in the fraternity house, the man who has sung his grasshopper songs +in careless disregard of changing seasons, and who has found some +impossible examinations barring his primrose path, blinks painfully at +the merciless sun of Commencement Day, laughing at him above the roofs +of siren Mayfield, and holds his foolish head in his hands; for last +night, while the other Seniors, full of honors and regrets, were trying +to choke down a little of the good-bye supper after the Promenade, he +went a bit too far in celebrating his mixed emotions of grief at +flunking and joy at coming back again. + +Upon all alike--upon him who has watched for it, dreading it through +four enchanted years, as upon him who has forgotten until the list of +candidates for graduation glared at him from the registrar's +bulletin-board with a vacancy in that section where his name ought to +be; upon him who has hoped for this as a commencement in very truth of +things great and new, as upon him who cares not--shines this early +sunlight of the last Wednesday in May. + +There is never a cloud in the sky this morning; the meadow lark sings +more joyously than on any other day; the campus is more radiantly +beautiful, because some hundred and fifty people are looking at it +through tears for the last time. + + * * * * * + +On his own Commencement Day, Tom Ashley lay sleeping, hidden away from +the splendor of the morning, two-score miles from the smiling campus. + +The man lying next him in the upper tier but one rolled over and shook +him by the shoulder: + +"Wake up, Tom; it's Commencement Day! Don't you want your degree?" + +The Senior struggled back from sleep; a dream influence lingered with +him, a vision of a cloistered enclosure, a dream in which all his +senses, now assailed by the sights and smells and sounds of a +troop-ship, drew in again the familiar things; he beheld the red tiles +a-shimmer above the yellow stone; the aromatic scent of budding +eucalyptus was in his nostrils, the sound of the young laughter of women +in his ears. He sat up, gazing uncertainly at the dark, crowded space, +the narrow stairway, the great iron racks covered with gray-blanketed +shapes; then he crawled into his uniform and out on the ship's deck. The +early dawn had set the towers of the city glittering; already the low +wharf-sheds along the water-front were astir with life. Back of the town +the twin peaks, named by the early Franciscans for a woman's breasts, +rose veiled with a filmy scarf of fog. Everywhere below them spangled +flags in myriads flapped from the tops of the city and among the crowded +shipping. + +Ashley leaned over the rail of the _Peking_ and watched the yellow tide +slide by with its burden of dèbris. Not far away in the stream lay the +other two transports, unattended; it was too early for the fussy craft +that curtseyed about them during the day. At three o'clock that +afternoon these vessels were to sail for the distant Philippines, +bearing arms against the ancient country of the Spanish Fathers--the +pioneers who had shown the Saxon the way to this golden coast and had +made vine and rose flourish for him on the barren sandhills, that he +might now strip from the land of their forefathers the last possession +of a dying empire. By the strange turnings of history, from the very +city of their patron saint the New World was sending forth its first +hostile expedition against the Old, and the great community that had +grown from their nestling mission of Dolores would shriek Godspeed to +these enemies of Old Spain. + +Nothing of this was in Ashley's mind as he watched the water lapping at +the beach-side of the transports. He kept saying over in his mind the +words of his bunk-mate, "It's Commencement Day! Don't you want your +degree?" + +In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Tom, looking at his coarse +blue uniform, smiled as he thought on his plans for Graduation Week. +Those feet, now clad in new government gunboats, were to have waltzed +but two nights before in shining patent-leather at the head of the +Senior Ball. Only yesterday he should have been galloping around the +bases in fantastic costume at the Senior-Faculty game. Monday afternoon, +when he should have been before the Chapel site with Her, listening to +the glories of the Class as told over its freshly-mortared plate, he was +tramping on the wrenching cobble-stones of Market Street with a bunch of +roses in his campaign hat and another in his gun barrel, and the city +going mad on the curbing. Lord High Ruler of the Senior dance and +counsellor in all the affairs of the Class, he was cooped up with a +thousand others on the troopship _City of Peking_, a sergeant at +eighteen a month and lucky to get so much, with a chain of superiors +ordering his comings and goings. + +All this because of the destruction of an American battleship in the +harbor of Havana. + +The notes of a bugle-call drifted across the water from the nearest +transport, and Tom's mind went back to the time when the unfamiliar +sound was first heard on the Stanford campus. It seemed like a very old +memory, although it was but three weeks past. He remembered how, when +the recruiting sergeant came down from the city, the after-dinner crowd +used to sit on the Hall steps watching him drill the men in the +moonlight. After drill, they would loaf in his Hall room, talking it +over, and when the civilians had drifted off to bed or to the inglorious +studies of a routine now ended for Tom, he would sit with "Nosey" Marion +and blow smoke. Neither spoke much, only a word now and then, but they +were thinking of the same thing. + +The days passed; the college used to drop out between recitations to +watch them drilling on the football field; the uniforms arrived, and +then the orders. There was a baseball rally that night, but when the +enlisted men came into the Hall and word was passed that they were going +on the morrow, the occasion was all theirs. Marion, who had been twice +on the debating team, stood up, looking slimmer than ever in his plain +blue, and spoke for them. He said only simple things; it was not like +his speech of a year before, when his impassioned arguments turned +defeat into victory at the Inter-Collegiate; but the crowd listened with +their eyes on the floor and applauded with their hands only when he had +done, because they couldn't trust their voices. They sang the terrible +"Battle Hymn of the Republic" after that; Langdon led it. "Peg" could +hardly carry a tune with that awful voice of his, but he sang the verses +so that the chills ran down your back and you had to join in the chorus, +"Our God is marching on." + +Next day they themselves were marching on, forty of them, with hardly a +thought of what they were leaving behind, their minds fixed on the +distant Isles of Philip. Tom had never expected to leave the campus in +that spirit. He loved it all, from the quiet slopes by Frenchman's Lake +to that lofty redwood treetop, first rampart of the smiling city to the +eager Freshman, last long-watched glimpse of the land of his memories to +the reluctant Senior. + +He had always felt that it would be a tug to say good-bye, yet he, too, +his mind over-seas, had gone away to town with hardly a thought. He had +time to reflect in that dreary fortnight at the Presidio when the +unseasonable rains drenched his tent, and the wretched routine of beans +and coffee hurt the romance of enlistment. + +The life had its compensating features. Every city girl he had ever met +in College or town society came out to camp and asked for him at K +Street--K Street with its saucy cardinal flag waving above the first +tent to the left. Most of them brought candy; a vary few, with +super-feminine understanding, made it beer; one, she was a genius, sent +over on a drizzling evening a piping-hot steak. Then, too, he had three +white angles on his sleeve and "Sergeant Ashley" sounded well. Cap Smith +was not even a corporal; the emphasis with which Cap mentioned the fact +showed anything but college spirit. + +These things made it easier not to think about the campus and what the +rest of the fellows were doing, but the old life came drifting in after +all. Sometimes, after the long, hard morning drill on the green slope +beyond the car-track, between drill and the welcome mess-call, Marion +would come into the Sergeant's tent and they would sit apart to talk +about the Faculty game or the Senior ball and the dances they had +expected to put on their cards. Each Saturday some of the boys came up +and brought the campus news. One time, all enlisted Stanford tumbled +out of their tents, every last one of them, to welcome a big, +slow-moving, slow-speaking man, who plays first-base at the Commencement +Game. A corporal who had never been to college and who had a newspaper +idea of students, asked if that was the football captain whom they were +crowding around and almost trying to hug, and Marion answered no; that +he was a bigger man than even the head coach. The boys held their +visitor until the officer of the day ordered civilians out of camp, and, +when the unfeeling guard drove him out, they gave the yell in good old +style. The colonel sent his orderly to find what was the matter, for it +was a high offence against martial law, and when the messenger reported +that it was those Stanford kids in K, yelling for their President, his +superior said that he guessed it was all right; this was the first +California regiment, and the old man was a part of the state. This was +before the final dispatches came, before the men learned that they were +going on the first expedition. + +Monday morning and marching orders. On this, the morning of Wednesday, +as he looked across the water and watched the city growing brighter, he +thrilled again with the remembrance of that feeling, that purely +physical tingling of the nerves, which came over him at the barracks +when he lifted his gun to start. The load on his back was snug and +light as he stood there in marching rig; how much heavier and harder it +was to grow before he should stand on American soil again, he could not +know. Then, the shuffling of many feet and the flutter of a flag outside +the stone gates, so strangely like the gates which stand at the entrance +of the Land of his Memories--and his Commencement week had begun. + +Class Day, from that time, on, lay in his memory a mass of unassimilated +matter to be thought out in the long weeks of idleness on the _Peking's_ +blistering deck. The crowd, huge, wild, packed from building to curb, +the merry, merry flags waving them on, the little kaleidoscopic flashes +of expressions which he caught, when he stopped to look at them, on the +grim faces to right and left,--all these impressions and many more were +jumbled in his brain. He remembered the excitement and sympathy mingled +in the countenances of the people. One or two little things were caught +along with the larger recollections--a woman's face that looked like +Hers and almost made him forget for the moment that She was then +doubtless listening to the Class history; a baby holding a flag in its +little hand, and staring with awed, uncomprehending eyes at the +sober-faced soldiers tramping on and on; a man mounted on a truck crying +above the cheering, "Give 'em hell for us!" A remembrance that stood +out above the others was that of someone calling a good-bye to the +Major, of the choke in the officer's voice as he answered. He was an +older man, and his expression of feeling nearly upset Tom. He trudged +on, file-closer for the front rank and six-feet-one of target, and +wondered if he had been a fool after all. It was well enough for those +people yelling acclaim from street and housetop; but they were going +back home, or down to the University, and he--to the troopship, and the +high seas, and after that no telling. The strap of his knapsack hurt +him. They said that Manila was a furnace. He wished that the women would +stop loading them with flowers; he wished that Pellams and the other +fellows wouldn't keep running out to march beside him; didn't they know +how hard he was trying to hold it back? And what did this going amount +to, anyway? If he had staid out, there would have been only one gap in +the company. Then, in a rest, Pellams got to his side with a bottle of +ice-cold Pilsener and Tom pointed its base to the sky and gained +courage. + +There was a falling apart to his right, and he felt rather than saw that +his mother had slipped through the crowd and taken his hand in her slim, +white one, was marching beside him over the cruel cobble-stones; +Pellams, too, closed up on the other side, for the officers were not +trying to keep the alignment as they drew near the end. These three went +on together, she trying to be brave now that the last had come, Pellams +clumping along over the rough pavement and joking in ecstatic disregard +of the discomfort of his fat body. It was over at last, the mounted +police were pushing back the crowd; it was to be all alone now. The +Stanford men gave their yell together, the volunteer held his mother +close for a moment. Then,--"Company, attention!"--the dock faded into +mist, so that he stumbled on the gangway. + +Not until that night, when a group of them paced along the wharf, had +anyone spoken of Class Day. Cap Smith had started it. + +"They are going to the Ball now," said he. + +"I wonder if Lyman came out ahead on the Show," said Marion, his eye on +the dollar, even at that solemn moment. + +"I wonder if the programs got down in time," said Tom, and then he +laughed to think of himself, the chairman of the Ball committee, +plodding along the splintered dock in a dusty uniform and buff leggings +and with the rudiments of a scraggly beard on his face. It was a queer +ending. + +Down there, the others were floating round, now, to high-priced music +from town. In a little note which Pellams had brought him from Her that +morning, she had said that she was to wear a small silk flag instead of +flowers this time. He would have liked to peep in, as he used to from +the gym roof when he was a Freshie, to see if she had really done it. + +During these wharf-edge musings, taps had blown, bringing the men on +board again. On the way up the plank, he remembered, they passed one of +the fellows with his face in his hands, and Tom had to put his arm +around the boy and lead him, so that he might be in quarters in time. +Neither of them could know that this was to be the one who did not +return. + +He had his first sight of the hold, after that, and the truth knocked +out some of the poetry. Ashley, and K Company in general, were quartered +just over the screw; but a man gets used to anything, even to bullets +that sing past your ears and clip off little bamboo leaves about two +feet from your hair. There were twelve hundred men below decks; when +most of the landsmen should be seasick--ugh! + +The second night, Tuesday, he had sat with Cap among the coiled ropes on +deck. Beyond the shipping, the city of hills twinkled at them, striped +with long, sloping lines of dotted light; out of the blackness above, +the crown of the Spreckels building made a circlet like a halo over St. +Francis and his city; across the bay slid the mysterious, luminous +honeycombs of the silent ferry-boats. Far aft, the band was trying to +cheer things up with a Sousa march. That very tune was being played, +probably, down there where the Quadrangle, softly glowing with the faint +edging of lanterns, shimmered in the fairy-land mystery of long +palm-studded vistas, a-flutter with white dresses. + +"They are saying good-bye to each other, now," said Tom, by way of a +feeler. + +"Humph!" said Cap. He was flat on his back, looking up at the stars. "It +doesn't mean anything. When you're going to pull out across the Pacific +for God knows what, then it's different." + +"I didn't expect to spend this evening lying on a ship's deck," murmured +Tom. He was thinking of what the Promenade Concert usually means to +people who have been taught something by co-education. That good-bye, +said in the Quadrangle when the music and the thoughtless people have +gone and the lanterns blaze up and drop, one after another, and lie +smoldering on the moonlit asphalt; those last words with people from +whom you have concealed yourself these four years and to whom you can +now afford to lay open your heart, as can the happy dead, because your +ways after to-night may lie apart,--Tom knew that this good-bye does +mean something, in spite of the superior announcement of Sophomore +Smith. Only it meant more to a fellow lying thinking about it among the +ropes of a transport's deck, with the Spaniards in prospect. + +Cap's cigarette shone like a glowworm in the shadow of the stack. + +"Our good-bye supper will be sloppy weather, all right;" said he. "Six +going out." + +"No," answered Tom, "it won't be a drunk to-night, Cap. You haven't been +in long enough. I'll bet they don't get through the first case; I'll bet +it's a cry. You didn't see '95 go out." + +"Well, perhaps," assented the Sophomore. "The fellows are pretty well +worked up." + +Tom went back to his Freshman days. + +"I remember our '95 feed in the Hall. Stanton cried that night, and +Gray. I never saw them do it before." Then, more slowly, "It must be +tough on a girl." + +After which he was not talkative. + +There was little enough, this last morning, to suggest Commencement, as +he leaned on the damp rail of the ship and dreamed over the last few +days. A voice at his elbow said: + +"Captain wants you, Sergeant." + +Tom started out of his reverie, and the military tilt came into his +back. He was not a student bidding the College farewell; he was a +sergeant at eighteen a month and lucky to get so much. + +The city had awakened when he came to the rail again. There was a tense +feeling abroad, a gathering excitement that grew through the morning. +All manner of water-craft fussed and fumed and dodged around the +transports,--tugs, rowboats, launches and clumsy river steamers strung +with flags and black with civilians. One tug that hung close by shone +with more color than the others by reason of the women crowding it; Tom +could discern the face of his mother looking, looking with yearning eyes +that would have called him back. He drew a quick breath of surprise and +his hands tightened on the black rigging. There on the tug, standing +beside his mother instead of among those who were saying good-bye to the +Campus, he saw the Other One. + + * * * * * + +Soon after three, the screw throbbed, moved, the craft wheeled into +lines flanking the huge vessel; the noises of the city awoke: + + "For the large birds of prey + They'll carry you away, + And you'll never see your soldiers any more." + +The grey town lay back among her hills, shrieking with every manner of +mechanical voice her farewell to the troops. Above this uproar rose and +fell the weird sobbing of a siren and a cannon from the top of a +sky-scraper boomed in at solemn intervals. On the roofs were knots of +people flashing white signals of Godspeed; when the wind was right, one +could catch, very faintly, the sound of their cheering. + +The flotilla drew around the curving water-front and toward the Gate. To +the left, the remains of the camp dotted the plain below the Presidio +hills; every last man of them was on the bulkhead in front of the fort, +waving his brown hat and cheering the lucky devils who went first. The +great hill guns bellowed good-bye as the transports slipped through the +gleaming strait. Gradually the convoy wheeled 'round again, the bigger +vessels keeping up until outside the Heads. Then the first expedition +went on alone. + +Tom Ashley, Senior and 'Varsity fullback, with his eyes wet in spite of +himself, set his face to the west. The round sun hung red above the +horizon; a few seconds earlier, it had looked over the Palo Alto hills +at the deserted University campus. Beyond the ship, a path of gold lay +out toward Manila and its future. Marion, leaning beside him, looked +back at the fading line of surf below the Cliff House. + +"Well, Tom," he said, a bit huskily, "Commencement Day's over." + +"Yes," answered the Sergeant, without turning, "we're up against it, all +right!" + +FOOTNOTES: + + [Footnote A: On May 25, 1898, Commencement Day at the + University, the First California Volunteers sailed for the + Philippine Islands. With Company K of that regiment went + thirty-five Stanford students, a part of the hundred who + volunteered, in various regiments, for the Spanish War.] + + + * * * * * + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: + +Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvious +typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes and the like) have +been fixed. Corrections in the text are noted below, with corrections +inside the brackets: + +Table of Contents: typos fixed + + The Substituted Full-back[Fullback] + + A Song-cycle[Song Cycle] and a Puncture + +page 21: typo fixed + + "Ill[I'll] be hanged if I will!" shouted the + patient, preparing to rise. + +page 106: typo fixed + + special runs up on the University track and stops + betwen[between] the Library and Encina, the flaming bunting + +page 141: typo fixed + + Your theory might work all right at a city college or even at + Berkeley, but on this campus, nit[not] so!" + +page 270: typo fixed + + talking it over, and when the civilians had drifted off to + ed[bed] or to the inglorious studies of a routine now ended for + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stanford Stories, by +Charles K. Field and Will H. 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Field and Will H. Irwin. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + + p.citation { /* author citation at end of blockquote or poem */ + text-align: right; + font-variant: small-caps; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin: 2em auto 2em auto; text-align: center; border-collapse: collapse; width: 600px;} + + .tda {text-align: right; padding-right: .5em; text-indent: 0; padding-bottom: .75em;} + .tdb {text-align: left; padding-right: .5em; text-indent: 0; padding-bottom: .75em;} + .tdbb {text-align: left; padding-right: .5em; text-indent: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em;} + .tdc {text-align: right; padding-left: 2em; text-indent: 0; vertical-align: bottom; padding-bottom: .75em;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + + .blockquot{margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 30%;} + + .blockquotnot{margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} + + .trans_note {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em; border: solid 2px; + padding-bottom: .2em; padding-top: .2em; + padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .ralign {text-align: right;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold; font-size: smaller} + .captionr {text-align: right;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + + .footnotes {border: dashed 0px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + img { /* the default inline image has */ + border: 1px solid black; /* a thin black line border.. */ + + } + + .poem {margin-left:30%; margin-right:30%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i3 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Stanford Stories, by Charles K. Field and Will H. Irwin + +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: Stanford Stories + Tales of a Young University + +Author: Charles K. Field + Will H. Irwin + +Release Date: March 2, 2008 [EBook #24735] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STANFORD STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></span></p> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 399px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="384" height="622" alt="Original cover" title="" /> +</div> + + + + +<h1>STANFORD STORIES</h1> + +<h3>TALES OF A<br /> +YOUNG UNIVERSITY</h3> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>CHARLES K. FIELD</h2> +<p class="center">[CAROLUS AGER]</p> + +<p class="center">AND</p> + +<h2>WILL H. IRWIN</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></p> + + +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br /> +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY<br /> +1900</p> + +<p class="center">Copyright, 1900, by<br /> +<span class="smcap">Doubleday, Page & Co.</span></p> + + +<p class="center">BLANCHARD PRESS, NEW YORK.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 427px;"><a name="frontispiece" id="frontispiece"></a> + +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="427" height="883" alt="Frontispiece" title="Past the Lonely Redwood Tree to the University" /> +<span class="caption">PAST THE LONELY REDWOOD TREE<br />TO THE UNIVERSITY<br /></span> +<div class="captionr"><span class="ralign">(See <a href="#POCAHONTAS_FRESHMAN"><i>Pocahontas, Freshman</i></a>)</span></div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>DEDICATION.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"To the newest born of the Sisters,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">At the end of the race's march,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In her quaint, old Spanish garment,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Pillar and tile and arch;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Awaiting the age that hallows,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Her face to the coming morn—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose scholars still walk in her cloisters,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Whose martyrs are yet unborn."<br /></span> +</div> +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"We scatter down the four wide ways,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Clasp hands and part, but keep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The power of the golden days<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To lull our care asleep,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And dream, while our new years we fill<br /></span> +<span class="i4">With sweetness from those four,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That we are known and loved there still,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Though we come back no more."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h3><a name="PREFATORY_NOTE" id="PREFATORY_NOTE"></a>PREFATORY NOTE.</h3> + +<div class="blockquotnot"> +<p>These are stories of the University as it was before the era of new +buildings. While the attempt has been made to create, in character, +incident and atmosphere, a picture of Stanford life, the stories, as +stories, are fiction, with the exception of "Pocahontas, Freshman," and +"Boggs' Election Feed," which were suggested by local occurrences, and +"One Commencement," which is mainly fact. The original draft of "His +Uncle's Will" was printed in <i>The Sequoia</i> with the title "The Fate of +Freshman Hatch."</p> + +<p>It may be necessary to add that, in the endeavor to present the actual +life of the University, it has seemed quite inadvisable to edit the +conversation of the characters from the standpoint of the English +purist. Since, however, those readers who boggle over slang could hardly +be much interested in the Undergraduate, it is sufficient merely to call +attention to the point.</p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7f" id="Page_7f"></a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + + +<table summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> + + +<th class="tdb"></th> +<th class="tdc" colspan="2">PAGE</th> +</tr> + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">A Midwinter Madness,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#A_MIDWINTER_MADNESS">3</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">Pocahontas, Freshman,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#POCAHONTAS_FRESHMAN">29</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">His Uncle's Will,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#HIS_UNCLES_WILL">55</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">The Initiation of Dromio,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#THE_INITIATION_OF_DROMIO">77</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">The Substituted Fullback,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#THE_SUBSTITUTED">91</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">Two Pioneers and an Audience,</span></td><td class="tdc"> <a href="#TWO_PIONEERS_AND_AN_AUDIENCE">119</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">For the Sake of Argument,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#FOR_THE_SAKE_OF_ARGUMENT">135</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">An Alumni Dinner,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#AN_ALUMNI_DINNER">171</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">Boggs' Election Feed,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#BOGGS_ELECTION_FEED">185</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">In the Dark Days,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#CROSSROADS">207</a></td></tr> + + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">Crossroads,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#CROSSROADS">223</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">A Song Cycle and a Puncture,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#A_SONG_CYCLE_AND_A_PUNCTURE">249</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">One Commencement,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#ONE_COMMENCEMENT">265</a></td></tr> +</table> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> + +<table summary="List of Illustrations"> +<tr> + + +<th class="tdb"></th> +<th class="tdc" colspan="2">PAGE</th> +</tr> + <tr> +<td class="tdb"> +<span class="smcap">Past the Lonely Redwood Tree to the University,</span></td><td class="tdc"><a href="#frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">... Toward the La Honda Redwoods</span>,</td> +<td class="tdc"><a href="#Page_148f"><i>Facing page</i> 148</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">A Stroll in the Moonlit Quad, Planned to Interest <br /> the Crowd at the Tuesday +Evening Lecture</span>,</td> +<td class="tdc"><a href="#Page_154f"> +<i>Facing page</i> 154</a></td></tr> + + <tr> +<td class="tdb"><span class="smcap">... Then the Lull During Class,</span></td> +<td class="tdc"><a href="#Page_200f"><i>Facing page</i> 200</a></td></tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="A_MIDWINTER_MADNESS" id="A_MIDWINTER_MADNESS"></a>A MIDWINTER MADNESS.</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="STANFORD_STORIES" id="STANFORD_STORIES"></a>STANFORD STORIES.</h2> + + +<h2><a name="A_Midwinter_Madness" id="A_Midwinter_Madness"></a>A Midwinter Madness.</h2> + +<p class="center"><b>Genius has been defined as a capacity for taking pains.</b></p> + + +<p>When a college man's good fairy makes her first call at his cradle, she +may bestow upon him the football instinct, with muscles to match; no +fairy could do more. But if she bumps up against Heredity, and is +powerless to give him the supreme gift, she may compensate for it in a +degree by leaving the kind of larynx and tympanum used in the Glee Club. +Failing this, she may render next best service by throwing a mandolin in +his way and bewitching his parents into paying for lessons. Some twenty +years later, behind the enchanted scenes of a specially hired theater, +or on the polished floor of society's inner temple, he may think of the +fairy kindly.</p> + +<p>Doubtless, all theatrical life means drudgery, but the Christmas tour of +the Glee and Mandolin clubs is drudgery amidst bowers of roses. The +hard-working professional would call it play; yet, even in this gilded +stage-life,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> there is the common affliction of being forced to appear at +every concert, and in places you don't care about—unless, of course, +you happen to be seriously ill.</p> + +<p>The Clubs had just done an abbreviated stunt for the Los Angeles High +School the afternoon before Christmas. The occasion was a big ad., but +they ripped matters through in a hurry, because the social event of the +trip came that afternoon—Lillian Arnold's reception at her home on +Figuerroa Street.</p> + +<p>At Hacienda Arnold there is running water along the garden copings, and +the grounds are large. It was bud-time, and the heavy fragrance of the +orange blossoms mingled with the bitter-almond smell of oleanders. Miss +Arnold served her refreshments on the lawn, and the girls looked peachy +in plume-laden hats and filmy organdies. The day was rather warm for +December. To this out-door reception came the prettiest girl in Los +Angeles, Dolores Payson; her full name, she confided to Cecil Van Dyke +that evening with a slight but captivating roll of her Andalusian eyes +and r's, was Dolores Ynez Teresa Payson. Van Dyke was the only man on +the trip who had thought to bring his summer togs, and he looked very +swell. Van played first mandolin and was notoriously susceptible. It is +down in the Club annals that she caught his game at first sight.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<p>Had she been given to genealogical investigation, the name Van Dyke +might have recalled to this descendant of many hidalgos that foggy +battle-field in the Netherlands on which her ancestor and his took +pot-shots at each other with the primitive cross-bow. Motley records +that on that day far-gone Holland laid low the Spaniard. The present +historian is forced to chronicle the final triumph of Spain. The only +bow used in this last encounter was in the hands of a mythological +person whose existence is doubted only by scoffers.</p> + +<p>They tried a dance or two in the crowded rooms, they strolled out into +the gardens, they ate ices under the roses in a secluded arbor. The +place, the time, the air had their influence on Van Dyke. He was from +Montana, where the magnolias do not shed their waxen petals at +Christmas, and the gold-of-Ophir roses sternly refuse to leaf until the +Fourth of July.</p> + +<p>Perhaps he might have withstood all the seductive charms of the hour if +he had not escorted Dolores home and essayed to bid her good-bye. There +was a great clump of flaming poinsettia at the Payson gate. Dolores was +dark, with a rich southern complexion; her dress was white. So she stood +against the poinsettia. That is why there is more to this story.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<p>Van Dyke meditated as he went into town. She was the finest girl he had +ever met. It was a hard graft, this playing one day in a live town where +one could meet charming people, and being forced to take the train next +morning for some uninteresting country place where they would have to +lounge around a cheap hotel until concert time. Why couldn't the manager +get up a schedule that would give them a day or so longer in a place +like Los Angeles? This making a college trip with the sole idea of +money-getting was degrading. He, for one, was willing enough to pay his +share of the extra expense.</p> + +<p>On his way he stopped at a florist's. It was a habit he had acquired +under similar circumstances. He was puzzled to know just what to send in +a land where the highways and hedges run riot with flowers, but he +finally selected some wonderful orchids of delicate lavender and mauve. +Purposely, he put no card with them, feeling that she would guess the +sender.</p> + +<p>He got into his dress clothes in rather an ungracious humor. Pomona was +the next place, a fruit town further south. Oh, it was too bad! Well, at +least he would see her again at the concert that night. He was grateful +for this much. Her seat was on an aisle, she told him; he would be able +to speak to her during the intermission; more than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> this, she had said, +in her best convent manner, that he might ride home with her papa and +mamma afterwards.</p> + +<p>Still, this was an unsatisfactory way of carrying on an affair of the +sort, especially when it was the first really serious one he had ever +had. Clean out of Van's mind had faded the memory of a Montana cow-girl, +a San Francisco actress, a senior in the Lambda Mu sorority, a——but +space forbids. He mussed three ties. Freshmen are petulant things.</p> + +<p>Perkins, who led the Mandolin Club, joshed him at dinner.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, my boy; didn't you have a good time this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"Of course he didn't," answered a guitar man. "You must have noticed his +bored expression all through; that is, when you saw him at all."</p> + +<p>"That was merely the blasé look that comes with four months at the +Youngest and Best," said "Cap." Smith. "The Freshman was happy on his +little inside because he was so well got up. He really looked the part; +now he's in ordinary clothes, like a common strolling player, and he +feels cross."</p> + +<p>"No," growled Van Dyke, "I've caught cold or something."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Phillips, the Glee Club leader. He took up his table fork and +bit the end; holding it to his ear he gave the table a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> starting chord, +and they hummed "Ma Onliest One," while Van grew red, and the rest of +the dining-room stopped to listen.</p> + +<p>Dolores Payson sat in an orchestra seat and smiled up at the immaculate +Mr. Van Dyke, above the only bunch of orchids in the theatre. He came to +chat with her during the interval between "La Czarina" and "Schneider's +Band." She was doubly guarded by her father on one side and her mother +on the other. It was a way they had. She introduced him demurely with an +adorable little wave of her black fan. He wondered if, should he quit +college right away, he could get a job which would enable him to support +a wife. He looked at the placid, olive-skinned mother, not yet old +enough to be very fat, and decided that he could; his glance wandered to +the angular, sharp-featured American father, and he was sure he +couldn't.</p> + +<p>Van could not remember ever having seen such great, dark liquid eyes as +now melted into his. It seemed hard not to behold them again for a whole +week. Hard? It was impossible. It was dreadful to leave her for the +little time while the mandolin club was on the stage. On his way up the +aisle his freshman brain was seized and overmastered by a brilliant +idea; he almost stopped to pat himself on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>Going into one of the dressing rooms, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> sank dejectedly on a chair and +pressed his hand to his forehead. Perkins, gathering in his musicians +for the next piece, found him there.</p> + +<p>"Come along, Freshie."</p> + +<p>The first mandolin rose slowly.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" asked the leader.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing," said the other, "I'll be all right."</p> + +<p>After the piece he went back to the dressing-room.</p> + +<p>"Encore!" cried Perkins, rushing in.</p> + +<p>"I can't help it," said Van, in a contracted tone, "I can't go on."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" demanded Perkins.</p> + +<p>"I'm in awful pain, Ted," pleaded Van. "Something I've eaten, I guess. I +can hardly stand up straight."</p> + +<p>"Oh, rats!" answered Perkins sympathetically, and tore out again.</p> + +<p>Van took his coat and mandolin and disappeared. Between numbers he came +in and slipped down the aisle to the Paysons' seats.</p> + +<p>"Will you excuse me, Miss Payson? I can't go home with you after the +concert. I'm awfully sorry, but I feel pretty sick and I'm going back to +the hotel now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, what is it?" Dolores asked, and her mother leaned forward with +polite interest.</p> + +<p>Van smiled weakly.</p> + +<p>"Nothing serious, probably," he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> "Don't worry, please. I won't say +good-bye," he added, taking Dolores' hand, "because if I <i>have</i> to stay +over to-morrow I shall try to see you in the morning."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I hope you'll be better, and I shall look for you."</p> + +<p>Then Mason came out to sing, and Van left with a hurried good-night. The +streets were full of Christmas shoppers. At the first drug store he +bought some Jamaica ginger; then he went to the hotel and slid into bed, +leaving the lights on.</p> + +<p>After the concert Perkins did not go to the café with the rest; he, too, +hastened back to the hotel.</p> + +<p>"I'll bet he's at the Payson ranch this minute," he thought, as he made +for Van's room, but the sick musician was lying on his face, breathing +heavily.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's the matter, anyway?" said Perkins, his suspicions fading.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," groaned Van. "It came on all of a sudden at the theatre. +The pain is here on my right side. Gee whiz, it knocks me out!"</p> + +<p>"Shan't I get a doctor?" asked the leader. "What do you think it is?"</p> + +<p>"Of course," moaned the sufferer, "it may be appendicitis,—I don't +think that could hurt more,—but it can hardly be anything like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> that. +I've taken the ginger, and it will set me up, probably."</p> + +<p>"You ought to have a doctor look at you, though. It's dangerous to put +it off," urged Perkins.</p> + +<p>"No," said Van. "I'll stick it out to-night, and if I'm not better +to-morrow, why, you may get one. Never mind me, Ted. Where is the gang?"</p> + +<p>"They're all down in the Grotto."</p> + +<p>"Go on and join them; don't stay here, it isn't necessary. I'll be all +right, I say, and I can ring if I'm not. Come in in the morning, won't +you?"</p> + +<p>"Sure. The train goes at ten-fifteen, you know. We can't get along +without you very well."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll be fit in the morning. So long, old man."</p> + +<p>"Good-night," and Perkins shut the door.</p> + +<p>The Freshman lay still awhile, then got up and, smiling broadly, turned +out the lights and tumbled back to sleep.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Perkins joined the men at the restaurant.</p> + +<p>"Van Dyke is sick," he said. "I've just been up in his room."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"We don't know. He's afraid it's appendicitis."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what it is," said Mason, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> baritone; "it's heart +trouble. I wouldn't believe that man Van under a triple oath, if there +were a skirt in the case."</p> + +<p>"You won't have to search far in this case," laughed a deep bass voice +behind a cool stein.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't think so," protested Perkins; "he looked bad, bad. I think +it's square enough."</p> + +<p>"Don't you believe him a minute. I'll bet it's a fake, pure and simple."</p> + +<p>"He couldn't expect to work one on us."</p> + +<p>"Why not? The time the Mandolin Club went North with the Berkeley Glee +somebody played the same blooming game. It worked all right then and +they joshed the life out of the leader, too. I heard Shirlock tell about +it."</p> + +<p>The Freshman should never have allowed himself to go to sleep so easily. +By the time Perkins and Mason tiptoed up to his room, he was sprawled +out on his back, snoring with a healthfulness that was positively +vulgar. Mason gave the leader a significant punch and drew him down the +hall to his room.</p> + +<p>"See here, Perk," he said, "if he keeps up that gag to-morrow I have a +scheme that is a pipe."</p> + +<p>The invalid wore a woe-begone expression when the two fellows went in +before breakfast.</p> + +<p>"Are you any better?" asked Perkins.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No," said Van, miserably. "The pain is just as bad. I guess I'll have +to see a doctor after all."</p> + +<p>"How did you sleep?" inquired Perkins.</p> + +<p>"Bum. My fever was high all night," moaned the sufferer. "I heard you +fellows come up, and I hoped someone might drop in. I suppose you were +all too sleepy."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mason, with a side look at Perkins, "everybody went right to +sleep."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the leader, "we'll go down to breakfast now, and then we +will get a doctor to see you before we have to go."</p> + +<p>Neither of them stopped to eat. They hurried first to the Polyclinic. +There Perkins asked for the name of one or two physicians who were known +to have little practice, and who could afford to take charge of a man +who would require constant attention for a week, a middle-aged person +preferred.</p> + +<p>The man in charge gave them three names and addresses. They went first +to a Doctor Mead, who displayed his shingle in a quiet street. He was a +big, slow-spoken man, somewhat shabbily dressed.</p> + +<p>Jimmy Mason approached him with such hesitation in his voice as befitted +the part he was playing. They wanted the doctor on a delicate matter, he +explained; it was a private affair which lay very near to them, Perkins +added.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You see," said Jimmy, "we're all cut up. Poor little devil——" and his +voice broke artistically, while Perkins forebore to grin.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps the case is not so grave as it seems," said the doctor, with +professional calm.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how it could be any worse." Jimmy controlled his emotion +with an effort. "If it were just common sickness, but—but he's lost +some of his buttons—bughouse, crazy you know,—" his giggle turned into +a sob again, and Perkins, bearing up under his trouble, took the thread +of the story.</p> + +<p>"You see, Doctor, we are musicians from Stanford, travelling through +here; something has happened to one of our party; I don't know what's +the matter: some hallucination."</p> + +<p>"It struck him first at Santa Barbara," said Mason. "He thought that he +was very ill one evening when he was tired; said he was sure he was +coming down with appendicitis. We sent for Doctor——"</p> + +<p>"Brown," filled in Perkins with presence of mind.</p> + +<p>"A very able man; he stands high in the profession," said the doctor +gravely.</p> + +<p>All three being thus established on a common basis of mendacity, the +head liar proceeded:</p> + +<p>"The doctor couldn't find anything the matter, but the boy—he's only a +Freshman, you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> see—he raised Cain that night; next day he said he was +as well as ever. It's been like that ever since, Doctor. One hour he's +himself and then he goes to bed and swears he's sick and wants +medicines. We didn't get onto him until last night, when the poor kid +got to acting loco at the concert."</p> + +<p>Perkins played chorus at discreet intervals.</p> + +<p>"I haven't telegraphed to his people because I wouldn't distress them +till we knew. We must go on with the trip now, and we can't spare any of +our men because we took no substitutes; we strike this place again in a +week. You will be paid well for any services, and furnished a room at +the hotel. Now, Doctor, can you arrange with your patients so that he +will have your undivided time?"</p> + +<p>("Bet you haven't any to arrange with," was the unspoken thought of both +men.)</p> + +<p>Dr. Mead pondered.</p> + +<p>"We come to you," Jimmy put in, "because we need someone on whom we can +rely, a man of skill and tact."</p> + +<p>"It happens," said the doctor after minutes of profound deliberation, +"that I have no necessary calls to make until Saturday this week. What I +have to do can be managed over the telephone, and I presume patients can +call upon me at the hotel as well as here. Now, what are the exact +particulars of your friend's aberration?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Can you walk up to the hotel with us, Doctor?" asked Mason, looking at +his watch. "Our train leaves at ten-fifteen; we have very little time +left."</p> + +<p>On the way the two gave to the unfortunate Freshman such peculiarities, +idiosyncrasies and hallucinations as seemed good; they warned the +physician that he must never be left alone, and that he ought to be +humored to the top of his bent in regard to his fancied attack of +appendicitis.</p> + +<p>"Then it's understood?" said Mason, as they came down the hall toward +Van Dyke's room. "Of course we can't speak of the matter before him."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the doctor, "I think I can manage everything. You will +explain to the clerk in the office the peculiar character of your +friend's illness, and I shall have no trouble, I am sure."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Perkins, and they entered. There were several of the +club in the room saying good-bye. At the entrance of the physician they +filed out.</p> + +<p>"Where have you the most pain, Mr. Van Dyke?" began Dr. Mead.</p> + +<p>"Here," said Van, without a blush.</p> + +<p>The physician pressed his fingers upon the afflicted region, felt Van's +pulse and forehead and gravely examined his tongue; then he turned to +the two men and said:</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is probably appendicitis. The boy must stay in bed for the present."</p> + +<p>"Hate to leave you, Van," Mason said, taking the sick man's hand gently; +"but it's almost train time. Take care of yourself and do as the doctor +says, and you'll be O. K."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, old man," said Perkins. "Have 'em telegraph right along; we +shall want to know just how you are. We shall have to cut the string +quartet, and that's pretty hard with Pellams out of the trip, but don't +feel bad about that. You'll be nifty by the time we are on for the +return concert."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye," said the man with appendicitis, assuming the look of one who +may be taking his last farewell of earthly things. "I shall come out all +right, I'm sure I shall."</p> + +<p>"Course. Good-bye. Doctor, look out for him."</p> + +<p>"Send up some paper from the office, will you?" murmured the Freshman +wearily. "I—I think I want to write to my mother."</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later the bell-boy brought the paper and a Bible.</p> + +<p>Dr. Mead arranged the bedclothes with a practised hand, then he sent out +for medicine and chatted affably until the stuff arrived. Van submitted +to a plaster on his abdomen and alternated messes for half-hour +intervals. He was contented enough. Early afternoon would be a good time +to find Dolores.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>The doctor settled himself by the window and talked about the University +and politics and climatic conditions in Montana and California; the +musician joined in the conversation politely but without great +enthusiasm, wondering when the man was going; there was not any too much +time now for breakfast and a careful toilet. He ventured to speak.</p> + +<p>"If you have other patients that call you, Doctor, you mustn't stay with +me. I can get along, even if it is lonely in a hotel, and you'll be in +again to-day, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"Appendicitis," said the doctor, with his heaviest air, "is not a thing +to be treated lightly. Just now you are in a critical condition inasmuch +as we are not sure what turn your trouble may take. You are likely to be +seized suddenly with the usual symptoms: then an operation will be an +immediate necessity. I have the needed instruments right here in my +valise, and I can give you relief at once. If, however, I should leave +you, I might not be within reach until serious complications had time to +arise; for that reason I shall be obliged to watch you through to-day. +Afterwards it may not be necessary."</p> + +<p>This speech fairly paralyzed the man in bed. Had he done this artistic +bit of acting for the purpose of spending his Christmas on the flat of +his back talking to a prosy old doctor? He lay still, trying to think +what answer could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> be made to this physician who told him seriously that +he had appendicitis. He put out a feeler.</p> + +<p>"That medicine of yours is the real thing. The pain is very much less +now."</p> + +<p>Dr. Mead looked at him over his glasses.</p> + +<p>"Is it entirely gone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Van, cheerily, "it certainly is."</p> + +<p>"That is a dangerous symptom. The plaster should have drawn the pain to +the surface, but not stopped it. That numbness is exactly what I wished +to avoid."</p> + +<p>He rose and poured out medicine from another bottle. Van nearly choked +in swallowing this. It was eleven o'clock. Sounds of Christmas revelry +floated even into his secluded upper room. The bells were telling to the +people of the City of the Angels their message of peace on earth, good +will toward men; they were dinning into the ears of the victim of a +modern disease the fact that he ought at that moment to be waiting for +Dolores on her pious way to Mission Los Angeles. He pictured her with +some ancient missal in her slender hands, and flanked on one side by her +sympathetic duenna of a mother. The certainty that her American father +would be safe at home did not detract from the charm of the situation.</p> + +<p>"The drinks seem to be on me!" thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> he after his next dose. The sun +of southern California was shining brightly out of doors; it must be a +glorious day at Westlake Park. The bedclothes were warm and irksome, and +that confounded plaster had begun to itch. If he was ever to see Dolores +again he should have to make a clean breast of the whole thing.</p> + +<p>He sat up.</p> + +<p>"Say, Doctor, I haven't appendicitis at all; I am as well as I ever was. +I just put this up as a joke on the fellows because I wanted to stay in +town instead of going farther south. I've imposed on you, I'm sorry to +say. I haven't any pain whatever. I was faking."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the doctor, soothingly, "I knew you were, but you are not +well at all, my boy, and my advice to you is to stay right there in bed. +You have appendicitis symptoms in spite of there being no pain, and you +might do yourself no end of harm by getting up now. I wouldn't let any +man go out of doors after taking that belladonna for the world. It would +be suicidal."</p> + +<p>"But, Doctor, I'm not sick, I tell you; I feel out of sight," and Van +threw off the clothes and was about to spring out, plaster and all.</p> + +<p>Dr. Mead thought it time to act.</p> + +<p>"Get back in there," he said, quietly but firmly. He was a man of +powerful physique<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> and Van thought it best to obey until he could reason +with him.</p> + +<p>"I know what I am talking about, young man," he went on, "and you must +listen to me. I want you to stay in bed."</p> + +<p>This was too much.</p> + +<p>"I'll be hanged if I will!" shouted the patient, preparing to rise.</p> + +<p>"Keep covered up!" ordered the doctor. He had a big, deep voice. He +stood a little way off, with his forefinger pointed at the student, +sighting over it with a cold, gray eye. Something in his manner began to +frighten Van. He shivered under the bedclothes. A hideous story which he +had read about a maniac barber came into his mind with sickening effect. +The man's whole appearance, all his actions, his eager grasping of the +appendicitis theory, proclaimed insanity. He meant to operate on him, +whether or no! There were the surgical instruments in that black bag on +the bureau, and he was shut up in the room with the whole crazy outfit! +He would have given his soul to be in Pomona with the club.</p> + +<p>"All right, Doctor," he said weakly, sliding a little farther down into +the bed, "I'll do just as you say. Only I wish you'd ring and see if any +mail has come for me."</p> + +<p>The boy who answered the doctor's call was an athletic young fellow. Van +thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> that between them they could manage the maniac; so he sprang +out crying, "Quick! This man is crazy. Help me get him down!"</p> + +<p>To his surprise the boy seized him and deposited him back in bed.</p> + +<p>"What in thunder is the matter with you people?" shouted Van. "I'm not +going to stay here with that man when there's nothing the matter with +me!"</p> + +<p>"There, there," coaxed the boy, "you're all right, sir; try to go to +sleep, can't you?"</p> + +<p>Then Van turned over to the wall and wept salt Freshman tears, and the +awe-struck boy gently closed the door. And Cupid, with his wings folded +over his little arms, sat upon the bureau and laughed long and +cynically.</p> + +<p>It was now past twelve o'clock. Church was over, and Dolores was +returning. Home-ward gently she rode with surging thoughts in her bosom, +and an expression of sweet, religious calm hovering over her straight +black brows. That was the Spanish of her. The moment the front door +closed behind her she sprinted for the telephone. That was the American +of her.</p> + +<p>Had Papa Payson not been absorbed in the forty-eight-page Christmas +edition of the Los Angeles <i>Herald</i>, he might have overheard the +following semi-conversation:</p> + +<p>"——"</p> + +<p>"Main eight-double-eight."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<p>"——"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"——"</p> + +<p>"Is this the Westminster?"</p> + +<p>"——"</p> + +<p>"Will you—er—that is—did the Stanford Glee Club leave this morning?"</p> + +<p>"——"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Will you tell me, please, whether Mr. Cecil Van Dyke left with +them?"</p> + +<p>"——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so sorry! What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"——"</p> + +<p>"Appendicitis!" The receiver dropped and swung against the wall. Dolores +had fled to mamma.</p> + +<p>Perkins and Mason, treating each other at every station short of the +prohibition town of Pomona, would have felt less complacent over their +little joke had they seen the procession that left the Hotel Westminster +at one-thirty P. M. on that balmy Christmas day. The order of march, as +instituted by the American Dolores, was as follows:</p> + +<p>1. The Payson carriage, with Mrs. and Miss Payson on the forward seat +and a tenderly wrapped Freshman on the other, and the coachman +instructed to drive gently.</p> + +<p>2. Dr. Mead and the devoted bell-boy in a phaëton.</p> + +<p>3. Small citizens on foot.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>The doctor, obeying to the letter the orders of Perkins, who had +commanded him not to leave his patient for one moment, smiled broadly as +he gathered the lunatic into his arms and bore him past the fatal +poinsettia bushes and up the broad steps where the grave major-domo was +waiting to receive them. The scale upon which the Payson household was +conducted just suited the ideas of that worthy practitioner.</p> + +<hr style='width: 35%;' /> + +<p>On Saturday, Perkins and Mason asked at the hotel for Van Dyke and the +doctor.</p> + +<p>"They gave up their rooms last Monday, not very long after you left," +said the clerk. "A lady took your friend to her house."</p> + +<p>"Who was she?" asked Jimmy, with dark foreboding.</p> + +<p>"A Mrs. Payson."</p> + +<p>Perkins collapsed on his suit-case. Jimmy made for the desk and began to +scan the directory.</p> + +<p>"What are you looking for?"</p> + +<p>"The P's. I'm going to haze that rattle-weeded Freshman and slay the +doctor."</p> + +<p>When the two defeated joshers paused inside the Payson gate, a scene of +touching domesticity met their gaze. Under a jasmine-covered corner of +the piazza, nestling in the depths of a great easy chair, lay Freshman +Van Dyke. Señorita Dolores, in the rôle of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> ministering angel, was +bending unnecessarily close. Dr. Mead, as near his patient as was +consistent with delicacy, was lounging in a hammock, and smoking a good +cigar. It is a tradition in Los Angeles clubdom that John Payson imports +his cigars direct. In the middle-distance, Mrs. Payson was approaching +with a cup of nourishing beef-tea.</p> + +<p>Jimmy Mason, afraid to trust himself to the expression of his thoughts +in the presence of ladies, was about to vanish gracefully, but Van Dyke +caught sight of them.</p> + +<p>"Hello, fellows. Hear you had a frost in San Diego," cried he.</p> + +<p>"You must be very much better—able to be moved, I notice," with a look +in Jimmy's eyes that pointed to future trouble.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said the Freshman, "almost recovered. I've had the very best of +care—and a very satisfactory nurse," and for the last time, in this +story, he gazed into those Andalusian eyes.</p> + +<p>"But not the nurse we engaged," said the aggrieved Perkins.</p> + +<p>"No," said Van, "this young lady was engaged only last evening."</p> + +<p>"S-sh," said Señora Payson, pointing to the open window, "Papa may hear +you."</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="POCAHONTAS_FRESHMAN" id="POCAHONTAS_FRESHMAN"></a>POCAHONTAS, FRESHMAN.</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Pocahontas_Freshman" id="Pocahontas_Freshman"></a>Pocahontas, Freshman.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"But when they lookt round for the Ladye Pocahontas, she +hadde gone to her Yorke woodes, weepyng they saye."</p> + +<p class="citation">Rowe's Life of Pocahontas.</p></div> + + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p>To begin with, the college never called her Pocahontas to her face, and +no one would have found anything pat in the name until a long-remembered +spring afternoon in her Freshman year. After that day, although her +instructors still registered her as Hannah Grant Daly, she was generally +known as "Pocahontas." Students with visitors would point her out in the +Quad. "That's the girl they call Pocahontas." Then they would tell +briefly her story. She knew through her room-mate that the college had +nicknamed her, and she grieved over it. She did not know that John Smith +himself never called her Pocahontas; she had never dared to look at him +since the day they had named her.</p> + +<p>Early in September the noon train brought her through the oaks and the +burdened olive orchards, past the lonely redwood Tree to the University. +The brakeman's call: "Next station is Palo A-al-to!" stirred her with +flutter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>ing excitement. The crowded carriages and people at the station +bewildered her. Eager 'busmen struggled for the hand-baggage of +strangers, men with "Student Transfer" on their caps clamored for +trunk-checks. Fellows in duck seized some of the men who came down the +car steps, carrying away their suit-cases and throwing lusty student +arms about their shoulders. The men thus welcomed introduced younger +fellows and the whole group piled into a 'bus and shouted "Rho House, +Billy," to the driver.</p> + +<p>The man who got out just ahead of Pocahontas was greeted by cries of +"Come on you Ca-ap!" and "Hello, Smithy, old boy!" He was evidently +someone of whom they were very fond. One fat fellow with a comical face +hugged him theatrically. Pocahontas watched them drive away, laughing +and slapping one another's knees. The man they called Smithy was the +nicest looking.</p> + +<p>She had given her new valise to a gray-haired 'busman who looked a +little like the minister at home. On the way up the long avenue of palms +toward the sandstone buildings low in the distance, this 'busman chatted +kindly with her, telling her wonderful, almost incredible things about +the University, so that she began to feel a little less strange. As she +paid her fare in front of the Roble he said:</p> + +<p>"Now, whenever you want a 'bus, Miss, just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> ask for Uncle John. That's +what they call me."</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the Freshman, gratefully, "I will,—Uncle John."</p> + +<p>She passed up the dormitory steps, running awkwardly the gauntlet of +experienced eyes scanning the new arrivals. The Theta Gammas wrote her +down as material for a quaint little, quiet little dig,—not of sorority +interest. One of them ventured that there was an Oxford teacher's Bible +and an embroidered mending-case in the shiny valise. Another prophesied +that the newcomer would wear her High School graduation-dress to the +Freshman reception. These ladies had been at college for three years and +their diagnosis was correct.</p> + +<p>So Hannah Grant Daly hopped with no unnecessary flapping of wings upon +her perch in the Roble dove-cote. The matron put her into 52 with +Lillian Arnold, a Sophomore leader of local society. This was "to make +things easier for her." Their wedded life lasted three days. It was long +after lights when Miss Arnold returned the first night. Hannah had read +her chapter and was lying awake, bravely resisting a homesick cry. Her +roommate groped in with an animated tale of a Freshman spread on the top +floor at which the chief attraction had been oyster cocktails. +Pocahontas shuddered. In imagi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>nation she detected a faint odor like +that from her mother's medicine-closet.</p> + +<p>"I'd have asked you to go along with me," apologized Lillian, scrambling +into bed without any conventional delay, "but I thought you wouldn't +care for such things."</p> + +<p>"I hope I never shall," said the new girl, solemnly, and turned her face +to the wall.</p> + +<p>The following morning while Pocahontas arranged her share of the bureau, +the Sophomore draped a tennis net on their wall and fixed in its meshes +the trophies of her first year. She was putting a photograph in place +when Hannah spoke:</p> + +<p>"Who is that, Miss Arnold?"</p> + +<p>"That's Jack Smith," answered Lillian; "stunning, isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"He's very interesting, I think. He was on the train yesterday. There +were ever so many boys to meet him."</p> + +<p>"He's a Beta Rho,—belongs to that fraternity, you know. They have a +swell house here. I know most of them very well,—been over there to +dinner several times."</p> + +<p>"What class is he in?"</p> + +<p>"Mine,—Sophomore. He's a splendid athlete,—football and +pole-vaulting,—and he sings in the Glee Club. He was the only Freshman +to make the team last year,—he's really a perfect hero."</p> + +<p>"I knew he was somebody by the way they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> acted down at the station. I +think he has a good face." The new girl had come over from the bureau +and was looking up at the picture in the net.</p> + +<p>"Everybody thinks he is the handsomest man in college. You wait till you +see him in his red sweater. Don't say anything, Hannah, but I'm going to +have Jack Smith for my very own this year; you see if I don't manage +it," and Lillian, laughing, blew a light kiss to the photograph.</p> + +<p>Decidedly Pocahontas disapproved of her room-mate. Later, when she found +that a half-dozen girls who had dropped in after dinner were there for +the evening, she went out into a music-room to look at her new +text-books. Routed from here by more butterflies, with "beaux," she did +her reading on a bench in the hallway. Another day and she was rooming +with a Junior who was a hard student. Her departure caused Miss Arnold +sincere regret. A girl she knew had roomed with a Freshman the year +before and the child adored her and did the mending of both. Lillian +hated to sew.</p> + +<p>Pocahontas had been at college a week and was already learning that it +is not necessary to read all your references when her room-mate, coming +in from the library one evening, mentioned that there was a rush going +on over at the tank.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>"A rush?" asked Hannah, "what is that?"</p> + +<p>"A relic of barbarism; they ought to have put a stop to it long ago, +Professor Grind says."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the Freshman, "but what do they do?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, get out and fight somehow,—I don't know just how,—something about +tying up. Only another way of wasting time, Hannah," and the Junior +plunged back into her Livy.</p> + +<p>At breakfast Pocahontas heard Lillian Arnold tell about going over to +the baseball diamond to see the Sophomores lying tied up beside the +backstop, and what a joke it was on her own class and what a ridiculous +figure Jack Smith had made in the coils of a Freshman's trunk-rope, with +his face and hair all grimy with perspiration and dust, and that laundry +agent, Mason, piled on top of him. Hannah left the table in secret +excitement. Between recitations that morning she met Pete Halleck, a +classmate from her own high school; bursting with pride, he took her up +to the Row to show their very own class numerals shining high on the +tank, and she realized vaguely that this was a thing of which she, too, +was a part. There grew within her a longing to reach out a little toward +the big, full life of the college, to know something of the men and +women who lived it. All this was very wrong, she told herself, for she +had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> come here to study hard. She had only two years in which to fit +herself to teach. Here was the precious book-knowledge for which she had +hungered and pinched so long. It must not be neglected, ever so little; +but the enthusiasm of the boy with her was infectious. In her soul she +took issue with the views of her room-mate, fortified as they were by +the approval of Professor Grind.</p> + +<p>In this rebellious mood she read on the Hall bulletin-board a notice of +the reception to be given to new students by the Christian Associations. +Here was a chance to satisfy that wicked craving without too great +concession, for of course there would be no dancing and the auspices +were so favorable. She spoke about it to Katherine Graham, a Junior, who +was in Lillian Arnold's "set," to be sure, but who had put her arm +around the homesick little Freshman one soft evening after dinner when +the girls were strolling before the Hall, and had drawn her down the +walk toward the Ninety-five Oak. Katherine was a fine, frank girl whose +talk about the University and her love for the campus and its life +stirred the new girl's pulses. She could listen with unguarded eagerness +to this Junior because she knew her to be a student. Pocahontas slipped +her arm wistfully 'round her friend's waist. To room with Miss Graham +would have been perfect happiness.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Of course you'll go," declared Katherine, when she had heard the +Freshman's confidence regarding the reception. "It's slow, sometimes, +but you'll meet the people you want to know."</p> + +<p>So out came the plain graduation-dress, folded carefully away since the +night she read the valedictory, three months ago; she sewed a rip in the +gloves saved from the same occasion, and she took out the fan which her +grandmother had given her, a wonderful fan she had considered it until +she saw a few of Lillian's.</p> + +<p>In the gymnasium where glistening bamboo and red geraniums screened the +chest-weights along the walls, and feathery branches of pepper climbed +luxuriantly over the inclined ladders, she found the crowd +characteristic of this occasion,—the Freshman men at one end, the +Freshman girls at the other, and between them a neutral zone of old +students chatting gayly, oblivious of the purpose of the affair. Oh, but +the reception committee! Save for these indefatigable martyrs, the +Freshman sexes might have gazed wistfully at each other across the lines +of upper class-men until the lights dipped and never been able to bow on +the Quad next day. Important-looking persons with silk badges and +worried faces circulated in a grim endeavor to "mix things up." One<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> of +these wild-eyed people would dash into the crowd and haul some +struggling upper class-man over to the feminine section. With his victim +in tow, he would open conversation feverishly:</p> + +<p>"Name, please?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Newcome."</p> + +<p>"Ah, permit me to introduce Mr. Oldman. Miss Newcome, Mr. Oldman. Isn't +it warm to-night? Fine talk of the Doctor's, wasn't it? Well, you must +excuse me; we're very busy," the last words dying in the distance as he +sped away.</p> + +<p>Pocahontas contrasted this chill with the warmth of church socials at +home. She felt disappointed and dreadfully alone. Her sober-minded +room-mate was bobbing like a pigeon before Professor Grind, +enthusiastically telling him "how much inspiration she got from his +courses;" Katherine Graham was lost in a swirl of upper class-men. The +Freshman had half turned toward the dressing-room when out of the press +came Jack Smith, big, wholesome-looking, still smiling with some memory +of his latest conversation. Why did Hannah stop? It was certainly +bold,—doubtless it was half-unconscious,—but stop she did, and a +committee-man, wheeling suddenly, caught Smith, dashed through the +preliminaries, and the Sophomore had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> added Hannah Grant Daly to the +list of his acquaintances.</p> + +<p>Now "Cap" Smith had not come to this reception to meet Freshman +girls—at any rate insignificant ones with spectacles and sandy hair; +but no one could have told that he had not begged to be presented to +this one.</p> + +<p>"I'll have to ask you the same question we put to all," he began, +smiling pleasantly; "what's your major?"</p> + +<p>She would have given much to have answered something clever or +interesting, as no doubt other girls did, but she could only stammer:</p> + +<p>"Education."</p> + +<p>"You've answered so promptly I'll let you off the rest of the +text,—there are forty-two questions in all, each more inquisitive than +the last."</p> + +<p>The Freshman giggled; she did not know just why, unless it was that his +face and merry way inspired jollity.</p> + +<p>"Have the committee on irrigation attended to you yet?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know; I have registered," she faltered.</p> + +<p>He laughed, and she blushed uncomfortably.</p> + +<p>"Oh, pardon me," he said, "I must go slow with my slang; you've had only +a few days to learn it. I'm just joshing the weakness of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> the lemonade +the Associations give us. Let's try some, though; shall we?"</p> + +<p>They made their way to the lemonade booth. Such a vain, silly little +Freshman she was, to be sweetly conscious that people looked after them +as she passed along with this handsome, athletic young hero whom +everybody admired. Lillian Arnold was in the booth, dividing her +attention between filling glasses and entertaining four men. She gave +Pocahontas a cool bow and cast a look at Smith which the Freshman +interpreted "What are you doing with <i>her</i>?" At the same moment Lillian +thought of a foolish confidence she had made to the dig when they were +room-mates. Jack, however, was describing to Hannah the recent rush and +the glory of her class, and Lillian's glances were lost upon him. The +lemonade finished, he took the Freshman over to Professor Craig's +mother, and left her with a pleasant fairy tale about meeting her again.</p> + +<p>"Who's your friend?" laughed Perkins, as Smith dived back into his own +element.</p> + +<p>"Some little Roble dig. Don't ask me her name. I think people like that +are really lonesome, Ted. Say, those Phis have trotted Haviland 'round +long enough. Let's break up their interference."</p> + +<p>Others came up to Mrs. Craig, and Hannah found herself introduced to a +variety of men,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> but she cared little if she met no one else just then. +She stood watching Jack as he passed from group to group, chaffing +merrily, shaking hands with many people. There was no one else in the +room so well worth watching.</p> + +<p>That night, while the Junior breathed regularly on her side of the +alcove, Pocahontas lay a long time thinking dreamily. She knew he would +be like that; somehow he had looked so the first day at the station with +all those noisy boys. She should have answered something more than yes +and no at the reception. He would think her stupid. They had given her +advanced standing in Latin; perhaps he would be in the class when it met +on Monday; it would be splendid if he were; lots of the boys walked to +Roble with girls at half-past-twelve; she would ask him all about the +football; they would not have to talk about the Latin;—she felt so +small beside him as they went along the board walk—he looked down at +her and laughed—there was a seat under the Ninety-five Oak—all the +other people were talking, a long way off—the lemonade bowl under the +tree—shall we—</p> + +<p>She met him on Monday morning near the Chapel. He came loafing along the +arcade one arm flung about "Pellams" Chase. He looked at her +good-humoredly a second, then, without recognition, glanced over her +head to the girl behind her.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>Hannah's heart nearly choked her. His having forgotten her was so plain, +that she had not dared to bow, though she had half done so. She hoped no +one had noticed her face. She bit her lips. He had not meant to do it; +on the bed in her room she told herself this over and over again. Their +meeting in the gymnasium had lasted less than ten minutes. It was two +days ago. She was not like the other college girls he knew. Why should +he remember her, having seen her once? He had been very pleasant to her +at the reception. She went resolutely down to luncheon. Cap. Smith was +still her hero.</p> + + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>One day when from the fences along the pastures exultant meadow-larks +were shouting "April," trilling the "r" ecstatically, and mild-hearted +people were out after golden poppies, the Encina Freshmen, dark-browed +plotters every villain of them, met in Pete Halleck's room. There was +trouble brewing. First, Pete counted them with an air of mystery; then +he pulled down the window shades, shut the transoms, and drew from the +wash-stand a tangled mass of rope, two cans of paint and a coil of wire. +With these beside him on the floor, he harangued the mob.</p> + +<p>"We have got to get a rush out of 'em,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> fellows," he said, keeping his +voice discreetly low, "and if they won't scrap, we'll force 'em. How +many of you remember how to tie a knot?"</p> + +<p>"We've had experience enough," spoke up a roly-poly boy; "it's the Sophs +who need a lesson in tying."</p> + +<p>"And we'll give it!"</p> + +<p>Halleck drew up and looked so melodramatically important that the +meeting snickered behind their collective hands. Just then there came a +knock at the door. Halleck put his fingers to his lips; the crowd sat as +if petrified; the roly-poly conspirator felt his bravado oozing out in +youthful perspiration. The knocking came again, more imperatively, then +a voice.</p> + +<p>"Let me in, you crazy Freshies."</p> + +<p>Silence in the room.</p> + +<p>"Let me in. I know about you. You're all in there, talking rush. Hang +your little pink skins, let me in!"</p> + +<p>Still no answer.</p> + +<p>"Pete Halleck, unlock your door. It's I—it's Frank Lyman, and I've +something to say to you babies. Open up!"</p> + +<p>The composite face of the gathering fell. With Lyman against them, who +could be for them?—Frank Lyman, oracle of Encina and father-confessor +of Freshmen!</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>Pete threw the paraphernalia into his wardrobe.</p> + +<p>"The game's up, fellows."</p> + +<p>He opened the door, admitting the Senior, and with him, alas! Sophomore +Smith, President of his class. The sight of the enemy stirred Halleck.</p> + +<p>"Say, shall we tie up the two of them?" cried he, when he had locked the +door.</p> + +<p>"Key down, Freshie, key down," said the Senior. "You boys pain me to the +limit. Aren't you satisfied with tying up the Sophomores once without +scrapping the whole year through?"</p> + +<p>"What do you know about our wanting to scrap?"</p> + +<p>"I'm on to you, Peter: You have a ton of rope and a barrel of paint +somewhere about your den, and you're going out to-morrow to tie up the +Sophs at the ball game. Now you fellows have had three rushes this year; +when are you going to quit and give us a rest?"</p> + +<p>Halleck held the position that delighted his soul,—center stage,—and +he was a respecter of neither the Faculty nor his seniors.</p> + +<p>"We're going to quit when we get even with you for pulling twenty-five +lone Freshmen out of the Hall at night and making them rush against the +whole Sophomore class; then's when we're going to quit. Observe?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>Halleck's shamefully fresh manner revived the drooping spirits of his +men.</p> + +<p>"See here, we'll call it off if you will," put in the Sophomore +president.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess you will," drawled Halleck. The mob howled. Smith's class +was notoriously weaker at fighting than their own.</p> + +<p>"We've rushed you three times," went on Cap; "you licked us the first +time we fought; then you pulled us out in the mud the night after and +did it again; but we got you the next week by strategy!"</p> + +<p>"By a sneaking trick!"</p> + +<p>"That's right!" chimed the Freshmen, "Pete's dead right!"</p> + +<p>"Well, say," persisted Smith, "we're willing to quit as it is. The score +stands two to one for you fellows, too."</p> + +<p>"Two to nothing!" and again the infant class shouted approval while +Lyman, the Senior, looked on amused.</p> + +<p>"I really have a chap for you children," he said. "Just because rushing +happens to be your game, you run it to death. How do you suppose the +Faculty are going to look at this thing? If you want rushing choked off +entirely next year, just keep on."</p> + +<p>Airily ignoring Lyman's speech, Pete Halleck put his chin out at the +Sophomore.</p> + +<p>"Then you won't rush?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No," answered Cap, perfectly calm, "not even if you carry canes."</p> + +<p>Halleck's face shone.</p> + +<p>"Ai—i, boys, that's what we'll do! We'll get out there with canes +to-morrow and we'll make 'em scrap!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you will! I believe it," sneered Smith. "You fellows are just +fresh enough to queer yourselves that way."</p> + +<p>"We'll queer <i>you</i>!" cried a valiant youngster "if you don't rush +to-morrow we'll tie up your baseball team and cart 'em off to Redwood."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, and we'll show you how a class president looks braided with +bailing-rope,—we'll show you the pretty picture in a mirror, Mr. +President,—even if we have to haul you out of the arms of twenty Roble +dames."</p> + +<p>Pete had taken his class-mates by storm and they piped acquiescence in +thin Freshman voices. Smith flushed angrily.</p> + +<p>Here Lyman interfered.</p> + +<p>"All right, make joshes of yourselves if you want to," he said, not so +good-natured as at first. "We have given you warning. Just open that +door and you may go on with your little conspiracy."</p> + +<p>"Come again when you can't stay so long," wittily yelled Pete down the +hall. "I'll meet you on the field to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll be there," called back Lyman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> over his shoulder. "So will the +Faculty," and with this covert hint the peacemakers turned the corner.</p> + +<p>The sun shown brightly on the red-brown earth of the diamond when the +Freshmen, the Sophomores and the Faculty met, according to agreement. +The enterprising student-body management had chalked the Quad in +conspicuous places:</p> + +<p class="center"><b>RUSH of the YEAR,<br /> +Sophomore-Freshman Game.<br /> +Don't Miss It!</b></p> + +<p>and the college responded. The co-eds were there, radiant in the +snowiest of duck shirts, the gayest of shirt-waists. With them were +"ladies' men," in variegated golf-stockings and gorgeous hat-bands. The +Freshmen, gathered near first base, contrasted disreputably with this +display; they wore old clothes, ragged hats, and they carried a +miscellaneous collection of canes, borrowed from Juniors or stolen from +Sophomores.</p> + +<p>These stalwarts of the latest class were loaded with horns and +noise-machines. Defiance exhaled from them. It was an impressive +object-lesson on the evils of Freshman victories.</p> + +<p>A few sensible Juniors went over and tried to quell their disturbance, +but the infants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> were beyond any control of their class fathers; they +had at their head the redoubtable Pete Halleck, with his perverted sense +of the proprieties, and their uproar moderated not a bit. The Juniors +returned to the bleachers, shaking their heads in disgust. Professor +Grind, of the Committee on Student Affairs, was observed to write in his +note-book. The Sophomores who saw this rejoiced that they were not in +rushing clothes. Still the racket went on.</p> + +<p>Jack Smith, in spotless tennis flannels, sat on the bleachers. Some +girls from San Francisco, and one in particular as far as Cap was +concerned, had come down with Tom Ashley's mother that morning, and he +brought them over to the game. Pete Halleck picked him out at once and +reminded the others of their promise.</p> + +<p>Hannah Grant Daly, who did not know him to speak to, also picked him +out. To her he looked more goodly than ever this afternoon, contrasted +with the uncouthness of Halleck and others of her class. She watched him +covertly, laughing and talking with the town girl beside him. He had +laughed and talked very much like that to her, once, but he had +forgotten it. That was natural; she had forgiven it long ago. Lillian +Arnold, in the brightest of Easter hats, watched him, too.</p> + +<p>The game was not exciting. The Fresh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>men were badly outplayed; the +Sophomores galloped around the bases, and the babies' insolence grew +with their opponents' score. As the last inning dragged its tedious +length, the prospect of the Freshmen forcing a rush had become the +important thing with the crowd. The fighting class limbered up for +action. Now their third man struck out and the catcher's mask was off.</p> + +<p>"Ready!" Pete Halleck's voice came out of the silence of the waiting +crowd.</p> + +<p>"All set!" and the class was up and off on a trot toward the Sophomore +players, who were trying not to walk away any faster than was usual. One +after another the baseball men were overtaken and went down in clouds of +dust and hard language.</p> + +<p>Yet the Sophomores would not rush. Frank Lyman had exhorted them simply, +while the Freshmen were attacking their nine. One or two of the +hot-heads hurried to the Hall for old clothes, but the majority stood +looking on, angry but quiet.</p> + +<p>"Now for Smith!" yelled Halleck. His men turned toward the co-ed section +of the bleachers.</p> + +<p>"Shall we get out of this?" Cap asked Ashley.</p> + +<p>"Get out nothing! Stay right here with the girls. They wouldn't have the +gall."</p> + +<p>But the lust of fight was in the Freshman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> heart as the dust of fight +was on the Freshman skin. They lined up, a ragged mass of impertinence, +as near the women as they dared, and waited for the leader of the +opposition. He chatted on, explaining the college rush to the girl with +him, and gave no sign of moving.</p> + +<p>"Shall we go in and take him?" asked an excited youngster.</p> + +<p>"I'll give him a chance to come easy," said Halleck. He squared himself, +adjusted his dusty hat, and went straight up the steps.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, Mr. Smith," said he, "you are forgetting an engagement you +made with some of your friends yesterday."</p> + +<p>This was the freshest thing in the history of the college. The +Sophomore's fingers twitched.</p> + +<p>"I think you can wait until later, Halleck," he said slowly. Then he +turned to the girl.</p> + +<p>From the time Halleck climbed the bleachers and went toward Smith and +his guests, the spectators were stiff with astonishment; nobody did +anything. They saw Halleck look for one moment into Smith's angry blue +eyes, go down the steps, and bring back two big fellows. Before the +Sophomore could move away from the girls, the three men had dragged him +down the bleachers; one heave of Halleck's broad back and Smith was +under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> them, with his wind gone, and a Freshman was getting a rope +ready.</p> + +<p>Then just as Ashley tore down the steps in a rage, a slip of a girl +darted past him and put her hands on Halleck's shoulders; a small, +sandy-haired girl with blazing eyes.</p> + +<p>"Untie him, you great brutes!"</p> + +<p>The man with the rope stared at her irresolutely, furtively slipping the +knot tighter. By this time, Halleck was on his feet again and had +recovered from his surprise.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me," he began.</p> + +<p>The girl looked him in the eye.</p> + +<p>"Get that rope off!"</p> + +<p>She was just a little thing, but her gaze never wavered. The direct gaze +is something that wild beasts and bullies, Freshmen or otherwise, cannot +bear. Pete Halleck looked around for moral support, but his men were +shame-faced and the bleachers were silent. He bent down and slipped the +rope off Smith's feet.</p> + +<p>With the rout of their leader the whole fighting class, weighing some +ten tons in battle trim, vanished like chaff before the spirit of one +Freshie co-ed. By twos and threes they slouched away, trying to look +unconcerned.</p> + +<p>She turned to the man she had rescued.</p> + +<p>"Are you much hurt, Mr. Smith?" she asked, her voice sweet with +sympathy.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Sophomore president stood there, rumpled, winded, flaming with +embarrassment. Away up on the bleachers a girl in an Easter hat tittered +and a general laugh followed. That laugh brought Smith to himself, but, +before he could turn to thank her, Hannah, with a swift, frightened +glance at the people, had fled to the Quadrangle. With swelling bosom +and eyes stinging with restrained tears she leaned her face against a +cool pillar and watched the swallows circle mistily about the red +tiling.</p> + +<p>People, coming from the ball-ground, passed her, unnoticed in the +shadow. A man's voice, ringing with merriment, cried:</p> + +<p>"Poor old Captain! I never saw him have such a chap. It's pretty hard on +a man to have a girl do the Pocahontas act like that!"</p> + +<p>A peal of Roble laughter answered.</p> + +<p>"Pocahontas! O—oh, that's a cute name for her!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="HIS_UNCLES_WILL" id="HIS_UNCLES_WILL"></a>HIS UNCLE'S WILL.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="His_Uncles_Will" id="His_Uncles_Will"></a>His Uncle's Will.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It's a wise child that resembles its richest relative."</p> + +<p class="citation">Modern Proverb</p></div> + + +<p>Walter Olcott Haviland came to Stanford in September at the age of +eighteen, and was rushed by the fraternities.</p> + +<p>There is nothing remarkable about this, unless considered from +Haviland's point of view. With his High School pin illuminating the vest +on which a mystic Greek symbol was ere long to shine, he passed down the +line of inquisitive Sophomores in Encina lobby, and into the Den of the +Bear, presented his receipt for the room he had prudently engaged months +ahead, and was duly bestowed within those plain white walls between +which the Freshman begins a charmed existence of four years or four +months, as the Committee may determine.</p> + +<p>It is recorded that once before Commencement two Seniors came from +fraternity houses at opposite ends of the campus and slept together the +last night, as they had slept their first, in their Freshman room at the +Hall. They had been rivals and in warring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> factions, but they lay down +together in that place of beginnings, before a new heaven opened for +them over a new earth. This is proof positive that you never forget your +first room in the Hall. You may give it up for an attic in a +chapter-house, you may go to live with young Freshleigh, with whom you +are already chums, and whose apartment has the morning sun; but the +first room is a foundation stone in your house of memories. Your trunk +is brought in by the Student Transfer man (first lesson in self-help) +and put down near the dreary-looking beds with their mattresses doubled +on the foot-rail. Then, sitting down by the bare, shining table where, +later on, theses are to be written and punches brewed, you stake out +claims for the decorative material in your trunk. Certainly decorations +are needed. The wardrobe stands forbiddingly against the wall. You will +soon learn how to move it forward, reverse it, and adorn the back. The +chilling whiteness of the walls is relieved only by one square, +uncompromising mirror. An "Addersonian" tenderness has placed a +yellow-flowered rug beside each bed. Otherwise, the place is barren.</p> + +<p>If there is time before dinner, you swallow your loneliness and get out +the home photographs and stand them up here and there, and the room is +changed. These walls may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> become a scrap-book of four years' association +with Alma Mater; the wardrobe may be hidden with kodaks of the gang and +its exploits; but to-day, before you have even met the gang, you come +into your own.</p> + +<p>The newly-arrived Haviland, in the throes of this emotion, looks about +him. He has put upon the ugly commode sundry pictures of his graduating +class at the High School, each one dressed in his best, each flanked by +floral offerings, each holding the impressive diploma. Later, these +portraits will be less prominent in this college room.</p> + +<p>He looks at them with a feeling of pity. It must be hard not to come to +college. He is a lucky boy. Sliding unobtrusively into the hall-way, he +strikes up an acquaintance with some other social Freshman, and together +they watch the upper class-men coming in. Man after man drifts into the +arms of waiting friends. How well they all know one another! Gradually +he learns who and what these men are, the Seniors who manage the Hall or +edit the College papers, the 'Varsity idols, the men who make College +life. Important beings they seem to the Freshman, men who have reached +heights above his modest possibilities, heroes who are great in the +land. After dinner he mingles in the stag dances on the second floor +hall-way; finding that a fellow class-man has neglected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> the graceful +art, he takes him up on the third floor and teaches him the step. He is +fitting in, you see. Then he hears the crowd surging into the lobby and +picks up the chorus of "We'll rush the ball along," and before this +first day is over he catches the contagion of that intangible, +pervasive, never wholly fading thing, College spirit.</p> + +<p>Jimmy Mason, Sophomore, hustling Student-Body assessments, drops in on +him, and stops to chat awhile. Haviland learns that our team this year +has lost such and such valuable men; that there are opportunities for a +chap with football in him. The Freshman thinks of the day when the crowd +at home cheered him as his school beat the Academy. He hands Mason the +assessment money, being beautifully green yet. Like oases are these +Freshmen to the Student-Body collector. Very likely the Sophomore +rewards him by coming to his door, after the lights are out, at the head +of a motley mob. They put him on the table, shivering in his nightie, +and make derogatory remarks about his shape and his personal charms; +then, having solemnly baptised him "Callipers," or whatever metaphorical +name his physical architecture may suggest, they make him cavort for +their delectation. If he shows modesty and courage in his unhappy +obedience, he is greeted as a nice little boy and is introduced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> to his +tormentors, who explain that the ritual was offered from the kindest +motives. Doubtless it is this knowledge that makes him enjoy so keenly +the sacrifice of fellow class-men, at which he is permitted to be +present the next evening.</p> + +<p>When he is spoken to mysteriously one night by "Pellams" Chase, a Junior +from the Row, and told to put on his oldest clothes and to get his +trunk-rope ("to rope up a Sophomore's trunk this time," hints the +Junior), for the first time he sees his class as a whole, and stands +shoulder to shoulder with them in the first College rush. The subsequent +pullings and haulings, the poundings and jammings of this experience are +happily compensated for if Chase takes him when all is over, binds up +his bruises and tells him about fights of other days when there were +giants upon the campus. After this, the College is never the immense, +far-away thing it has seemed. He has seen his own class-men together, he +has measured his strength with the dread Sophs, he is a University man.</p> + +<p>Long before this the fraternities have spotted him.</p> + +<hr style='width: 35%;' /> + +<p>"What are you going to do next hour?"</p> + +<p>Haviland had just come out from his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> nine-thirty recitation and found +"Cap" Smith waiting for him. Smith was a Beta Rho, and he had waited +there in the same way for the same Freshman more than once in the month +since the opening. It was Pellams who had discovered the boy, one night +in Mason's room, where the Junior loafed half his time. Pellams had a +big heart surely, for he had at once interested himself in Haviland, +asking him over to dinner to meet the fellows. The Freshman knew it was +the Juniors' duty to look after the infant class. This particular Junior +was a College favorite,—Walt had seen that—and the boy from far-away +New England went across the campus to the Row feeling that he was +getting into good hands. The Rho house seemed about right. Dinner was a +boisterous affair where the men took hands around the table and sang a +rollicking accompaniment to Pellams' coon songs, strange table-manners +that did not appear much to disturb Perkins' mother, who poured coffee +at the end. Afterward they all sat out on the porch steps in the summer +evening with their pipes, watching three of the men play catch. One of +the fellows danced a shuffle while the rest stood around and clapped +time and shouted, "Come on you <i>Nigger</i>!" They were very happy; it was a +bully way to live; the homelike look of things appealed to the Freshman. +Two of the fel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>lows walked back to the Hall with him, and when they said +good-night they shook his hand strongly and hoped they would see more of +him.</p> + +<p>This was the beginning. The college had become aware of his presence +now. So far he had taken just nine meals that he had paid for, and had +been away from the Hall one night out of four.</p> + +<p>At the reception to the Freshmen he had been introduced to the same +Faculty people six times over by members of as many fraternities, each +presenting him as an individual entirely under their auspices and for +whom they alone were responsible. Higgins, the sky-scraping Beta Phi, +whom he had met only that evening, took him arm in arm up to the +President's wife, and said:</p> + +<p>"I want to introduce Mr. Haviland, a particular friend of mine. You will +be good to him for my sake, won't you?" And the lady with a twinkle in +her brown eyes, having recently promised to do the same for Jack Smith's +sake, pledged her favors anew to the bewildered Walt.</p> + +<p>Haviland did not quite understand this attitude of open arms. His first +days in the Hall had not prepared him for it. He did not know that +because he was well-bred, well-dressed and athletically promising, he +was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> generally voted the prize Freshman of the year.</p> + +<p>Then came the bids. There were only a few of the crowds that did not +spike him; three who were manifestly not of his style and two who never +presumed to enter the game until the others had made their winnings. All +sorts of methods had been used. The first bid came early; he was given +twenty-four hours to answer it, as "the Gamma Chi Tau never wait for a +man." The Freshman, however, getting riper in the sun of experience, +interpreted this to mean fear of competition, and so "declined with +assurances of continued friendship." There was a crowd who slapped him +on the back and called him "old man." Once he had been fresh enough to +tell them a story, and they had laughed so uproariously over it that he +was dreadfully embarrassed. The hospitality of another set seemed to +consist of a sly but systematic attempt to get him drunk for some +mysterious purpose of their own. He had put some of them to bed and felt +superior, which was fatal to their chances.</p> + +<p>He had been to many varieties of dinner-tables. Some of them were +homelike; the talk at others had robbed him of appetite.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of our crowd?" asked Roach, keenly, after a +particularly disagree<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>able meal at which there had been much coarseness +and a wreck of a tablecloth.</p> + +<p>"They seem to me to be about the most congenial fellows I ever met," +answered the disgusted but tactful Haviland, and Roach, going back to +his house, announced authoritatively that the boy was theirs if they +wanted him.</p> + +<p>By this time he had learned the art of dodging invitations and remaining +non-committal when asked, "Well, Walt, are you going to do the right +thing?" Many a set, piled upon the beds in a fraternity room, sat up +late talking him over and wondering how he was "coming on."</p> + +<p>The Beta Phis, for instance, were in painful doubt. They were conscious +of a comparatively poor stack-up, but their rushing energy was +admirable, and once the persecuted Haviland had been obliged to ask a +Beta Rho to hide him from them. Pellams and Smith were merry at dinner +that night.</p> + +<p>In his heart, Walt had about decided on Beta Rho. This crowd treated him +with well-bred cordiality but with far less effusiveness than the +others. He was pleased when they had let him mix with them without +permitting him to forget the gulf between. This had put him off his +guard so that he had grown accustomed to them. Observing him expertly +from the corners of their eyes, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> affected not to notice the way he +blushed after having joined unconsciously in a Beta Rho song. One day he +dropped over uninvited, and they understood. But in the first week of +their acquaintance they had told him to hold off and be slow about +pledging himself, and nothing more had been said so far.</p> + +<p>On the night of the first rush, ending in complete victory for the +Freshmen, Haviland had been so unfortunate as to clinch with Cap Smith, +and he was largely responsible for the ignominious tying up of that +husky Sophomore. He would much rather have been carted off himself, if +it hadn't been for the class. He saw his Beta Rho chances vanishing. +Pellams evidently did not know what had happened, he was so good to him +after it, rubbing his bruises and dressing his scraped cheek. The next +day Cap Smith came over and bid him to the fraternity. As a matter of +principle, Haviland asked for a week to decide.</p> + +<p>This indulgence was up to-day and now Cap was waiting for him after the +second-hour class. Walt knew what answer he should give. He felt very +contented.</p> + +<p>"I got your mail for you," said Smith, handing him an envelope. "I've a +letter of my own to read, so tackle yours while we walk along."</p> + +<p>They went up toward the stock-farm, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> the boy opened his mother's +letter and read eagerly the home news and the affectionate questions. +She enclosed, she said, the check which his uncle, who was putting him +through College, had sent for October. Following this were a few words +that made him stare hard at the road before him, as he and Smith +strolled on. "Your uncle writes," said the letter, "that when he was at +Amherst he was a fraternity man, and thinks you ought to be one, and he +would like to have you join the society to which he belonged, the Beta +Phi. I am sure, Wo dear, you will follow his wishes in a matter like +this. It is not much to do in return."</p> + +<p>Poor Walt! The Beta Rhos had never seemed such smooth fellows as at this +moment when he felt himself suddenly pledged to the Beta Phis. In his +mind's eye the Phis passed before him, one by one, particularly a +certain long, unprepossessing member who had stayed till after twelve +one night and bored him with a dreary recital of the prominence of his +house in College politics, of the stump speeches that a former brother, +now a historical personage, had made in Mayfield for prohibition, to say +nothing of the essay prizes in philology that another ancient Phi had +won in the dim past, when the chapter must have been more prominent than +at present. In comparison with this record, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> Rhos were numbskulls, +dwelling in an amplified smoking-room, Walt must admit; their control of +the Eleven and of the Glee Club was nothing. And now his future was +black with philology prizes, with meals at which stew was a staple, and +where only visitors had clean napkins.</p> + +<p>The two fellows had by this time reached the trotting stables. They +looked in at the beautiful, sleek racers, carefully blanketed and +booted, and stroked an inquisitive nose or two, reached out over the +white doors. Then they went on up the stock-farm yard and along the road +to the bridge over San Francisquito. Here Smith stopped; leaning on the +rail, he looked down at his blonde image in the shallow water below.</p> + +<p>"Well, Professor, what's your answer? You ought to know your mind by +this time, surely, and we want you bad, my boy."</p> + +<p>"Cap, old man," began the Freshman, his voice a little husky, for he was +sorely troubled, "you must know how I appreciate the way you fellows +have treated me, and that I want you particularly for a friend." He +stopped, but Smith kept silent. The fraternity had had refusals before; +they usually began this way.</p> + +<p>"I don't know just what I ought to say," went on the luckless Walt. "I +really did think you were the crowd I should join, but something has +come up and I can't say yes."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What is it? Is it because you think we don't study enough? We do, +though, a great deal more than it looks. This has been rushing season +and we had to do the entertaining stunt a lot, and Pellams would give +any crowd the look of bumming. We really do work hard the rest of the +year."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Walt, "it isn't anything like that, Cap."</p> + +<p>"There's somebody in the gang that you don't like, then; somebody that +you don't know well and don't understand. Isn't that so? Who is it? You +ought to tell me."</p> + +<p>"I would, Cap, if that were the reason, but it isn't. I like every man +of them all."</p> + +<p>"What is it then?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing that I can tell you." Poor Walt, he was ashamed of his uncle; +Lyman at the Hall had told him that the whole Beta Phi fraternity was as +scrubby as their Stanford chapter.</p> + +<p>Cap's eyes had an angry gleam. "Somebody has been throwing mud," he +said, kicking up a splinter from the bridge floor. "There are plenty of +them to do it."</p> + +<p>"It isn't that at all. I wouldn't be influenced that way," protested +Haviland. "It's another matter."</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose this is final," said Smith, struggling hard with his +disappointment. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> Freshman's past attitude had paved the way for a +different answer.</p> + +<p>"Let's not say that," Walt began slowly. "Give me a while longer, Cap; +things may change. I had hoped—" He broke off;—he could never tell +Smith—he had not until that very moment told himself—how much he had +looked forward to being a Rho.</p> + +<p>"Things may change," he said again as Smith turned savagely and started +back. He was trying to compromise, but he had no idea how any change was +to come about. He brooded over it in his room that night, and the more +he pondered the more clearly he realized that the debt to his uncle +stood in his way. Plainly, he was up against it. He made the foot of his +iron bedstead jingle with a petulant kick, and, muttering the Phi yell +in a savage tone, went off to sleep.</p> + +<p>At luncheon the next day at the Phi house, the Freshman was so friendly +and so gracious that two of the Chapter went out into the kitchen and +shook hands. Had he not inquired solicitously about the fraternity's +position in Amherst, had he not expressed great pleasure at learning of +their high political standing back there? Never a word had they heard of +his uncle, however. The Freshman who is in his own neighborhood does not +donate additional arguments.</p> + +<p>The Phi house was shaken to its founda<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>tions. This was the greatest +piece of work for years. Walt was immediately invited to stay for dinner +and to spend the night and the next day, but although it was Saturday, +he declined. Even the tempting bait of a Populist campaign rally moved +him not.</p> + +<p>The days passed and Walter Olcott Haviland was an unhappy child. His +sudden intimacy with the Phis could not escape the astonished Rhos; he +was sensitive to the change in their manner, slight as it was. He would +have been glad enough to have stayed out of fraternities altogether if +it would have helped matters. There was a very jolly set in the Hall, +men who had refused far better bids than the Phis. Jimmie Mason and +Frank Lyman, "Peg" Langdon and Blake, the fullback; these fellows, as +prominent as any in College, were in the dormitory crowd; they used one +another's rooms and tobacco and clothes with the utmost good nature. +Walt had been fond of the big building from his first day there; he +could have had a happy time with this independent set.</p> + +<p>He was not made any happier by Lyman's saying, "Whatever you do, don't +join the Phis. They've no standing here, and you won't help yourself +any." Freshmen usually listened to what Lyman said. But Haviland had +thought and reasoned and struggled with himself, and had come to a +conclusion. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> write to his uncle, "I have joined the Phis because you +are one," would be worth any sacrifice. Perhaps he could work to improve +the crowd a little after he was one of them. At least there was no +reason why they need be his only friends.</p> + +<p>He went to the lab one afternoon with his decision made. If the Phis +asked him to dinner, he would go and put his head on the block.</p> + +<p>As he came along toward the main entrance he saw Andrew Higgins, the +longest, lankiest Phi of them all, bearing down upon him. His heart +sank, but his resolution was firm, and he looked his fate in the face. +When his executioner had almost reached him, somebody touched his +shoulder; it was Smith.</p> + +<p>"Before your frat brother gets hold of you," muttered Cap, drawing Walt +aside, "I want to speak to you. The boys must have your final answer +to-day."</p> + +<p>The "frat brother" was not to be turned down. He loomed up steadily in +their direction. Walt was miserable. It was the beginning of the end.</p> + +<p>"I'll give it to-night," he said hurriedly, as the Phi reached them.</p> + +<p>"Will you come to dinner?"</p> + +<p>Haviland wanted one sunbeam before the darkness.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll come, Cap," and turned to shake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> hands with the Phi, whose +invitation was frozen half-way in his throat. Now the Beta Phis were not +of the people who let to-morrow get anything while to-day lasts, so +Higgins asked Walt to come down after dinner for the night, and the +unhappy boy, half-hearing, promised.</p> + +<p>It was a gloomy dinner for the Freshman, baked funeral meats and he the +corpse. Mrs. Perkins gave him a motherly smile and told him in a careful +undertone that she was glad he was going to be one of her boys, after +which he felt childishly close to tears. He sat out-doors with the +others and smoked and joined weakly in the singing. The roses clinging +to the porch had never been so sweet; the Rho dog had never nosed so +affectionately against his shoulder. There was to be no substitute for +this. He wished he had never seen the campus. His mood communicated +itself to the others and things grew slow. One by one the fellows +slipped away with various excuses. Finally Cap said:</p> + +<p>"Come up to the room," and Haviland went up stairs with the emotions one +carries to the dentist.</p> + +<p>Smith threw himself on the bed and motioned Walt to a chair at his study +table. They tried a little general conversation, but failed mournfully. +The Freshman had a wretched feeling that this room was home to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> him. He +had slept here so often and he knew every athletic picture and trophy +around it. There had been something said about his living here with Cap +after Christmas. The clock ticked spitefully at him.</p> + +<p>Smith's voice, deep and quiet, broke the pause.</p> + +<p>"What's the good word, Professor?"</p> + +<p>Walt swallowed a lump, nervously opened a book that lay on the table, +then looked at the big red sweater on the bed, and said:</p> + +<p>"I can't do it, Cap."</p> + +<p>Smith kicked a pillow of which he thought a great deal almost into the +grate, and said with fine scorn:</p> + +<p>"When do you join the Phis?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Van, drearily.</p> + +<p>"Well, I think you're nutty; it's the cheesiest gang in College."</p> + +<p>The battle had begun. Walt might as well practice his defense at once, +so he said with a little dignity:</p> + +<p>"My uncle is a Phi, and it is his wish."</p> + +<p>"So that is it!" Such a reason was no discredit to the Rhos; therefore +it was the harder to accept. "You give me a jolt, Walt. Just because +your uncle is in a rotten fraternity you must crawl into the heap, too. +I'd see him hanged first before I'd queer myself with those yaps."</p> + +<p>Cap went on even more impatiently, but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> Freshman heard not a word. +He was staring at the book open before him.</p> + +<p>"Cap, what book is this?"</p> + +<p>"The fraternity catalogue."</p> + +<p>"What fraternity?"</p> + +<p>"Ours, of course; whose did you think it was, the—"</p> + +<p>Walt gave a hysterical whoop and flung himself over the footboard upon +the astonished Smith. He rolled him over the bed and sent him to join +the pillow on the floor; then, sitting up on the bed with tousled hair +and shining eyes, he said:</p> + +<p>"Cap, if you still want me, I say yes!"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you?" asked the amazed Sophomore from the rug.</p> + +<p>"Nothing!" shouted Walt. "I see the whole thing; uncle's awful +writing—mother got it Phi instead of Rho—she doesn't know one from the +other—his name's in your book. Hoo!" and he sprang on Smith again and +lifted him bodily.</p> + +<p>The Chapter had been waiting. Hearing propitious sounds, they came +stringing in, and Haviland's explanation, with the celebration that +followed it, took such a length of time that the longest, lankiest Phi +fell asleep in the parlor and his lamp burned out about two.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_INITIATION_OF_DROMIO" id="THE_INITIATION_OF_DROMIO"></a>THE INITIATION OF DROMIO.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="The_Initiation_of_Dromio" id="The_Initiation_of_Dromio"></a>The Initiation of Dromio.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I know a prof.,—not much to see,—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Take care!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mistakes are made here frequently,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Beware!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The Rho fraternity called Walter Haviland "professor." Haviland was one +of their pledged Freshmen. In rushing, a good nickname, gracefully used, +is a great thing. It puts a Freshman considerably at his ease, and +impresses him with the feeling that he belongs to the set.</p> + +<p>The first day that Haviland came over to dinner, Bob Duncan, a Senior, +spoke up from his end of the table: "Are you a relative of Lamb, the +botany professor?"</p> + +<p>"I have never heard that I am," answered the Freshman.</p> + +<p>"Are you in any of his classes?"</p> + +<p>"No; I'm not going to take botany."</p> + +<p>"If you were, I don't believe the class could tell you apart. Doesn't he +look like Lamb to beat the band, fellows?"</p> + +<p>"He's a little heavier than the prof.," suggested Smith.</p> + +<p>"Oh, perhaps he is a little," admitted Dun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>can, "but their height is the +same to an inch, and the facial resemblance is great."</p> + +<p>"He can't look much like a professor," laughed the Freshman.</p> + +<p>"He doesn't," said Duncan, "they've got him down in the register as an +associate professor in botany, but that's all he has to his credit. He +gets taken for a Freshman right along. New students ask him if he is +registered and what his major is—sure they do."</p> + +<p>"They say there was a big farmer who went in to register in botany and +wouldn't do business with poor Lamb at all," said Perkins. "He said he +wasn't so green as he looked, and he knew all about these students who +make believe they're professors and give fake examinations. The +professor was as red as a beet."</p> + +<p>"I don't blame him," said Duncan. "Why, the man is married and has two +children."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure they're his," said Pellams, seriously. "I've seen them +with him on the Quad, but I thought perhaps he'd borrowed them for +effect, to keep off the Senior girls."</p> + +<p>"The year he came here the Beta Phis tried to rush him, didn't they?" +asked Smith. Duncan scowled across the table at the Sophomore. This was +Haviland's first day at the house; they could josh other frats later, if +he came their way; just now it was a break.</p> + +<p>Ted Perkins interrupted tactfully. "Have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> some of this Spanish goo? The +English department here is crazy on theatricals. They will probably want +you for a grand revival of the Comedy of Errors."</p> + +<p>"If I were you," came in Smith, to cover up his slip, "I would go over +and draw his salary some day. They would pay it all right if they didn't +look twice and ask questions."</p> + +<p>"Better look out," added Pellams, in his solemn drawl, "those babies of +his will be claiming you in the Quad in front of all Roble some sunny +day, and then you might just as well leave college!"</p> + +<p>This table-talk gave the men an idea for a nickname, and so, when they +knew the Freshman a little better, they slipped an arm through his and +called him "Professor." It was really the most civilized nickname in the +house.</p> + +<p>One Thursday, at football practice, about two weeks after Haviland had +agreed to join, Pellams spoke to him.</p> + +<p>"Professor, on Saturday night you are to be initiated. Bring over your +suit-case with a change of under-clothes and a pair of old shoes."</p> + +<p>"I was going up to San Francisco on Saturday," murmured Haviland, his +heart beating a bit faster, "but——"</p> + +<p>"You have changed your mind," finished Pellams, quietly. "We will have +dinner as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> usual, and you will be on time, please. So long, Professor."</p> + +<p>Haviland was not wholly at peace as he walked back to the dormitory. A +Freshman never becomes especially hilarious in anticipating his +initiation night; there is an uncertain certainty about it that he +cannot entirely laugh away, however much natural bravery he may have, +however hoary he may be in high school fraternity experience. At the +chapter house, where things have been made so pleasant, careless remarks +are dropped, full of sinister meaning. It is not nearly so comfortable +there now, and Freshman Damocles wishes the suspense were over.</p> + +<p>When the fateful Saturday dawned, Walter had a strong impulse to go to +the city as he had originally planned. Pellams had explained to him that +his having held out so long before agreeing to join would probably mean +his "getting it unusually hard." He knew that of all the fraternities, +the Rhos were the most severe in their initiations—one of the Rhos had +told him so.</p> + +<p>At the post-office that morning he met Professor Lamb starting for a +day's botanizing in the foothills. He did not know the instructor, but +he envied him as he leaned on his wheel and watched the botany man take +the fence and start off across the brown pastures toward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> the hills +beyond the lake. There certainly was a strong resemblance.</p> + +<p>"Oh," groaned the candidate for fraternity privileges, "I wish it was a +case of his resembling me instead of my looking like him. I only wish I +was the prof, now, I'd change places quickly enough. I'm afraid I'm a +coward."</p> + +<p>He wondered if they guessed how scared he was; he hoped not. He pedaled +around to the courts, where Cap. Smith was waiting to play tennis, and +he put on an infant bravado which secretly pleased the Sophomore. After +a few sets Cap. put his racket under his arm.</p> + +<p>"No more tennis, Professor," he said, with meaning; "you'd better rest +most of the day. Get out your work for Monday, you won't feel much like +studying to-morrow, you know, and don't forget to be at the house at six +sharp." Then, since the Freshman had visibly wilted, Smith grinned all +the way across the field.</p> + +<p>Haviland suspected two other fellows in the Hall of being in a state of +mind similar to his own, but as he had been instructed to keep the +matter absolutely secret, he could not turn to them for relief. He +worried through the long Saturday, making futile attacks on the work +prescribed for Monday, strumming in an aimless way on his banjo, and +finally writ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>ing his mother a letter between the lines of which she at +once read malaria.</p> + +<p>Dinner at the Rho house was the most miserable meal he had ever choked +his way through. A half-dozen graduates were present, and some men from +the Berkeley chapter. These visitors seemed a solemn lot, and +conversation included the candidates only now and then. During the lulls +in the talk, the Freshmen made audible sounds trying to swallow their +food; this was so embarrassing that they gave up the effort to eat, only +gulping water now and then during talk. It was a relief when some one +touched each Freshman quietly, and the condemned youngsters followed +upstairs, their faces wearing pitiful dumb-victim-at-the-altar +expressions, or trying with ghastly smiles to show how little they +cared.</p> + +<p>The young moon, sloping toward the shaggy rim of the Palo Alto hills +soon after eight o'clock, looked down into the pasture lands back of the +campus. There she saw Walter Haviland, blindfolded and with a rope about +his waist. Three other Freshmen were in a similar condition in different +parts of the field. Haviland had been intrusted to the tender mercy of +Cap. Smith, a 'Varsity man, and Pellams Chase, greatest of all joshers. +This was indeed a high honor. Two of the less distinguished members +hovered about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> them, eager to add their services. Their objective point +was a fence skirted by a gully through which water ran in the winter +time; into this gully they flung the luckless Walt and left him there +while they took their ruthless course to a part of the field where +another group of men had gathered.</p> + +<p>The moon touched delicately the redwood trees upon the western ridge, +then slipped down beyond them. With her last look into the field she saw +Haviland lying on his face at the bottom of the gulch. She saw also +Professor Lamb, of the botany department, hurrying home cross-country +from the day's collecting on upper San Francisquito Creek, tired, dusty, +bedraggled, thinking with an unscientific enthusiasm of the hot dinner +awaiting his homecoming. The lingering moon, peering over the mountain +edge, saw the instructor clear the fence and plunge into the shadowy +gulch. Then, before she could see what happened next, the stern law of +the solar system drew her reluctant down.</p> + +<p>The four men who had charge of Haviland came back from their +consultation with the others. When they were near the place where they +had left their victim, a man appeared, climbing out. This called for +investigation; they bounded along through the gulch and came up with the +fellow. To their surprise it was Haviland with his bandage off and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +rope nowhere. It was the first time a man had ever tried to give them +the slip. He should pay for it! Cap. Smith threw himself on the Freshman +at the first glimpse of his face. In a jiffy there was a new bandage +over his eyes and another rope coiled around his waist; this time it +included his hands. He struggled resolutely, but in silence, for his +breath had left him when he struck the ground with Smith on top.</p> + +<p>They seized him firmly and ran him at breakneck speed over a terrible +course, heading for an old well which waters a back pasture. Here they +stopped, spent with running.</p> + +<p>"On your knees, Professor!" gasped Pellams, with as much authority as +his lack of breath would allow.</p> + +<p>The panting victim remained standing.</p> + +<p>"Down!" accompanied by a resounding blow of a barrel stave.</p> + +<p>Still no movement, but a gurgle was heard as though speech was being +labored for.</p> + +<p>Biff!</p> + +<p>The unfortunate creature sprawled beside the well, but struggled up +again to a half-kneeling posture.</p> + +<p>"This—must—stop!" he gasped, painfully. "It—is—an—outrage. +I—am——"</p> + +<p>"No levity, sir!" said Smith. "You've got to do what we say, Professor, +or you won't get in at all."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't—want—to—get—in," panted the poor wretch in desperate +protest. "It's—a—mistake—I——"</p> + +<p>"See here, Professor; where's your nerve? Be a man! You'll never make a +Rho at this rate. Brace up, for Heaven's sake! Rise, Neophyte."</p> + +<p>They gave the rope a cruel wrench, which brought their captive to his +feet.</p> + +<p>"Let's kill him," whispered one of the men. Never before had there been +so shameful a display of the white feather.</p> + +<p>"We'll duck him."</p> + +<p>They brought their Freshman to the brink of the well. They tightened the +rope under his arms, and, before he could divine their intentions, they +were lowering him down the slippery side. When his feet struck the cold +water he struggled violently, shouting something which his splashing and +the echo of the well made unintelligible. Presently they hoisted him, +dripping and speechless with rage.</p> + +<p>"Thou hast now been cleansed of thy sin and cowardice, O Neophyte," +declaimed Pellams. "Forward to the joys that await thee!"</p> + +<p>They dragged him home on the run, taking the road this time and making +all haste to the house. The half-dead initiate had to be carried +upstairs. Smith took off the rope and told him to strip for a bath. The +victim sat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> on the edge of the Sophomore's bed and shook his head +feebly. He was evidently exhausted.</p> + +<p>"Come, hurry up, Haviland," said Cap. He felt a brutal impatience to see +what the barrel staves had done to the fellow's back. "Get bathed and +put on your dry clothes and be ready for the feed."</p> + +<p>The initiate raised his hands slowly and untied the bandage. He blinked +a moment at Smith, then he said huskily, "I am not Haviland, Mr. Smith, +nor do I want any 'feed.' I want to know what this means." There was no +anger in his voice, only great weariness.</p> + +<p>The freezing truth dawned on the horrified student. His first impulse +was to rush out of the house and to keep running. He managed to stammer:</p> + +<p>"Where's Haviland?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know where Haviland is," muttered the tired instructor. "I +don't know who Haviland is. If I have taken his place I am ready to +change again." He looked down upon his clothes, stuccoed with tarweed +burrs and wet mud.</p> + +<p>Then Jack Smith laughed aloud.</p> + +<p>"Professor, when we've found Haviland, and you've seen him, you'll +understand the whole horrible mistake, and——"</p> + +<p>"There was no mistake," said the other, coldly, "you called me Professor +while you were beating me."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<p>This only set Smith off again.</p> + +<p>"That's our name for Haviland. You see he looks like you—oh, I can't +explain it to you, Professor; but when you've seen the man you'll +forgive us, I know you will. And you've simply got to stay to our feed +now, if we have to tie you up again to keep you here."</p> + +<p>Professor Lamb, of the botany department, smiled wanly.</p> + +<p>"I think I will take a bath, anyway," he sighed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_SUBSTITUTED" id="THE_SUBSTITUTED"></a>THE SUBSTITUTED<br /> +FULLBACK.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="The_Substituted_Fullback" id="The_Substituted_Fullback"></a>The Substituted Fullback.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Shadows, you say, mirages of the brain!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I know not, faith, not I;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is it more strange the dead should walk again<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than that the quick should die?"<br /></span> +</div> +<p class="citation">Aldrich.</p> +</div> + + +<div style="margin-left: 4em;"><p>"Frank Lyman, Football Manager, Stanford University:</p> + +<p>"Blake died three forty-five. Body going East. I return five +train. <span class="smcap">Diemann.</span>"</p> +</div> + +<p>When he had sent this message to the University, the instructor in +Psychology went gloomily down to the Third and Townsend Street station.</p> + +<p>There was nothing more to be done just then. He had telegraphed to the +dead athlete's parents; the undertakers had their instructions about +shipping the body to Ohio, and the hospital bills would be arranged for +later. He slipped into a single seat at the back of the car to avoid the +chance of a travelling acquaintance. Now that the business part of it +was over, he could not talk to anyone.</p> + +<p>The whole thing had been so sudden that it was hard to feel the truth. +Barely a week ago<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> he had stood on the practice field at the University, +following Blake's splendid play and listening to the shouting of the +crowded bleachers, who idolized their great fullback with the absolute +idolatry of a college crowd. It was not easy to believe that all this +physical manhood, all this intellectual promise, had been snuffed out +like a candle before their very eyes.</p> + +<p>Diemann pressed his face against the car window and stared out at the +terraced produce gardens slipping dimly by in the early November dusk. +Between him and the dead fullback there had been such companionship as +comes now and then to an instructor under thirty and a man nearing the +end of his college course. When Diemann, just home from Germany, came +West to teach Psychology, he found young Blake the college hero. The new +instructor had himself been a noted back; he still hovered somewhere +between enthusiast and fiend. At Stanford he at once identified himself +with the football men, and they welcomed him gladly as assistant coach. +During that first season, two years ago, he had come to know and like +Fred Blake. Later, the fullback took Diemann's course in Psychology, and +to the elder man's gratification, developed a passion for the subject. +The instructor recognized the quality of the athlete's mind, and before +long the two were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> working together, reading and discussing along the +line of the teacher's special interest.</p> + +<p>Coming home from the sober materialism of Leipzig, Diemann had realized +more fully than ever how thoroughly the interest in matters occult had +pervaded the mind of his native country. To this department of +Psychology he turned with an admitted interest in things unseen and a +confidence in the restraint of his University training. He felt that he +stood barely upon the threshold of the subject, held back by material +prejudice and the conservatism of little faith; yet his enthusiasm grew +daily. He weighed the evidence of phenomena with an impartiality that +other people pronounced belief. The attitude of those about him was for +the most part unsympathetic. Some to whom he had made furtive +confidences called him "spooky," a spiritualist; but he was merely an +investigator, trying to be fair. It was an alluring study; perhaps he +ran the risk of over-enthusiasm—he had known people who had +spiritualized the palpably material—but he was guarding against this +danger; it would take an exceptional impulse ever to get him to that +point.</p> + +<p>It might be that some such temptation was coming to him now. He had just +seen his friend pass into perfect knowledge. Blake had said something to +him at the last that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> still ran in his ears, above the rumble of the +train. "I will come back, if there is anything in it all."</p> + +<p>Diemann, peering out into the deepening gloom toward the bay shore +faintly white in the luminous mist, thought over this last interview of +theirs; he was finding it hard to realize that their friendship had +ended.</p> + +<p>Only eight days before, he remembered, Blake first complained. It was at +the practice, and Diemann had given him a shot about his listless work. +Fred had answered:</p> + +<p>"I can't help it, Die; I feel dead, somehow. I'm afraid I'm going stale, +after all."</p> + +<p>He recalled the drawn look on Fred's face. But the boy would come out +the next night, for there was only a week before the team would leave +for the Springs, and so much had to be done that the captain simply +couldn't lay off. Toward the end of the practice, he collapsed. With his +arm over Lyman's shoulder he had gone back to the Hall, dragging his +feet heavily, while the crowd sat on the bleachers, quiet and +frightened. Then the pain came, tearing its way into the heroic body, +and the specialist hurriedly summoned from San Francisco had said that +they must get him to the hospital.</p> + +<p>Now it was all over, and Diemann was following his melancholy telegram +to college. He could guess the effect of the news. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> week ago the +knowledge of Blake's illness had staggered them; the college had grown +sick at heart; the city papers published details and the hopes of +Berkeley bounded to certainty of victory, for there was only one Blake. +Without him the Stanford team was nothing exceptional, and common +estimate gave the chance to California. The Stanford management did the +only thing they could do by putting in Ashley, the scrub fullback; but +this did not help matters materially. Ashley was a man of beautiful +physique, and the most conscientious player on the field. There he +stopped. He utterly lacked the head-work that Blake put into the game.</p> + +<p>For the star fullback had possessed the football instinct. Beyond his +quickness and dash, he had the mysterious faculty of staying with the +ball. If he were breaking the line, he placed the hole the fraction of +an instant before anyone else perceived it. They used to put him at +quarterback in defensive work, and he knew by inspiration where the play +was going, so that the line felt confident with him at their backs.</p> + +<p>Tom Ashley had nothing of all this. He punted as well as the 'Varsity +man, generally better, at the beginning of the season; but was slow with +his kick, often fatally slow when the 'Varsity broke through the scrub +line. He was late in starting, too, though a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> strong runner when out in +the field. The chief beauty of his game was a quick and certain +straight-arm. At another time he might have easily been the 'Varsity +fullback, for he put up a hard, steady game from one end of the season +to the other; but he had come to college with Blake, and the position +had been out of the question. Besides, there were a couple of star +halves; he was not good at end, either. So he staid on the Scrub eleven, +and worked doggedly for three years.</p> + +<p>Diemann lay back in the car seat and aimlessly thought of his work with +the substitute the week of Fred's illness. He had done his best with +Ashley, trying to instill into him something of the other's style and +dash. He had talked with him long and carefully, showing him the subtle +points of Blake's game. During the few practices following the star's +departure he had watched the new man faithfully through every play, +giving him all his time. He was sorry for the sub. A man could be placed +in no more exacting position.</p> + +<p>Ordinarily, such a chance would have been a god-send to a scrub player, +for the second-eleven man is the type of the Great Unthanked. Diemann +thought of the three months through which the scrub trains religiously, +sacrificing beloved pipe, or sorority dance, or week's end trip to +Mayfield, or to the Orpheum in town; leaving the "gang"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> singing in the +moonlit Quad, while he turns in at ten according to pledge; faring day +after day on the same service of rare beef and oatmeal water; getting +pounded and battered about over a hard field every afternoon. Ashley had +had three years of this sort of thing—and all for what? At best, to +squat in football clothes on the side-lines, Thanksgiving day, with +Blake's or Smith's sweater around his neck, waiting for the accident +that may give the game to Berkeley at the same time that it lets him +trot out on the field, while the crowd calls out to him encouragingly, +although they are sick at heart. He goes through each season borne up by +the excitement, working breast to breast with the honored 'Varsity, but +lost in their mighty shadow. When the big day comes he slips back into +the great, wild crowd that lifts the team to its shoulders; worship is +not for him, no, nor remembrance either, in that hour of homage. Such +men, to the bleachers, are but working material for the 'Varsity; the +scrub player is part of an inorganic thing—until his chance comes.</p> + +<p>Yet, when fortune gave Ashley his chance he was not to be envied. To be +put suddenly, at the last moment almost, into the shoes of the college +hero, when the hopes of the University had been centered in that one +man, this was too much for any fellow. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> his docile way the substitute +went into the trying place, working along as faithfully, and to all +appearance with as little concern, as in his old position. Secretly, the +responsibility wore upon him. It was a hopeless undertaking to be like +Blake; but everybody expected it of him. He tried his best to grasp the +patient coaching of Diemann and to put it in play at the right time, but +he never seemed quick enough; that cursed slowness of his came in to +show how futile it all was. Everything he did or could do as a football +man was made negative by the fact that he was in Blake's place. It was a +hard graft.</p> + +<p>Diemann had known all along what the fellow was suffering, and he pitied +him. According to Ashley's room-mate, the boy talked in his sleep, all +night sometimes, chiefly about Blake and the play. If they did not look +sharp, the coach said to himself, there might be another stale man on +their hands.</p> + +<p>Diemann had been thinking of this that very morning when he got the +doctor's telegram. The shock had driven out every thought of Ashley and +the team. All through his work with the sub it had not occurred to him +that anything fatal could come to Blake, he had been doing so well; +then, without warning, came the message saying that he was sinking. He +had got there just in time. Now it was all over and he was going<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> back +to college, where Fred would never hear them shout for him again, never +feel an arm about him in the long walks over the hills.</p> + +<p>When the train drew into Palo Alto, Frank Lyman, the football manager, +quiet and sober-faced, stood under the station-light.</p> + +<p>"Can you come to dinner with me?" asked Diemann.</p> + +<p>The two rode along under the oaks to the instructor's Palo Alto +boarding-house. When they were alone upstairs, the manager said:</p> + +<p>"Will you tell me about it? You got up there all right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the other, slowly; "not any too soon. The boy was conscious +at the last, and knew me and talked a bit. It was all football, pretty +much. I don't think he was quite clear enough to talk about other +things."</p> + +<p>"What did he say—that is, anything special?"</p> + +<p>"No; he said he was more than sorry that he wasn't going to get in the +game; it was his last and he wanted to play, but, of course, it wasn't +his fault, and the college wouldn't think he had thrown them down. He'd +never been a quitter, he said."</p> + +<p>"No, never," said the manager.</p> + +<p>"He went on in that strain a good deal; said that he wished that he +could have stayed longer, just to play for them again. At the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> end he +pressed my hand and said: 'I'll come back somehow, Die, if there is +anything in it.'"</p> + +<p>The Psychology instructor had spoken half in revery. He added quickly: +"He was pretty well gone then, poor old chap, and wandering a little, +and soon after that, why, he went over the line."</p> + +<p>He was sorry for having let that sentence slip out. The student would +not understand it; he could not know what those last words of Blake's +had meant to him, who saw their meaning. Lyman would only think it a bit +of ghastly humor that need not have been repeated. But the manager did +not take it so, evidently.</p> + +<p>"That reminds me of something, Diemann," he said. "I haven't talked it +over with anyone yet, because everybody is sour-balled enough as it is. +It's about Ashley. I'm afraid he is going stale."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" said Diemann, with dull interest, "I've rather been afraid of +it."</p> + +<p>"Of course, I knew he was up on his toes about his job, but I didn't +know just how bad it was until this afternoon. You see, you weren't +here, and after practice there were things to speak about, so I walked +over to the Hall with him. Then I thought I'd rub him myself, because +Billy is overworked, you know. He didn't answer questions for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> time, +but lay quite still and looked at me, yet I don't think he saw me at +all. He began to talk away, speaking of himself, in the third person, +mind you, and about his poor play and all that. He was as clean nutty as +any man you ever saw; as near as I could make out he thought he was +Fred."</p> + +<p>Diemann faced the manager.</p> + +<p>"What time was this, Frank?"</p> + +<p>"About five, I think. Shortly afterward I got your telegram. He went on +giving the straightest kind of football talk; but he was no more himself +all the time than I am he. This went on for several minutes; then he got +clear again. Pretty soon he rose and said he was faint, but guessed he +was all right. I didn't know whether to speak to the doctor or not. Now, +that sort of thing won't do; the man can't have such attacks and keep in +shape. If he goes stale, where will we be?"</p> + +<p>"He talked like Blake, did he?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, really he did. He had even Fred's little way of sliding over his +r's. Being troubled about having Fred's place has unstrung him. You've +noticed his absent-mindedness out on the field? I know Ashley pretty +well; he's always been sensitive as to what people think about him; he +likes to feel that he's doing what you expect of him. He was struck on +the head to-day; I don't doubt that's what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> made him a little off. +Still, his nervous condition must be bad."</p> + +<p>Diemann rose and knocked the ashes out of his pipe.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said he, thoughtfully, "we must watch him. Perhaps we ought to +speak to Dr. Forest; but I'll look after him a while first."</p> + +<p>"Very well. We won't have any practice to-morrow, out of respect to +Fred; we couldn't stand it, any of us; that will give Ashley a rest, +then Friday we have the last practice before going to the Springs."</p> + +<p>"I am going up there with you. I think I'll turn in early to-night; I'm +pretty well knocked. I'll see you in the Quad before noon to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Lyman went, and the Psychology man, refilling his pipe, stared at the +fire and smoked until midnight.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he thought, as he settled into bed, "it may be only a +case of dual personality, it may be something greater. I've got where I +must guard against myself."</p> + +<p>With an intensified interest, the coach resumed his work over Ashley. He +waited for a recurrence of the phenomenon which Lyman had marked and he +yielded again to the general excitement over the approaching contest. +Absorbed in the two unrelated in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>terests, he gradually came to connect +them. This he kept to himself.</p> + +<p>The last campus practice was half over, the bleachers were crowded. +Across the field the confirmed fiends were standing along the ropes to +get a nearer view of that tangle of human bodies, not a movement of +which escaped them. On the side-lines the privileged advisers, from +rubbers and Freshman manager up to associate coach, squatted on the +adobe, careless of their clothes.</p> + +<p>The whole University had come out. An air of sorrow hung over +everything, the rooters were silent, and the teams played listlessly.</p> + +<p>Frank Lyman went over where the wildest howlers usually sat.</p> + +<p>"Boys," he said, "we can't send the men away like this, it would take +them a week to get over it. We must have some yelling. We're not +honoring the memory of Blake this way. Do you know what his last words +were? He said to Professor Diemann, 'They know I never was a quitter.' +Do you think he would like a practice like this?"</p> + +<p>Then the crowd started up and gave the yell as one man, and the others +joined in until something like the usual demonstration arose about the +field, and the 'Varsity, feeling the inspiration, bent down and hammered +away at the Scrubs as they meant to do against the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> Blue and Gold on +Thanksgiving day. Here and there a fraternity dog, showing his head +between a pair of golf-clad knees, joined the quick, sharp yell of the +people about him with an imitation that raised a laugh. When the +bleachers were still just before a big play, one could hear in the +breathless silence the slap of the canvas suits, the thud of heavy +shoes, the sniffling of men just out of a scrimmage. Far across the bay, +the hills that were cool and blue when practice began, grew luminously +red in the level light of the dying rays; against the fading color of +the west, the power-house chimney rose picturesquely dark; the swift, +elusive twilight of California settled down on Santa Clara's broad +acres, so that Diemann had to stare hard to follow Ashley's play. Then +the whistle sounded, sharp in the still air, and the teams came trotting +to the side-lines to take their sweaters and caps from devoted admirers +and to stroll off, arm over shoulder, with people who minded not in the +least the campus dirt those heroes had been gathering.</p> + +<p>Diemann took Ashley's arm. "Let's walk together," he said.</p> + +<p>The substitute fullback had been playing hard ball. The gloom hanging +over the first half of the practice had affected him strongly and he had +flung himself into the game, trying to forget, to cast off the foolish +sense of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> an implied reproach. Diemann could see that he was very tired. +He made him lean upon him, and they started for the Hall. Suddenly he +realized that the football man was not answering questions, that the +weight on his own shoulder was growing heavier. He glanced up into +Ashley's face; there was an absent look in the man's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Fred!" whispered Diemann sharply in his ear.</p> + +<p>"Yes?" answered the fullback; then he shook himself and said:</p> + +<p>"It's chilly, Die, I'm wet. Let's get in."</p> + +<p>Some fifteen minutes later, the two came down the corridor toward the +training table.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, Ashley."</p> + +<p>"Won't you stay to dinner, Diemann?"</p> + +<p>"No, I must go down, and you are late as it is. Hurry along in."</p> + +<p>"All right. I'm not going stale if I can help it. I just felt a little +faint over there; I got pretty tired."</p> + +<p>Diemann stepped up closer to him beside the curving balustrade and +looked the football man steadily in the eyes.</p> + +<p>"You are playing more like Blake every day," he said.</p> + +<p>"I wish I were."</p> + +<p>"We are going to the Springs to-morrow," went on the coach, "and you can +rest. By the way, if I were you I wouldn't say anything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> about your +feeling faint just now. It would only trouble Lyman and the rest of the +boys."</p> + +<p>"What does it all mean?" Diemann mused as the palms bordering the +bicycle path flashed by him. "There was something about him like Fred, +in his way of speaking, and some of the things he said about the game, +but it stopped there. With all my questioning, I never got a word that +belonged to us two alone. I suppose I must admit that it is merely the +memory of the subjective mind, a case of dual personality brought on by +hyper-æsthetic conditions. Oh, if it were only the other thing, if I +only could know! But it can't be; he would give me some clue, some sign. +Then again the substitution has not come at a critical time, only after +the practice, when Ashley is tired. If it were Fred, he would appear in +the play, he would come at a time like that, if there is anything in +it."</p> + +<p>Diemann gripped his handle-bar tightly as he shot through the sandstone +gates.</p> + +<p>"Oh," he thought, "whatever it is, if it would only come stronger, if I +could only be sure!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 35%;' /> + +<p>On Thanksgiving morning when the long special runs up on the University +track and stops between the Library and Encina, the flaming bunting +looped along its sides starts the excitement of the day. Everybody is +out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> on the walk, bristling with the College cardinal, from Professor +Grind and his wife to the Jap who cleans house Saturdays. If there is +anyone who cannot or does not want to go up to town to-day, he has +hidden himself in grief or shame. The President wears a ribbon in his +coat, and talks gravely with Professor Diemann, who has been at the +Springs with the team. A knot of students have already determined to get +the Doctor to lead the yell when he comes in to the grounds. They know +he will do it; he is as full of the spirit of the day as any of them.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Rah, Rah, Rah,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rah, Rah, Rah,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rah, Rah,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stanford!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The engine whistles it, the crowd shouts it, and the +hills give it back again as the laden train slips down to the main line +and starts on its way to town. Streaming with cardinal bunting, it looks +like a burning thing as it rushes over the marsh land, sending the +horses in the field snorting away, and bringing women to the doors of +cottages along the tracks. In their excitement the delirious Sophomores +and Juniors hang out of the windows and throw kisses wildly to these +women, who grin and wave back, doubtless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> saying something about "them +crazy students." A placid red cow is greeted with cheers, the scarlet +under-flannels of hard-working South San Francisco, flapping merrily +from the line in the November breeze, fan the frenzy, while the engine +toots the yell and the car-windows are aflame with gleaming flags.</p> + +<p>From now on the students besiege the city, and the town is theirs as +surely as if the Mayor had met them at its entrance with a symbolic +golden key. Shop windows are brilliant with the rival colors, the +streets are a shifting riot of red and blue and yellow, with a +plague-spot here and there where some fanatics have striped their derby +hats with blue and gold ribbon, or a color-blind Stanford man flaunts a +villainously purple chrysanthemum. On the curbing, fakirs are selling +shining red Christmas berries and violets and great bursting carnations, +and chrysanthemums like yellow ostrich-plumes.</p> + +<p>Through all this splendor you keep close to Professor Diemann, for you +know he is going to the hotel where the team is, and that stalwart +lineman you are thinking of most to-day is up there with them. You slip +upstairs under the protecting shadow of the associate coach, passing the +suspicious eyes of the trainers and the hurried, unsympathetic glance of +Lyman, the manager, and you find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> your particular hero lying on his bed +in all the glory of his new sweater with its clean white S, a great +fresh specimen of the lustiest student-body in the world. You take his +hand, almost afraid to squeeze it tightly, lest you cause some harm to +the big frame in which your hopes are centered, and you tell him how +glad you are he has made the team and that we are bound to win. And if +this is his first game, or if some man has pressed him dangerously for +the position he had last year, he will smile and say, "We'll do our +best." Then the rubber comes in and you slip away, wondering why the +beneficence of the Creator to man on earth should have made one fellow +like your idol up there on the bed and another like you, crawling +unnoticed into the street, throwing out your thin, incapable legs in a +quick walk to join your crowd at the restaurant.</p> + +<p>Diemann found Ashley quiet in his room. The fullback was in splendid +fettle; the week at the Springs had done him a world of good. There was +no staleness about him now. It had helped him to be away from the +College, away from that excited crowd that sat on the bleachers and +watched him play, demanding that he be like Blake, who had died. He +breathed more easily in the quiet air of the mountains where the team +had secret practice. People stopped urging him to be like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> Blake; only +Diemann went over the thing again and again, explaining, reminding. Now +Thanksgiving had come, and the substitute fullback had never felt better +in his life. He would do his best, and they could not say he had not +tried.</p> + +<p>The manager was radiant over Ashley's condition, and the other men +slapped Tom's big shoulders and said that he would put up a good game +for the College. Diemann alone seemed sour-balled. The rest of them knew +how Blake's death had broken him up, but that was no reason, Lyman said, +why he need keep nagging the new fullback about Fred. The College +realized that the two men were hopelessly different, and they were +fairly reconciled by this time. If the boy played the best that was in +him, the team might make it in spite of the odds. It was too bad to take +the spirit out of him by constantly suggesting that he play like Blake. +The manager said this to Diemann, but the coach only shook his head and +answered:</p> + +<p>"It won't do any harm, Frank, and it may possibly work him up to +something like Fred's game."</p> + +<p>But a week's watching at the Springs had made Diemann despondent. The +phenomenon he had witnessed the evening of the last practice had not +appeared again. He had allowed his theories to lead him away into +im<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>possible hopes. The man on the bed was Ashley, slow, normal, in +perfect condition, hopeless, and Ashley he would remain. The chance for +a psychic manifestation ceased when Ashley's football worry was over. +Opportunity had come and gone, unfruitfully.</p> + +<p>That afternoon, the athletic grounds were banked with great flower-beds +of people, where red and blue and yellow blossomed and faded and burst +out again as the teams swayed back and forward on the white-lined +gridiron between. The wild noise of the college yells greeting the +teams, the taunting horns that shattered the music of the rival bands, +the shrill treble of gamins who had climbed over impossible fences, the +hoarse bellow of the brown paper megaphones,—all this tumult had hushed +suddenly into a tense, aching silence in which fingers dug into board +seats and College hearts stopped beating when the teams faced each other +for the kick-off.</p> + +<p>The uproar boomed forth again, and presently the Stanford bleachers +became silent from breathless watching. The first five minutes of play +meant most to the cardinal. In that dozen rushes, they could tell +whether there was a chance of winning or whether the hope of victory had +died with Blake. The first Berkeley play went at the line and crumpled +up without gain; again it held and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> again, until the crowd felt that +there was more than hope, that the Stanford stone-wall defense would win +out once more. Yet so closely were the teams matched that they swung +back and forth without score for a good half.</p> + +<p>When the game was almost at the end of the second half, the score was +tie, 6-6. But Berkeley was sure of the day. She had forced her +adversaries to their five-yard line, and there were only six minutes +left to play. Stanford took a desperate brace and Berkeley lost the ball +on downs. If only Stanford could gain ground now, or if time could be +called. Nobody wanted a tie, to be sure, but defeat was hard to +accept,—the first time, too.</p> + +<p>Diemann of Stanford crouched on the side-lines with a heart of lead. The +game was lost. What he had looked for, hoping against hope since play +was called, had not happened. Ashley had played his usual hard, +consistent game, straining every muscle, punting longer and higher than +ever before, but missing stupidly some golden chances, the chances Blake +would never have let slip by. Diemann had talked to him between halves, +a few eager words, urging him to quickness, reminding him of Fred. The +substitute had only shaken his head, and muttered that he was doing his +best. Toward the end of the second he had shown the severity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> of the +strain. Playing his hardest, with despair in his soul, it had told on +him. In the last scrimmages his work had been very ragged. Indeed, the +whole team seemed to have slumped, and the Berkeley line had hammered +them down toward their own goal while precious seconds slipped by.</p> + +<p>Now the men lined up rapidly. Stanford tried an end play. No gain. +Diemann stood back of the team at one side of the goal; he was +struggling hard to be calm, but he did a strange thing. He seized a +small megaphone from the hands of an urchin beside him, and just as they +lined up after Stanford's unsuccessful trial at end, he stepped to the +white goal line and raising the funnel to his lips shouted in a voice +audible to every man on both teams:</p> + +<p>"Now, Fred Blake, play your game!"</p> + +<p>Lyman heard and looked back, wondering.</p> + +<p>Ashley heard. He stared at the grandstand with a bewildered, appealing +face. Then the signal was given. It sent Ashley through tackle. The boy, +feeling as though he had lost the game for his College where the other +man would have won, went into the line with the energy of a forlorn +hope. The Berkeley men gathered their superior force, and the Stanford +team was lifted up and borne back, a gradually shifting mass, to its own +goal line.</p> + +<p>Were they over? The Berkeley crowd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> yelled, and an exultant sub threw +his sweater in the air. No, the teams were up, and the ball was almost +on the line, not quite. There remained a chance to punt it out of +danger. Could Ashley do it quickly enough? He had been punting too +slowly; the other line could surely get through and block his kick, and +there were only two minutes to play.</p> + +<p>Diemann, rigid with anxiety, saw that a Stanford man still lay on the +ground. Straining his eyes through the dusk, a glance at the team told +him that it was Ashley. The drawn muscles of the instructor's legs +trembled, the blood beat in his temples. Was it coming, at the last +moment?</p> + +<p>As the trainer shot out from the side-lines with bucket and sponge, +Diemann saw Ashley spring up, slap the grimy moleskins of the men +nearest him, and get back into position to kick. Stanford was standing +on her own goal line. He saw the ball snapped back; the fullback kicked +it, in time; then, instead of the long, curving drive that was to save +the day, he saw the ball rise almost straight in the air above the +teams, and he groaned aloud as the Berkeley men broke through, and +people with delirious laughter waved the blue and gold frantically about +him.</p> + +<p>The ball comes down among the struggling players. Suddenly, out of that +jumble of men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> darts a red-sleeved figure, dashing through the scattered +field, bounding like a stag toward the Berkeley goal.</p> + +<p>The expert eye of the associate coach tells him that, by a marvellous +piece of football instinct, Ashley has found his way through the +confused teams, realizing that he is the only Stanford man on side, and +has caught the ball on the fly and got clear with it. Though they +understand nothing of this, the vast crowd goes shrieking to its feet. +The bewildered teams turn and follow close upon the flying figure, the +speedy Berkeley right-half leading them. Back in the field stands the U. +C. fullback, grimly waiting. The two collide, and the chasing halfback +gains; but the Berkeley back drops to the tackle a fraction of an +instant too late and runs fair against a straight-arm. Tom Ashley, with +the ball clutched tight against his breast, his set face gleaming white +in the half-light, sprints down the long barred space toward victory, +keeping the distance between himself and the straining pack, running as +only one man has ever run for Stanford.</p> + +<p>And Diemann, tearing along the side-line, knows that Ashley himself +never could have done it.</p> + +<p>The fullback falls across the line, the ball gripped in his convulsive +hold, just as the linesman's whistle blows. Diemann is there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> almost as +soon. He keeps back the frenzied men crowding about them, and bends over +the unconscious player, calling him "Fred" irrationally, while the place +catches fire with the cardinal and Stanford goes mad on the field.</p> + +<hr style='width: 35%;' /> + +<p>Ashley came to consciousness at the hotel. Diemann sat beside him, and +Lyman and Dr. Forest stood by the window. The substitute fullback sat +up.</p> + +<p>"I felt faint just then," he said. "I couldn't help it; you know about +it, Diemann." He looked at the other men.</p> + +<p>"Did they get it over?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Lyman ran across the room.</p> + +<p>"Tom, old man," he said, choking, "you won it for us, and you'll never +be forgotten, you and your run!"</p> + +<p>The fullback looked at him blankly.</p> + +<p>"My run?" he faltered.</p> + +<p>Diemann came between them.</p> + +<p>"Better lie down and rest a bit, my boy; you can talk later."</p> + +<p>Then, turning to the others:</p> + +<p>"You see," he whispered, "he's wandering a little yet."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="TWO_PIONEERS_AND_AN_AUDIENCE" id="TWO_PIONEERS_AND_AN_AUDIENCE"></a>TWO PIONEERS AND AN AUDIENCE.</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="Two_Pioneers_and_an_Audience" id="Two_Pioneers_and_an_Audience"></a>Two Pioneers and an Audience.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The Mother sits beside the bay,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The bay goes down to wed the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gone ye are, on every tide<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wherever men and waters be!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>On the Sunday night following the Game the smoking-room at the Rho house +held the greater part of the Chapter. As a rule, there were not so many +loafing there Sunday nights; that time was generally given either to +sentiment in other places, or to digging out Monday's work upstairs, +while the fire burned for the two or three who seemed never to have any +work more important than magazine reading or solitaire. To-night, +however, nearly every one was gathered there, for two "old men" were +visiting.</p> + +<p>These old men had been out of college for two whole years. One of them +was Ralph Shirlock. If you were at college in his days you knew him by +sight, at least, though you were the mossiest dig that ever kept bright +till morning the attic window of a prof's house on the Row. If you have +come up to College since then, and are sufficiently posted to know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> that +there have been other annuals before this one just issued by your +friends the Juniors, you have found his picture or his name on every +other page of the earlier editions. Harry Rice, who came with him, was +not half so well known, save to the Faculty and the circle of the +chapter. He was doing very well in business, people said, better than +Shirlock, probably. Rice was a keen fellow, the new men could see that +at a glance; but they did not put an arm about him instinctively in the +after-dinner stroll, as they did about Shirlock.</p> + +<p>The two alumni had spent Sunday calling upon the Faculty in Palo Alto +and the Row, and in post-mortems with some of the football men in +Encina. After dinner, the fellows sat out on the porch, strumming +mandolins and singing. Shirlock had been a star on the Glee Club two +years before, and he sang again the songs the college hummed after him +in those days, while the upper-classmen looked at the Freshmen with a +"now-you-see-what-you've-joined" expression, or nudged each other +reminiscently, until the live-oaks in the pasture almost blended with +the long shadows under them, and hoarse-throated frogs were tuning up in +the irrigating ditches. Then they formed four abreast and went down for +the mail, humming a march song and lifting their hats in concert<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> to +Professor Stillwell and his wife, smiling from their porch. At the +post-office the lines broke and the entire body, except the alumni, +struggled into the over-crowded room ("the daily press" Pellams called +it). This was hardly necessary, since one man could have opened the +fraternity box and distributed the letters; but this is a distinct charm +of Sunday evening at the post-office. Moreover, you never know who may +be standing inside, and if you have forgotten to arrange things ahead it +is sometimes well to be first.</p> + +<p>The pleasant uncertainty of the evening mail being over, the fellows +mixed a while with the sundry groups about the low red building, then +joined forces again, and marched once around the Quad, arm in arm, a +line of sixteen, while Bob Duncan, who had been prepped at a military +school, shouted, "Change step, march," and "Left wheel, march," then +home together, all but two or three, who were called the "Incurables," +and who had plunged back into the shadow of the Quad for Chapel, +perhaps, or some other form of Sabbath evening devotion. This breach of +hospitality the alumni forgave, made indulgent by a sweet sympathy.</p> + +<p>Alas for you, old worshippers at empty shrines! Those divine presences +are gone, new and unknown deities queen it in the ancient temples. Go +back to the hearth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> where some still know you and talk to the few who +gather around you there, of the old days when you, too, placed your +offering at celestial feet. These men of a new generation, sitting in +places that once were yours, will listen indulgently to your stories of +the past, and hear with patience the odious comparisons you inevitably +make; they will thank you for the advice you give them, and say +something pleasant about your college spirit; then in the morning when +you have taken the early train back to the World, they will go down to +the Quad with their books under their arms and something in their minds +that is anything but your talk of the evening before; the College life +will go on very much as if you had not been back, O wise fossils, and +there will be new graduates going out to learn your lessons and new +undergraduates who will pay no attention to them in turn. So be thankful +for this brief hour before the fire, with its chat as light as the +tobacco smoke floating over "old" man and Freshman lounging together, be +glad of the fellowship that welcomes you, and be content.</p> + +<p>Each couch in the smoking-room had its load of sprawling figures. The +lights were out by this time and the Incurables had come back to the +house and ferreted places for themselves among the tangled golf suits +and 'Varsity sweaters. Duncan had a lamp on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> table where he was +"bossing a rabbit"; Pellams said this was the only kind of lab-work in +zoology in which Bob could get credit. A pile of plates warmed before +the fire where Smith was toasting crackers at the end of a sharpened +stick. At the piano, Pellams was softly playing "barber shop" chords. It +was all very lazy and comfortable. The alumni grew reminiscent.</p> + +<p>"This noon while we were walking up from Palo Alto," said Shirlock, +"Mrs. Stanford passed us in her carriage, coming from Chapel, I suppose. +I asked Harry if he remembered how they used to drive about the place +inspecting things, when the Senator was alive."</p> + +<p>"Of course I do," spoke up Rice, "it seems odd that there are so few in +college now who remember them together. To you fellows, I suppose, Mrs. +Stanford is the source of the University. To us who saw them stand +together on the platform that day in October, '91, it is the two +always."</p> + +<p>"Harry, do you remember our serenade at the residence, after they +returned from Washington the first time?"</p> + +<p>"No," answered Rice, "I remember, but I wasn't there. We played a game +somewhere that day and I stayed over and missed the fun."</p> + +<p>"Tell us about it, Ralph," said Duncan, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> he emptied the cubes of +cheese into the chafing-dish.</p> + +<p>"Well, you see," said Shirlock, unbraiding himself from two affectionate +under-classmen on the couch and sitting up in the light, "the story +really begins with the first football game, which came off in the spring +of '92, and was ours, as every Freshman can tell you, even though he +doesn't know just what is meant by 'Pioneers.' The day of the game, +Whittemore, the captain, got a telegram from Washington wishing us luck +in our first encounter, and that afternoon we sent back answer in much +the same style that Cæsar used on one occasion—I suppose the little man +to my left here can give me the Latin words?" he added, rumpling the +hair of a horizontal Freshman.</p> + +<p>"Not long afterward the Senator and Mrs. Stanford came back from the +East and someone over in the Hall proposed that we give them a welcome +home. We could get a bigger demonstration there in those days than you +can now, I'll bet; you know everybody who was anybody at all lived in +Encina then; that was the center of the College life, politics began and +grew up there, and it was over there in the old lobby that we started +the Stanford spirit. Things were great, that first year. It's all right +enough here by our own fireside, with our own little gang, but I tell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +you honestly if things could have lasted as they were that first year, I +wouldn't have wanted to come over here. We were all together, right in +line for everything, wise or foolish."</p> + +<p>"It was the student body then, all right," put in Rice, "and we had the +Faculty with us too whether we were around the gridiron, where they +first had it, east of the cinder path, you know, learning the yell and +incidentally getting the team into condition for that 14-10, or whether +we were crawling by our lonelies through the fence over in the +vineyard."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The days of grapes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The days of scrapes,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>sang Pellams from the piano.</p> + +<p>"Were there any profs on that flat-car?" interrupted Duncan. He had come +into College while a memory of that pioneer adventure yet lingered.</p> + +<p>"It's unkind to remind us of that affair! No, I don't think there were. +The Faculty had their fun later, and we put mourning wreaths on several +chairs in the dining-room."</p> + +<p>"And you came mighty near getting a bouquet of the same kind, yourself," +said Rice.</p> + +<p>"What was it about the flat-car?" inquired a voice from the pillows.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh," said Rice, "that was about the first of those senseless +ebullitions of youth that the Shirlock person usually identified himself +with. There was a flat-car standing outside Encina on the track there, +just about where it turns and slopes down crosslots to the main track. +This is just what Ralph and his precious gang wanted, of course; they +thought it would be a bit of innocent, boyish play to have a little free +railroading, so they piled on and turned her loose and slid down to +Mayfield. They barely stopped the car before she switched into the main +line, and they all fell off into the gopher holes along the side and +made for Mayfield, red-eyed. The Faculty raised Ned when they heard +about it, which was proper."</p> + +<p>"I hope the Freshmen will pay particular attention to Mr. Rice," said +Shirlock. "He is a noble influence to any sweet, unfolding soul. I feel +that I should have escaped a great deal of enjoyable sin had I only +known him better those first few weeks."</p> + +<p>Ralph got up for some cigarette tobacco from the skull on the +mantelpiece.</p> + +<p>"Well, the Faculty were with us in about everything," he went on, +rolling a cigarette; "many of them lived in the Hall then."</p> + +<p>"Yes, a number did," put in Rice. "Do you remember, Ralph, the night +that Professor Torts had his little beer-and-skittles party in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> his +lair, and Burns, who roomed across the passage and who was the worst +bummer in Encina, went down to Fessler, and complained that he couldn't +study because of the noise in that number? And Fessler forgot who roomed +there and came up and gave them Tartarus through the keyhole and nearly +dropped when Torts opened the door?"</p> + +<p>"We all enjoyed that," answered Shirlock. "Why, the profs used to come +to our feeds and jolly up with the crowd. Often they were the best fun +there. It's different now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know," said Duncan, "they come over off and on, now. Doc +Jordan was here last Sunday to dinner, and Diemann drops in sometimes; +last year he came a lot."</p> + +<p>"Oh, they come over all right," sighed Pellams from the piano. "I had a +report to make one day. I didn't have it done, and I bribed Ted to go +down and tell Engbee I was sick in bed. I was playing cards in here when +Sniffles rushed in and told me the old boy was coming up the street. I +smelt danger and tumbled into bed like a six-day bicyclist, and fixed my +face up with some grease paint and magnesia. Sure enough, he came in, +darkly suspicious, thought he had me all right, but he found a wreck +that melted him. His wife sent me a bunch of violets next morning. For +my part I don't like the Faculty for intimate friends," and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> Pellams +played "Comrades" with the soft pedal down.</p> + +<p>"It's not the same thing, though, really," persisted Shirlock. "They may +come over here to dinner or perhaps to a smoker, but it's always +Professor So-and-So; his chair is a little higher than any of yours, and +he never forgets the family waiting for him in the Row; in those first +days the family was in most cases beyond the Rockies, or as yet a dream, +and it wasn't always easy to pick out the professor from the jumble of +story-tellers on the bed.</p> + +<p>"Of course, it was all too good to last," the alumnus went on +thoughtfully, "and it wasn't natural it should. We weren't so many then. +When the number increased, I suppose the relations had to change and the +different cliques must separate. I'll admit that there is more in the +life now, it's more complex, there are more institutions and more ways +of having joy; but those were good old days, those first days in Encina +when the crowd was one.</p> + +<p>"I can see them now, can't you, Harry? out on the veranda and the steps +of the Hall after dinner, with the fellows playing ball on the lawn, and +other men sitting up on their window-ledges. The night I started to tell +you about, when we went to serenade Mr. and Mrs. Stanford, we got the +mandolin fellows, the beginning of your present club, and fell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> in +behind them and started off down the road, past the mausoleum and +through the vineyard—never broke ranks there, either, we were on our +good behavior, besides, it was Spring—and so on over to the house, +where we drew up, and the mandolins played their piece, then we gave the +yell—it was only a few months old, that yell, but it had been loud +enough to knock out a twenty-five-year-old one we met up in town not +long before, and we were proud of it.</p> + +<p>"During the pause that followed, the front door opened and the Senator +stepped out on the porch; a lamp shone on his gray head and on us +fellows in a big black crowd on the gravel below, looking up at him and +cheering. When we stopped he said, very much as though a friend had +driven up, "Gentlemen, will you come in?" and the whole two hundred of +us piled over the piazza, getting a grasp of his hand as we came into +the hall, and a word from Mrs. Stanford, who stood beside him. They took +us into the library; we formed a hollow square, two rows deep on the +sides, and the Founders came into the square and talked to us. I +remember that Mrs. Stanford said, 'We were very glad, young gentlemen, +to hear of your success in baseball,' and what a chill it gave us, just +convalescing from the football fever; but we forgave the mistake when +she asked, a minute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> later, 'Which is Mr. Clemans?' That blushing hero +with the other ten we forced into the center to be congratulated, and we +sang the new song, 'Rush the Ball Along,' until the bric-à-brac +trembled.</p> + +<p>"When we were quiet again, the Senator talked to us informally, as +though we were in reality his children as he had said we were to be. It +was an earnest talk, about his ideals of what the University was yet to +be, and his hope for their fulfillment; of economy and judicious living; +and of endeavor to be of use to the world. It was a privilege to stand +there listening. He appealed to each one of us individually. We could +not know then how few more such opportunities we were to have. When he +had finished, the dining-room doors slid back—it was a put-up job, that +serenade—and it was Mrs. Stanford's turn. After the supper, we gathered +for a little personal talk with both of them, then we had some more +mandolin music, and Baker sang 'Suwanee River' to Capron's +accompaniment.</p> + +<p>"That evening brought the Founders pretty close to the crowd. It was a +good thing to have happen, it began things right. Then, you know, he +died suddenly, in vacation. I was in Yosemite. When term opened, it was +hard to get used to seeing her driving around the campus alone. I don't +think any of the people who came after those early days can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> ever be so +loyal to the Founders, to the person of one and the memory of the other, +as we are. I'm sure none of us who went over serenading that night will +ever forget it. It's one of the Pioneer memories."</p> + +<p>Both graduates were looking into the fire. Freshman Haviland snored +softly in the window seat. The eyes of the rest of the chapter were +fastened on the chafing-dish. Shirlock's story had seemed pretty long +and the rarebit sent out a tantalizing odor.</p> + +<p>Duncan called out, "Supper's ready, children," and the heated plates +came clattering up from the hearth, bringing the visitors back from the +far echoes of their own beginnings to the noisy unconcern of a Freshman +year that knew a kind, white-bearded face from pictures only, and never +could understand.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="FOR_THE_SAKE_OF_ARGUMENT" id="FOR_THE_SAKE_OF_ARGUMENT"></a>FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="For_the_Sake_of_Argument" id="For_the_Sake_of_Argument"></a>For the Sake of Argument.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"For we are frank and twenty<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And the spring is in the air!"<br /></span> +</div> +<p class="citation">Hovey.</p> +</div> + + +<p>"Well!" said Miss Meiggs, spreading across her lap one of the Beta Rhos' +new monogrammed napkins, "I must say <i>your</i> being here is a surprise."</p> + +<p>Pellams answered in vague interrogation, not a little surprised, +himself, to be caught at a "girl-supper." Now that he was cornered, it +would be uselessly impolite to tell her how the Chapter had reasoned and +pleaded with him until at the last minute "Cap" Smith ruined his clever +escape by catching him midway down a porch pillar. Smith, sitting on the +other side of Katharine Graham and wearing the smile of satisfied +revenge, would doubtless enjoy telling it. There was so much of genial +malevolence in that smile that Pellams, the woman-hater, who knew only +enough of the co-eds to avoid them, wondered what sort of a girl he had +been placed next to at supper. He had an intuitive idea that she had +been given him by general consent. An experienced society man would have +scented this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> at once in the company of Mrs. Perkins, for when there is +a choice of tables, chapter-mothers are apt to sit where there is the +least sentiment; but this was the Junior's début, practically, and he +was conscious of little more than that the fellows had it "in" for him, +and that this girl had begun the conversation by a personal remark.</p> + +<p>"I judged," the girl was saying, not having waited for any explanation, +"that in the milder forms of social entertainment you were somewhat out +of your element."</p> + +<p>Pellams had missed his guess. On sitting down to their small table, he +had decided that the conversation would naturally split into two +divisions of three rather than into three couples, for Mrs. Perkins, +Professor Grind and this Meiggs girl would enjoy themselves together, +leaving him to share Smith's talk with Miss Graham, whose eyes had +somehow an engaging twinkle. The idea was rudely dispelled by Miss +Meiggs's immediate and decidedly personal attack. At least, he would +have preferred to talk about other people, but he faced the music.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I disapprove of them only for myself," he replied, "not for +others."</p> + +<p>"And why for yourself, particularly?"</p> + +<p>The face of the Glee Club's comedian had assumed just the right +seriousness.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Because I'm more than susceptible and I don't want to run risks."</p> + +<p>"Your time has come at last, then," put in his captor, Smith, with a +gallant look at Miss Meiggs.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," retorted Pellams, whose combative sense was less rusty +than his skill in compliment. "If I'd been afraid of one exposure like +this, do you think I'd have suggested being on deck to-night?"</p> + +<p>Smith, with a fresh memory of their struggle, laughed at this blocking +move. Katharine Graham, although she did not laugh, enjoyed Pellams's +unconscious "like this." She was a Theta Gamma with Miss Meiggs, and of +late there had been a little rift in their sisterly love.</p> + +<p>The older girl was not disconcerted. She had her estimate of Pellams +Chase, and he was not disproving it. There were certain things she had +long wanted the chance to say to him.</p> + +<p>"I admire your self-restraint under temptation," she said; "it is +characteristic of you in other circumstances, I believe"—this with +discreet emphasis—"but, really, why should you dread letting <i>this</i> +susceptibility get the better of you?"</p> + +<p>Pellams caught the faint sneer in the words. He hoped that Mrs. Perkins +had been talking just then to her Faculty partner. Increasing his +affected earnestness, he replied:</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Because, when you get gone, it is bound to knock scholarship."</p> + +<p>Here Smith giggled audibly, for Katharine and he were really feigning +talk, being more entertained by the couple across the cloth. Katharine +knew that by this last statement Pellams had sounded a dominant note in +the soul of her opinionated sister. She was not surprised, then, when +Miss Meiggs turned more fully toward the woman-hater.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, are you one of these people who think co-education an evil?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I am." The speech gave Pellams a certain pleasure. There was +nothing about this partner they had given him that tended toward +converting him to the Chapter's point of view as to the advantage of +girls at college.</p> + +<p>"Of course," continued she, "I do not take your remark about scholarship +as worthy of consideration in your case, because I am in one or two of +your classes, when you attend them," and Pellams, listening, gave thanks +that he and Professor Grind opposite had no such relation; "but +monopolized time is really the cry of a good many who would wish to +work, and it is all wrong. There is no reason why we should not come +here and work with you, combining friendship and study. Our presence +here is, in a way, preventive of many worse things."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + +<p>Pellams turned his empty salad plate between his fingers.</p> + +<p>"Well," he drawled, "I'm not sure I know what you mean by the worse +things, and I've never been to another college, except Berkeley but I +can't believe as much time is spent on them as some people here give to +girls," this with a dreamy look over Smith's head; "the cigarette heart +can't be much worse than what takes men out of college here, and if you +refer to beer——"</p> + +<p>"I <i>do</i> refer to beer," said Miss Meiggs, in an iced voice.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" expostulated the Junior, spreading his hands, "they couldn't +do it!" He looked at her frankly. "You get a head after too much beer," +he went on, reckless as to pronouns and listening professors, "and you +stay sober and work, for awhile, any way. In co-education you don't get +any such call-down until the Committee meets."</p> + +<p>"Don't let him tease you, Miss Meiggs," put in Mrs. Perkins, frowning +mildly at Pellams because of Professor Grind's sphinx-like smile; "he's +making it all up out of his inner consciousness, like the German +philosopher and the—elephant, wasn't it, Professor Grind?"</p> + +<p>"Yes?" answered Miss Meiggs, with a world of irony packed into the +syllable; "your inner consciousness, then, Mr. Chase, proves rather +forcibly that in one case the influence is against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> refinement, while in +the case of co-education it is all for it. You will grant that, I +think?"</p> + +<p>Quite by accident, Pellams caught Miss Graham's eye. The twinkle there +was a sort of glorified "sic 'im!"</p> + +<p>"On the contrary," said he, perfectly composed, "I think it's the girl +that's refined."</p> + +<p>Miss Meiggs's "<i>What!</i>" was almost a shriek. Foo, the table-boy, brought +her just then a plate of creamy rarebit. He had a jacket of luminous +green silk, with the fraternity monogram in white, and he wore his cue +hanging. But the fragrance of the rarebit and the splendor of Foo's +toilet were alike lost upon the aroused Miss Meiggs. Such a statement, +from this man of all others!</p> + +<p>"You are judging us with yourself as a basis of contrast, I fancy!"</p> + +<p>Not displeased at having put her in ill-humor, and refusing a gentle +attempt on Mrs. Perkins' part to lead the conversation elsewhere, he +went on with aggravated seriousness:</p> + +<p>"But there is hope for me here, with the Faculty and with books"—he +choked a little over this; "a man doesn't need to go through from one to +eight love-affairs."</p> + +<p>The champion of co-education sniffed.</p> + +<p>"Nothing was further from my thoughts," said she. "The association of +men and women in an atmosphere of study does not mean sen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>timentality. +The relation should be normal and helpful, not spoiled by extremes." +Katharine had heard these views before.</p> + +<p>"But they can't dodge the extremes, you see," persisted Pellams. "It's +the place here, the walks and drives in the country and all. Your theory +might work all right at a city college or even at Berkeley, but on this +campus, not so!"</p> + +<p>"The reasoning of inexperience. There are stronger interests in nature +than boy-and-girl foolishness—unless one is idle. Where it results in +that sort of thing, I agree that it is all wrong and prejudicial to +scholarship and thoroughly unnecessary and inexcusable"—with these +words a slow glance at Katharine that spoke of arguments in the past. "A +man does not have to fall in love purely because he and a girl are in +the country at the same time."</p> + +<p>"But all the girls are not like you," began Pellams, and stopped at the +sound of the words. They were not in the least intended to be taken as +he felt that the table-full had taken them. Miss Meiggs put her fork +viciously into the neglected rarebit. In the uncomfortable pause, Mrs. +Perkins flutteringly passed her the cayenne pepper, but Miss Meiggs +ignored the courtesy. She turned to Pellams.</p> + +<p>"Even a love-affair," she snapped, "would benefit you more than the +substitute you have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> chosen! You are a nice one to argue the refinement +of the college girl! Are you refining yourself, your fraternity or your +favorite side of the student-body by carousing at Mayfield and carrying +the viciousness of that town to others where you may represent the +University?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say!" protested the Glee Club man, uneasily, for Grind was on the +Committee; "don't be too hard on me."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure you're unjust to Pellams," said the Chapter-mother, with a +troubled look at her black lamb, who wondered what was coming: "I don't +believe he——"</p> + +<p>Miss Meiggs, peppering her rarebit deliberately, interrupted, with a +little toss of the head.</p> + +<p>"I will ask Mr. Chase one question then." She gathered some of the +cheese upon her fork, and, balancing it midway to her mouth, went on +with a gloating clearness of enunciation. "Please tell us why you came +to the afternoon concert at the Chico Normal School this summer in a +colored shirt and your dress suit, and why you did not sing your part of +the program?"</p> + +<p>"That's two questions," murmured Pellams. He could not look at Mrs. +Perkins, to whom he had made certain solemn promises before that very +trip; but his adversary had turned toward her with a look of righteous +triumph.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> So deftly that even Pellams barely saw it, Katharine reached +across him and peppered the forkful of rarebit just before the lips of +Miss Meiggs closed over it. His answer was overlooked.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Perkins took the sufferer up to her own room and Katharine vanished +somewhere with Smith. When the tables were removed, a girl sat at the +piano; her song finished, she struck briskly into the "Hot Time," and +every one turned to Pellams. He sang the rag-time as though he were +bursting with fun, while the Chapter sat before him, beaming its +innocent gratitude. But the Glee Club man was singing to one guest +alone, and he could not see her, or Smith either. When two songs had +failed to bring her into view, he stole off upstairs unmolested and lay +for some time with his door locked, grinning before sleep.</p> + +<p>They hammered at his door next morning with appeals for his appearance +at first-hour recitation, and fraternal reminders that he hadn't +sufficient stand-in to cut. Foo went clanging the bell through the +halls, dodging the shoes that flew at him through the door of a man who +had nothing before the fourth hour, and the rush and hurry of late +breakfast-time filled the house. But Pellams lay smoking in his narrow +bed, engaged in the novel task of solving a point of etiquette. The +affair of the night before was to be his final ap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>pearance in local +society. His experience in small-talk with Miss Meiggs confirmed his +decision to live a college life into which co-education did not enter +outside his class-rooms. Yet, having once departed from the mode of such +a life, he found himself under an obligation. A co-ed had found him in +trouble and had done the "white" thing by him at a critical moment; even +Jimmy Mason, over at the Hall, could not have stood by him any better. +In an obligation to Jimmy there was no problem—only the matter of time +to do his part—but with a co-ed, Pellams felt that it was different. +She was not a feature of his life. To the woman-hater's mind, if a man +has become indebted to a girl, honor bids him pay the debt, the sooner +the better. He need never see the girl again, once the score is even. +This philosophy evolved, it took another cigarette to decide just how +the balance could be struck, and then Pellams went downstairs to wheedle +a remnant of breakfast from the indulgent Foo.</p> + +<p>Applied to the new element into which he had ventured, something of the +keen observation which the Junior devoted to football practice might +have made the payment of his debt to Katharine Graham a transaction of +less public note. He would have waited, probably, with the brazenness +that characterizes local courtship, at the door of the library and +caught her as she emerged. Or he would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> learned what mails she +usually waited for at the post-office and would have lingered until she +had opened her box and had started back toward the Quad pretending to +look over her correspondence. Or else he would have watched her classes +and happened along by accident just as she was coming out for a vacant +hour. But these established forms had escaped his notice. Instead, he +did what he considered the "proper," and drove dashingly up to Roble in +Paulsen's best single rig and his own new fall suit.</p> + +<p>Roble caught sight of him beyond the flower beds, over the heads of the +tall pampas. The news electrified the dormitory. A Freshman stopped her +experimental lab-work with the piano, and joined the others behind the +lace at the parlor windows. A group of girls, chatting on the yellow +railing of the steps, watched the approach of the apparition. Pellams +Chase coming to Roble! Not since the morning Mt. Hamilton was covered +with snow had there been such a phenomenon.</p> + +<p>"I believe he's coming to take Florence to drive!" said a mischievous +Theta Gamma, looking toward Miss Meiggs, who sat frowning at the +approaching buggy.</p> + +<p>"He ought to," laughed Katharine Graham's roommate, "for not telling her +how much red pepper she had put on her rarebit while she was absorbed in +talking to him!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If he's coming for me," said the Senior grimly, "I shall not disappoint +him."</p> + +<p>"What!" cried Katharine; "you wouldn't go with him, Florence! Why, we +none of us met him until last night."</p> + +<p>"Last night I was unfortunately absent-minded," answered Miss Meiggs, +"and I did not say all I wanted to. It wouldn't be a pleasant drive!"</p> + +<p>"He would have you at his mercy—you shan't go!" laughed another girl, +"it would be flying in the face of Providence as well as of Propriety!"</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine whom he's coming for," said Katharine, who was sure +that he was coming for her. She thought out the severe little refusal +she should make him when he had drawn her aside.</p> + +<p>The stranger scraped his buggy wheels delicately along the curbing of +the Roble walk. The group of girls on the steps was an unexpected +ordeal. He caught sight of the amused faces behind the curtains above +him and almost lost his nerve.</p> + +<p>"Rubber!" he growled. He had made many a clever entrance in the student +theatricals, but to-day in climbing out of the buggy he got badly +tangled in the reins. In spite of his desperate will, his face was +growing red. With painfully fixed gaze he came up the steps toward the +Theta Gammas; standing uneasily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> before them, he blurted out, with no +preliminaries whatever:</p> + +<p>"Miss Graham, would you like to go driving?"</p> + +<p>Katharine straightened and looked at him coolly. One of the girls gave a +little gasp at his impertinence.</p> + +<p>"It isn't customary, I believe," said Katharine, "to ask to go driving +with a girl you have met once, at a supper."</p> + +<p>"Isn't it?" faltered Pellams. There was not a vestige of his usual +bravado about him. Katharine met his honest gaze, hesitated, then said:</p> + +<p>"But I shall be delighted to go, just the same. Will you come in and +wait till I get my things?"</p> + +<p>They curved round the Dormitory lawn and away toward the La Honda +redwoods, leaving the astounded young women on the porch to discuss, as +women sometimes do, the peculiar behavior of their departed sister.</p> + +<p>She explained it to Pellams during the drive. To his surprise, he +learned that he had been hopelessly ill-bred to ask her at all; that had +the invitation not been given before the other girls he should have +driven away alone. As it was, she was in for no end of criticism. She +discouraged any conversation upon the subject of cayenne pepper. +Furthermore, she declared herself in full accord with Florence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> Meiggs +as regarded love affairs; she believed in them as little as her elder +sister; good-fellowship, without sentiment, was possible and quite +sufficient. Pellams, having resolved upon the utmost good-nature during +the drive, put the pride of the livery stable through her best paces and +allowed his companion to declare her views unquestioned. Toward the end +of the afternoon, he deposited her at the Roble door with a pleasant +feeling that he had done his duty and was through with co-eds forever.</p> + +<p>A wild uproar filled the Rho dining-room when the gallant came in to +dinner, late. With an exasperating readiness of conclusion, the crowd +congratulated him upon his change of heart, they welcomed to their +ranks, with much clinking of water glasses, another true lover, and +Smith sang derisively an adaptation of his own:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Pellams Chase, the Glee Club Man,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Swore upon the book<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For wife he'd have a cider-can,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For bed the ingle-nook—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Petticoats he thus forsook!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Instead of raising the expected storm of denial, Pellams looked guilty +and uncomfortable. In spite of their knowledge of the man, they did not +divine that their teasing had given him an inspiration.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148f" id="Page_148f">[Facing page 148]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 489px;"> +<img src="images/illo2.jpg" width="489" height="739" alt="THEY DROVE AWAY TOWARD THE LA HONDA REDWOODS." title="THEY DROVE AWAY TOWARD THE LA HONDA REDWOODS." /> +<span class="caption">THEY DROVE AWAY TOWARD THE LA HONDA REDWOODS.</span></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> + +<p>His idea for a josh involved Miss Graham. So he waited for her +deliberately outside the door of the French class next morning; she had +stopped to talk to the instructor after the class had left. Jimmy Mason +and four or five of the regular Quad loafers were talking football on +the curbing. Pellams joined them. Then the gravity of the step he was +about to take came over him with a sense of oppression. He felt much as +on that Easter morning, years before, when his mother had dragged him +out to be confirmed.</p> + +<p>"The Berkeley faculty won't let Dudley play," Mason was saying. "He +hasn't—where are you speeding in such a rush?" he added and then +stopped, paralyzed.</p> + +<p>It is probable that if her eyes had not laughed at him with that twinkle +of good-fellowship which he had noted on the night of the supper, +Pellams never would have had the nerve. That look hauled him over the +Rubicon; they went down the arcade together, in the face of Jimmy Mason, +the loafers, the whole crowd shifting between lectures. Yet the sun +shone as brightly on the palm-circles, the Quadrangle pillars kept their +perpendicular. A little later Mason saw the couple sitting under the +'Ninety-five Oak. He whistled to himself with a look that meant: "You +wait, old josher till you get into the Knockery again!"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now," said Pellams, under the Oak, "you have about the same ideas on +love-affairs as I have and you'll sympathize with me in this thing. When +I got in to dinner last night, the gang gave me the hottest jolly of my +misspent life. They're all alike; they can't understand having a +straight friendship for a girl without it's being a puppy-love. So they +tumble at once that my driving you means I'm yours for keeps. That sort +of a thing makes me tres fatigué and I've a scheme."</p> + +<p>"Not your first, is it?"</p> + +<p>"In what way do you—"</p> + +<p>"I know something of your 'schemes,' young man; that fake fraternity and +the snipe-hunts and an examination in English 1 c."</p> + +<p>"Oh, those!" Pellams did not blush at the record. Instead, he smiled. +His smile was always worth seeing. It was the point of one of his Club +stunts. Every muscle got into the interference and his round face grew +rosy into the roots of his thick brown hair.</p> + +<p>This grin was not lost upon Katharine.</p> + +<p>"What am I to do, pray?" asked she; "pose as Professor of Domestic +Economy?"</p> + +<p>"This is a bird of a josh on the house," he cried. "You'll come in on +it, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"Plans first, before I commit myself. You might want me to elope in a +buggy."</p> + +<p>"Never again!" declared Pellams; "my idea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> is, why can't we pretend to +have a case on each other—not any passing fancy, but a real peacherino, +like the best of them?"</p> + +<p>Somewhat to his surprise, the girl was not visibly enthusiastic.</p> + +<p>"Just how do I profit, please, if I butcher myself to make your Roman +holiday?"</p> + +<p>"You can die happy, knowing we've pulled their le—bluffed 'em +beautifully. You're down on love-affairs yourself, you told—"</p> + +<p>"Your philosophy of heaven includes a josh on the other fellow, I verily +believe," returned Katharine, smiling; "but it is just possible, you +know—shall I be very frank?"</p> + +<p>"You have been, before!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I might, you know, prefer the society of some other men in +college to the exclusive privilege of yours, even with this wonderful +josh thrown in."</p> + +<p>"Who, Smith?"</p> + +<p>"There are others."</p> + +<p>"I know I'm not much of a sq—ladies'-man," he persisted; "but I can +learn, can't I?"</p> + +<p>"Your manners are not very dreadful when you think about them; but oh, +you have lots to master, the little things, you know."</p> + +<p>"I let you carry your books this morning—"</p> + +<p>"Bravo!—if you only learn to think of them sooner—all the little ways +a girl—"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Sure—you can teach me and rap my knuckles—"</p> + +<p>"That would be a pleasure. I've wanted to do it for months."</p> + +<p>"And, you see, you'd have the distinction of being the only one I +couldn't hold out against."</p> + +<p>"Oh, above all things, don't be conceited, or I can't think of it."</p> + +<p>"That means you will think of it?"</p> + +<p>"You're really not half bad! You caught <i>that</i> on time. Yes, I'll help +you in your joke, to punish their silliness, but only for a week, on +trial you understand."</p> + +<p>Pellams, gratified, put out his hand, not in fashionable wise, but as he +would grip a man's. Yet in doing so he noted, looking at her fully for +the first time, that the light hair on her temples came down low on the +sides, as his mother's did.</p> + +<p>On the way up to her room, Miss Graham stood for some moments smiling at +an irrelative picture of Westminster Abbey, hanging in the parlor. +Having gone driving before their faces, it was more presentable not to +be dropped. Also, there was an undeniable pleasure in refuting any of +Florence Meiggs's arguments, the one concerning love-affairs and +scholarship, for instance. Besides, he was a dear, amusing thing, and a +perfect novice.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + +<p>During the week that followed, Pellams learned a few things. The +experiment was by no means a bore. He discovered that it is easier to be +joshed than to josh—when you know in your heart you have the joke on +the other fellow. He learned the revengefulness of Perkins' nature, old +Ted, who was ragged to death when his case on Lillian Arnold developed +and who now paid him back with interest. He found how great an object of +interest to the co-ed element a man becomes when he is in love. All this +was good for the woman-hater, giving him new views of things and +teaching him patience. Many times during the ordeal he blessed his +dramatic talent. It helped him to pretend a chap when he did not feel +it. It served him in assuming an air of "the game is worth the candle," +when the whole tableful at the house requoted to him certain scathing +remarks on the girl-habit which, in the day of his single blessedness, +he had made to each one of them separately. It was more than useful to +him when he rolled into the "Knockery," the second evening after his sad +condition had become patent, and the assembled company rose to smother +him with sofa cushions and lecture him, with decided seriousness, on the +evil effect of girling. There were times, indeed, when he didn't have to +assume any chap at all, when it came of itself; for example, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> the +crowd punned on the girl's name, "Graham gems" was a favorite. Somehow, +he wished that they wouldn't drag in names that way.</p> + +<p>The week ended. He had done beautifully. Looking it over, he was proud +of his achievements. Two evenings at the library; a brazen walk every +day at the 10.30 period, which both had vacant; a stroll in the moonlit +Quad, planned to interest the crowd at the Tuesday evening lecture; two +calls at Roble—that was going it pretty heavy. The whole college was +smiling at them, and the foolish Rho house hugged itself in the blissful +silence of his sarcastic tongue.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 676px;"> +<a name="Page_154f" id="Page_154f"></a> +<img src="images/illo3.jpg" width="676" height="429" alt="A STROLL IN THE MOONLIT QUAD, PLANNED TO INTEREST THE +CROWD AT THE TUESDAY EVENING LECTURE." title="A STROLL IN THE MOONLIT QUAD, PLANNED TO INTEREST THE +CROWD AT THE TUESDAY EVENING LECTURE." /> +<span class="caption">A STROLL IN THE MOONLIT QUAD, PLANNED TO INTEREST THE +CROWD AT THE TUESDAY EVENING LECTURE.</span></div> + + +<p>This review of the week delighted Pellams. He hunted up Katharine the +last afternoon and asked for a renewal of the contract.</p> + +<p>She laughed.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure you can help the extremes? You know the Quadrangle and the +walks in the country—"</p> + +<p>"Listen to the Mocking Bird!" gurgled Pellams. He was feeling very well +pleased with things in general.</p> + +<p>"The product of the means is a bully good josh," he laughed, "and I'm +not afraid of the product of the extremes; it's only equal to the same +thing—now there's higher mathematics for you!" and Pellams danced the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +and she made him be serious and take up his work. The first quarter of +an hour she called him to order twice—first for trying to trap with a +lariat of grass an inquisitive gray lizard spying at them from a +fence-rail; second, for enticing into conversation the huge Danish +hound, whose bark is so much worse than his bite, and who, having been a +pup with the University, knows something of every Stanford "case" ever +developed in the pleasant shade of his domain. After fifteen minutes of +impeccable behavior, Pellams whispered:</p> + +<p>"Say—"</p> + +<p>"Silence!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'd like to have <i>some</i> attention paid me. Call me down just to +show that you're alive."</p> + +<p>She pointed to his History and subsided into her English Poets. When she +came to earth again, the sun was low beyond the eucalyptus trees. There +was a regular sound near her which she realized having heard for some +time in her sub-consciousness. She peeped over the high-growing root +between them. The man whom she was helping slept peacefully, his book +closed and his mouth open, and only the suspicion of a snore stirring +the quiet autumn air.</p> + +<p>"I shall never have any trouble with him!" thought Katharine, with just +the faintest dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>content, as she dropped a twig on his face, by way of +waking him without embarrassment.</p> + +<p>The autumn rains came and the dry, sniffly dust of the campus lay flat +under the quiet air; the clear, fall weather that is mixed in one's mind +with the pungent smell of tarweed in the pasture lands, and with long +exciting afternoon practices, hung cool over the land, and still Pellams +went girling, with his beautiful joke on the college. Katharine's secret +joke on him had succeeded equally well. The woman-hater's class work had +undergone a transfiguration. People noticed it. At the opening of the +term he had put Professor Leyne's course in "Renaissance Poets" on his +schedule card, because it was a proclaimed snap and because two of the +three Rhos who took it the year before had kept their set-papers. +Professor Leyne loved to draw covert allusions from what he called "the +ocean of young life that swells around us." One day he threw out a +direct allusion. Stopping in his remarks about chivalry, he sunk his +voice to an impressive, confidential tone, looking almost directly at +the impassive Pellams in the back row.</p> + +<p>"And I think sometimes," he said, "when I see the youth feeling the +uplifting earnestness of first love—when I see it taking him gently by +the hand and saying to him 'my son, there are higher things'; when I see +him putting his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> spirit with new zeal to the tasks that are laid before +him, when I see him realizing that life is indeed serious and its end +the fulfilment"—and so on until the bell rang, while the subject of the +eulogy, outwardly calm, grinned fiendishly in his secret soul, for only +himself, the professor and one other knew that he had scored an A on his +last two papers as against a D earlier in the year. The professor +himself did not know that these same papers were a good part Katharine +Graham, who had suggested the ideas to Pellams and had then stood over +him while he put them into his own turgid but interesting English.</p> + +<p>Similar results ensued in French, which they prepared together, and he +so endeared himself to the History professor that that worthy expanded +to the point of a hint at an entrance to the seminary the next semester. +The superior Miss Meiggs, pondering upon the remarkable change in her +classmate, saw with concern this renegade disproving an argument with +which she had enlivened many a Theta Gamma meeting. She never guessed +with what patience Katharine was training his wandering attention. She +was not present during the afternoons of real, quiet study which were +forced out of him between luncheon and football practice.</p> + +<p>By the time their contract, renewed from week to week, had been +operating for two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> months, Pellams began to wonder just where the point +of the joke came in. People had become used to the condition. The House +could rely on him and his singing, and girls came oftener than ever to +Sunday supper. The Knockery took his affairs as an accepted fact. They +no longer had any new jokes on it. Jimmy Mason grumbled now and then +because his chum was queening "like all the rest of the frat-men," and +their jovial expeditions to Mayfield were over, "because <i>she</i> wouldn't +understand" (most conclusive proof!), but he ended by taking it as he +might have taken an inequality of temper—as a flaw in character to be +overlooked in a friend. Then again, Pellams found it positively uncanny +to be getting on so well in his work, an uneasy feeling as though he +were walking along the edge of a steep place. As for the joke itself, he +could laugh over it with Katharine, but there was no way to spring it. A +josh that has not a public end lacks art. He realized that the idea had +seemed very rich when he conceived it and that he had plunged into it +without considering its finish, and of course an impractical girl +wouldn't look so far ahead. Now, he saw that it had ceased to be a josh +at all, where other people were concerned.</p> + +<p>When he came to the thought of dropping it, he suspected that it was no +longer a josh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> where he himself was concerned. The realization of this +quite stunned him, the afternoon it came to him. They were sitting below +the Sphinx, at the back of the Mausoleum, and the quail were calling +among the pines. Katharine was reading to him from one of his +text-books. He heard very little of what she read. To him the book kept +repeating that she had the most attractive mouth and chin he had ever +noticed; that the low-drawn hair on her forehead was made to be smoothed +back, very gently, from her clear skin. The consciousness that he could +not give up these study-afternoons came over him with a stab, and told +him that he had not been listening at all well lately; that this was why +he could not remember the stuff in recitation and why he had not dared +to tell her his recent marks. She trusted him so thoroughly now that she +did not stop him so often when he talked, instead of working. If she had +guessed the real reason of his laziness, she would have been honestly +disappointed in him. This was the tragedy of it. He could never let her +suspect that he was not still fooling the Rho house. She was a girl +entirely without sentimentality—this was what he liked in her at first, +and now it was his overthrow. If she should so much as dream that his +feeling toward her was anything more than the friendship he had outlined +in the beginning, she would shut her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> book with a slap and declare the +compact at an end. He must keep on acting, only his audience had changed +and the people he had been joking with were now behind the scenes, +though they didn't know it. So he would put his chin in his hand and +gaze at her as though the peculiarities of the Renaissance Poets were +his greatest concern. He laughed, too, about the joke itself, finding a +sort of painful relief in <i>double entendre</i>. Sometimes his mind +wandered, and when Katharine failed to reprove him, as in the earlier +days of the compact, he felt as though he had betrayed a confidence. +Once they had forgotten all about football practice, and it frightened +him; but she seemed not to have realized the gravity of the thing, and +he laughed the alarming incident away. During lectures, he tried to +reason himself out of the predicament. It was entirely possible that +this feeling toward her was but another instance of habit, a natural +affection for a chum, with some subtle influence of sex combining to +frighten him into thinking it more serious. But he was not entirely +comforted.</p> + +<p>Crises occur properly at the end of a semester. On the evening of +Friday, the closing day, Roble gave an impromptu dance. Katharine made +Pellams come; it would be final evidence in their joke, since he was +known to dislike dances. He agreed to attend, adding his own emphasis to +the reason as stated. Kath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>arine filled out his card for him, allowing +him three dances with herself. The evening began in misery for the +woman-hater, and ended in perturbation of spirit. There were girls, +oceans of them, and not one of them had any sense. Katharine was +different. These girls didn't know when they were joshed, and they +couldn't josh back. They were an uninteresting lot. She had filled his +card with them and he had to hunt them up and dredge his head for +conversation. It was an awful bore. Katharine was the only girl whom he +had ever seemed able to talk with easily, and he had only three little +dances with her. He was savage.</p> + +<p>During the third dance, he was floundering through an absent-minded +conversation with a Freshman girl, whose eyelashes were pale pink, when +Cap Smith glided past him, waltzing with Katharine. They looked as +though they were having a very good time. Pellams felt that Cap, fine +fellow as he was, generally grew too familiar with girls. He noticed +with disapproval the man Katharine drew for the fourth dance, and she +had Cap again for the fifth. He went over after that dance and asked for +her program. Cap was down for two more dances. Pellams gave her back her +card. He laughed a joking sentence on another subject, then he slipped +down stairs and blundered out into the rainy night in a towering rage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +at Katharine, at Smith, most of all at himself for being a certain +Thing.</p> + +<p>Jimmy Mason had not attended the Roble dance. Instead, he sat at his +table in the Knockery, going over his accounts as laundry agent. He was +deep in these end-of-semester figures when Pellams burst in at the +window, like a storm-driven creature. People never stand on ceremony at +the Knockery. It is the corner room on the ground floor. The place has +always been the Knockery ever since Mason roomed there, just as the big +room over the old dining-hall will be the "Bull-pen" forever. It is the +universal avenue after the lights are out, and the doors locked. You +open the window as gently as you can and slide in. If the tenants are in +bed, you get through into the hall on tiptoe, if possible; if awake, you +stop and chat a bit by the way of courtesy; no one ever has to study in +this enchanted bower. Moreover, if you do not live in the Hall, if you +are an Alumnus visitor from town, if there are girls at your frat-house, +or if you dwell off the campus and are belated, there are extra blankets +under the lounge in the corner. Make up your own bed and turn in, +without waking the sleepers. You are not crowding anybody. Once a whole +baseball team, with the help of two extra mattresses, slept comfortably +in the Knockery—but that is history.</p> + +<p>When Pellams slammed in and flopped dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>consolately into a chair, Mason +looked up, knowing that there was trouble somewhere.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he asked. No answer. Jimmy rose, locked the door and +closed the ventilator. Then he disposed himself on the lounge.</p> + +<p>"Tell your dad. Is it the girl?"</p> + +<p>Pellams's affirmative was put in language unrepeatable in a book for +young persons.</p> + +<p>"Something gone wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," <i>etc.</i></p> + +<p>Jimmy wished to offer consolation. "Can I do anything?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," growled the man in a dress suit. "You can give me a sweater and +take me to Mayfield!"</p> + +<p>Now Jimmy was a true friend. He would have gone anywhere for Pellams.</p> + +<p>When the dance music at Roble had ceased, and the quiet of the December +night was broken by only the patter of raindrops and the sound of +singing in the Mayfield distance, punctuated by sharp whoops, Jimmy had +got Pellams back to the Knockery pretty well consoled. It might not have +made much difference just then, even if the lover could have known that +over in darkened Roble, Katharine Graham, who did not approve of love +affairs, lay crying herself to sleep.</p> + +<p>Pellams rose late next day, and ate his lunch mournfully at the House. +He was in an exaggerated state of repentance and resolve.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> After +luncheon he made a sorrowful pilgrimage to the Quad. Here he learned +that he had lost five hours and that the Glee Club would tour the South +without him.</p> + +<p>Chastened in spirit, he asked for Katharine at Roble. She had gone to +Mrs. Stillwell's on the Row. He went again at night, calling late that +she might have her packing finished for the morning steamer.</p> + +<p>By diplomacy, arranged beforehand with the door-girl, he got her +downstairs. There was only a trace of reserve in her manner when she +told him that she had all her packing yet to do, and that she couldn't +walk about the Quad even once; there was more than a trace of +embarrassment about him when he pleaded something very important.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I know what it is," said she.</p> + +<p>"More than likely you don't," he persisted; "anyhow, I deserve a chance +to explain."</p> + +<p>Katharine went down the steps with him.</p> + +<p>"Well?" she said, on the walk outside.</p> + +<p>"What do you think I want to say?" He was not so brave now.</p> + +<p>"The same thing that I have in my mind, that our little arrangement +would better end. I have got my very first condition through wasting +time on a foolish josh, and I don't believe you've been doing good work +lately."</p> + +<p>"They gave me two of 'em."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Indeed? Then Florence Meiggs was right, wasn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Dead right."</p> + +<p>Silence for awhile, then she said: "But you mustn't blame me. I did my +best, and if we both failed it's proof positive that it has to end."</p> + +<p>Another pause, with the whirr of distant machinery breaking the +stillness. No speech on either side until Pellams felt that he must say +something or the blood in his throat would choke him.</p> + +<p>"Do—don't you really know what I wanted you out here for?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps to insult me further. Pellams!" impetuously, "why did you do +it?"</p> + +<p>"What? flunk?"</p> + +<p>"No. Cut those dances."</p> + +<p>"You ought to know!"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I <i>do</i> know, and your wanting to go to Mayfield was a good, +gentlemanly excuse, and I ought to accept it, I suppose. Of course, it +shouldn't make any difference to me; you have humiliated me enough +already, but you might have considered the other girls."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and you are blaming me for cutting down there when you and Cap +Smith were floating around——"</p> + +<p>"You will please leave Mr. Smith out of the conversation;" she turned +toward the Hall. "I have to go in, the shades are down already."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + +<p>Pellams' courage came up with a flash. By blind instinct, he reached out +and caught her hand. She did not struggle, though the moment he released +his pressure she drew her hand away, and quickened her pace. He followed +close, and she turned upon him.</p> + +<p>"This is what I might have expected when I cheapened myself with you! +Will you let me go in?"</p> + +<p>"Not until I have said what I came to say; Katharine, can't you—can't +you guess it? Oh, I know—Kathie, you <i>must</i> have seen it—you know why +I cut the dance—you know"—and again words failed him and he reached +for her hand.</p> + +<p>But she put him off this time. "I am sorry to spoil such a beautiful +piece of acting; but our arrangement is going to end, and this is a +worn-out joke."</p> + +<p>They had come by now to the corner of Roble, where it is indiscreet to +talk over private affairs, and neither said anything until they reached +and mounted the steps into the shadow of the porch. Then she said:</p> + +<p>"After all, since it is over, I won't be unkind. Good-bye. We've had a +pleasant semester, haven't we?" and this time she gave him her hand.</p> + +<p>A girl raised one of the hallway curtains just then. The sudden flash of +light came upon Katharine where she stood with her hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> in Pellams'. +She had meant that look, that softening of the eyes, that little quiver +of the mouth, for darkness and concealment, and he caught it all before +she could blot it out with a smile.</p> + +<p>And, having argued to a conclusion, it mattered not to either that Miss +Meiggs stood looking out at them with supreme contempt.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="AN_ALUMNI_DINNER" id="AN_ALUMNI_DINNER"></a>AN ALUMNI DINNER.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="An_Alumni_Dinner" id="An_Alumni_Dinner"></a>An Alumni Dinner.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And it's we who have to rustle<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the cold, cold world!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Dr. Williamson's landlady would not listen any further. She stood on the +threshold of her lodger's combination of bedroom and office and said, +with an offensively clear enunciation:</p> + +<p>"You haven't any patients, and no more have I any longer, and I want +that money to-morrow or I rent the room."</p> + +<p>The door closed.</p> + +<p>Williamson listened to her footsteps, as hard and uncompromising as her +voice, and when they had ceased he got up from his chair, a despairing +soul. After all, this was the rope's end. He would have to own up to a +failure.</p> + +<p>If Williamson had been a man of more force he would not have +acknowledged so much, perhaps; but he had been conscientious and +faithful to the limit of his understanding, patient to the verge of +philosophy, and the result discouraged him.</p> + +<p>He drew out his last clean collar and put it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> on, with the vague idea of +going somewhere and doing something—what, he could not have told. His +eyes fell on a framed document hanging near his mirror, a small but +ornate instrument, setting forth that the Faculty and Trustees of the +Leland Stanford Junior University, by virtue of the authority in them +vested, etc., conferred the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry on +Philip Howard Williamson.</p> + +<p>His thoughts turned back toward a morning over four years gone, when he +walked down the platform bearing that "last of his childhood's toys," +and in imagination P.H. Williamson, M. D., held conversation with Philip +Howard Williamson, A. B.</p> + +<p>Williamson, A. B., standing just the other side of the mirror, spoke and +said:</p> + +<p>"It looks as though you were up against it."</p> + +<p>Williamson, M. D., arranging his tie so as to hide his soiled shirt, +answered:</p> + +<p>"I am up against it. And it's your fault."</p> + +<p>Williamson, A. B., did not seem to see it. But he was a conceited +creature, anyway.</p> + +<p>"It's more than half your fault," went on the man on the real side of +the mirror. "You dug and worked, and you thought that if you only kept +ahead of your class in Physiology you had a clean card to success. How +many fellows did you know in college?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Some. I never went in for being popular. There were Trueman, and +Miller, and Rodney—"</p> + +<p>"And how many of them were of the sort to help you? Trueman, without +family or brains, and Miller, who lived in the East, and little Rod—"</p> + +<p>"They were the best I could meet. They were the only ones who understood +that I really wanted people. No one understood how I loved the college +and wanted to be in things. I wasn't good at telling; and besides, I had +my work to do. They knew the way I used to look across the campus on +Spring nights—"</p> + +<p>Williamson, M. D., checked him at this point. That impractical creature +thought that they were talking of friendship, when it was only a +question of Pull. He conveyed that point to the Bachelor.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you find some friends who would be of use to Me?" he asked, +savagely. "While you were following out sutures and involuntary +reactions, what was Marshall doing? Running for class president and +making the Mandolin Club and getting acquainted with people of some use +to him. He isn't one-two-six with me for ability and never was; but he +has patients to give away, and I—"</p> + +<p>Williamson, A. B., came to bat.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You do mightily well to reproach me with all this. How have <i>you</i> done +in making friends? Did you work up any connections at Columbia those +three years? Have you tried to find anyone here in town? What friends +have you except Stanford men? What have you done for yourself, anyway?"</p> + +<p>The other weakly quoted what the Head Demonstrator had said of his +surgery.</p> + +<p>Williamson, A. B., held him to the point: "I also was called the keenest +student of my time," said he; "but it isn't bringing you patients."</p> + +<p>The M. D. broke sullenly away, leaving the A. B. frowning back of the +mirror. These dead selves are so crude! He ended the interview by +slamming out of the house.</p> + +<p>For the twentieth time that week he cast up accounts with himself, as +the electric car sped toward civilization. Assets, one dollar and five +cents, just reduced by a grinding monopoly from a dollar-ten; +liabilities, a laundry bill and six weeks' rent. Truly, a squalid +failure. If he could only hold out a little longer! There was in sight a +situation as consulting physician to a lodge in his father's Order, +which would mean a living at least. He had the promise of it in a +month's time. A loan of twenty-five dollars now would save him, but no +good angel occurred to him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> think as he might, and he had nothing he +could afford to pawn.</p> + +<p>Troubled in spirit, he sauntered listlessly up Post street from Kearny. +The mid-day rain had not yet dried from the pavements, and the air was +clear and fresh. Against the last of a January sunset, the tops of the +city were growing indistinct. The personnel of the crowd on the streets +had changed; the promenaders and the cocktail-route procession had +dwindled to a few stragglers. There was less of a press now, and most of +the people were of the class that work until six, belated bookkeepers +and girls from shops and sewing rooms. He watched these toilers with a +vague feeling of envy; he dragged the feeling to the light and found +that he was coveting the day's work just passed. What would not he have +given to be tired at the end of a day of profitable toil? It was the +hour when comfortable people sit down to dinner.</p> + +<p>In front of an art store he saw Lincoln, the <i>Chronicle</i> man, idly +studying the pictures. Williamson had known him as well as he had known +any man at Palo Alto, but he walked by without a word, feeling in no +mood for companionship. A few steps further he turned, and went back and +stood behind his friend.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Phil!" said Lincoln, in cheery sur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>prise. "Well, you are a +stranger! Been keeping pretty close to your office, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Williamson, without going into particulars.</p> + +<p>"I haven't happened to get a detail out in your direction and my health +has been unfortunately good, so I haven't seen you for moons, not since +the night at the Zink, last Thanksgiving."</p> + +<p>"You newspaper men see more of the fellows than a man in my profession +can hope to do," said the physician. "It isn't ethics for me to hunt +them up, you know."</p> + +<p>"How is the practice, so far?"</p> + +<p>"Well," answered Williamson, hiding the bitterness of it with a laugh; +"the practice is about all I have got out of it."</p> + +<p>"Not so bad as that, I'll bet," protested Lincoln. "Are you going down +for Commencement, or the Ball, or anything?"</p> + +<p>"No, I shan't be able to get down," answered the other, turning in his +fingers the lonely dollar in his pocket. "That's the worst of the +medical profession," he added, equivocally.</p> + +<p>His thoughts came fast as they stood there in the fading daylight before +the picture-shop. It was entirely probable that Lincoln would lend him +the money he needed, and would lend it gladly. Their college friendship +had been sincere, and a few years do not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> change a thing like that. He +knew that the man had a good position on the <i>Chronicle</i> and that he +saved a large portion of his money—he had been economical at the +University. Fortune could never smile upon Lincoln sufficiently to work +any material change in his dress; he had always looked like a pauper; +to-day, poverty showed in the journalist rather than in the +carefully-dressed physician.</p> + +<p>Williamson's heart grew lighter. This Stanford man, rising before him in +his hour of desperation, should tide him over his temporary trouble. Of +all the men at the University there had been none who had spoken so +often and so sincerely of the Stanford spirit as Lincoln. Here was a +chance to put it to a test. He knew his man. Williamson felt himself +filled with a faith in Divine Providence.</p> + +<p>But it was not easy to ask the loan. To suggest such a thing is less +difficult to some people than to others. To Williamson it was anything +but a simple thing. He could never broach the subject there on the +sidewalk. The matter must be led up to in some way; to brace in cold +blood was impossible. He moved his fingers in nervous irresolution, and +the dollar touched them significantly.</p> + +<p>"Say, Lew, let's not stand here all night; come to dinner with me, can't +you? We'll<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> have a good Alumni chat; we don't bump into each other very +often."</p> + +<p>He felt horribly hypocritical, yet this was the only way.</p> + +<p>"You haven't had dinner, have you?" he went on, when Lincoln hesitated a +bit.</p> + +<p>"No. I'll be glad to, thank you, Phil. Where do you go?"</p> + +<p>"Let's try Sanguinetti's for the fun of the thing. We can talk down +there, and it won't break us, either."</p> + +<p>They found a corner table in the restaurant. The room wore the quiet +look of Monday evening, the calm that follows the storm of Sunday, when +the place rocks with post-picnic revelry. A squat negro, perched on the +edge of a serving-table by the wall, sang vociferously to a resonant +banjo. Now and then a party of swarthy Latins joined in mildly when the +selections incurred their favor.</p> + +<p>The two college men found it easy chatting. Williamson's dollar had +brought a very good dinner, particularly the chicken and the tortillas; +the claret was abundant and not half bad when jollied with seltzer. He +was trusting to Lincoln for tobacco.</p> + +<p>Still the physician could not bring himself to the point toward which +the dinner was intended to smooth the road. The "Dago red" had mellowed +them both and they talked merrily of the days at Palo Alto, bringing up +one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> good memory after another, drifting gradually to an exchange of +Alumni personals of which the newspaper man furnished the larger part. +They talked of the men their young University had sent into the distant +parts of the world, youngsters running mines in the Antipodes, with fat +salaries to keep up their courage; of the little Stanford colony in +Western Australia and the Pioneers in China. There were a good many for +so new a college. Then there were the commonplaces who were doing well +at home. The thought of bringing the serious side of his own case into +this chat gave Williamson a chill. It was a foolish bit of pride, but it +was getting harder every minute to down it. He deftly turned the subject +his way.</p> + +<p>"It isn't all prosperity, though. I've noticed that some of them seem to +be up against it lately—just hard luck stories, I suppose. There's +Rawdon, for example."</p> + +<p>Lincoln leaned back comfortably in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Let me tell you a case that has come under my notice lately and see +what you think of it," he said. "I won't mention names, but it's about a +man we both knew at College. He had a place on the paper, the +<i>Chronicle</i>, and during the political season did very well; after that +there came a slump and the city editor let him out; the other papers had +no room<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> for him, of course—they were dropping men—and he couldn't get +a thing of any sort to do, though he rustled hard. You know Coles and +Harrison, the boys call them the Stanford Employment Bureau, they have +found quite a number of places for the fellows; but this particular man +was evidently up against it, and there wasn't the smallest symptom of a +job. He managed to get something in the Sunday supps, but barely enough +to keep him alive, and nothing certain. Meanwhile he pawned his things +gradually and grew pretty well discouraged. I remember I heard him say +once, and his laugh covered more than I guessed at the time, that Jewish +holidays ought to be prohibited by state law, since closed doors under +the three balls meant some Stanford man's going hungry. He got down to +bedrock and finally reached the point where he had gone without three +successive meals. Pretty rough, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"I should say so," answered Williamson. His own distress was trivial +beside a trouble like this.</p> + +<p>Lincoln fed the alcohol flame burning around the omelet just brought +them.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me," he went on, "that there is a case in which a man is +justified in asking help; he ought to ask it long before he gets to such +a pass as that; if he lets his pride prevent him it's his own fault. We +certainly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> have carried away from the University something of the spirit +we learned there. I know for my part that such a man has a claim on +whatever help I can give him, and as a Stanford man he has a right to +seek it. Don't you agree with me?"</p> + +<p>Williamson had been waiting through the course of the dinner for a +chance to advance an identical theory. He could not have hoped for a +better opening.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do," he said. "You have the old Stanford spirit as strong as +ever, haven't you, Lew? Now I want to tell <i>you</i> a story."</p> + +<p>At a table near them a woman who looked as though she had a history, one +that dated far back at that, began to sing—one of those ballads about +home and the wandering boy. The two men tipped back in their chairs and +listened to the song. Williamson was planning what he should say as soon +as it was ended. It would be better to tell the whole thing.</p> + +<p>During the applause that followed, Lincoln dropped his cigarette into +his coffee cup and started to speak. Williamson, unwilling that another +subject should follow the last words they had exchanged, interrupted +him.</p> + +<p>"I have a story, too, Lew, and it's about myself. I don't doubt this is +rather a surprise to you," he went on, noticing the look on the other's +face, "although you know the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> way of the young physician is hard. The +fact is, I have got to the point where I must get a little temporary +lift or give up the struggle for a while, and I can't bear the thought +of that."</p> + +<p>Then he went on swiftly, ignoring his friend's attempts at interruption, +until he had told the whole story of his uphill work and his defeat.</p> + +<p>"You asked me just now, Lew, if I didn't think one Stanford man should +help another who really needed help, if he could. I put up my last coin +for an opportunity to ask you the same question, but with a different +purpose."</p> + +<p>Lincoln's eyes were moist as he reached across the table and grasped +Williamson's hand.</p> + +<p>"I think you know me well enough, old man, to know my answer to that +question. But you did not let me finish my story. You see, I—er—I'm +the man I was telling you about."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="BOGGS_ELECTION_FEED" id="BOGGS_ELECTION_FEED"></a>BOGGS' ELECTION FEED.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<h2>Boggs' Election Feed.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oh think what anxious moments pass between<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The birth of plots and their last fatal periods!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="citation">Addison.</p> +</div></div> + + +<p>It would never have happened if Boggs hadn't dropped in on Jimmy Mason +and Pellams when they were cramming for an examination, for, although +Pellams had long "kept an axe" for Boggs, he needed the inspiration of +the moment to swing it like this. It was always so with Pellams' best +things.</p> + +<p>The inspiration in this case came one evening when he and Jimmy were +doing genuine work. People who have seen it declare that the spectacle +of Mason cramming for an examination was one of the show sights of the +University. He generally let things go until the last day of grace; then +with sundry fellow-victims and a motley collection of notes, syllabi, +books, reports—anything on the subject—gathered on the green cloth of +his table, he would start in. Raps might come from time to time on the +locked door; Jimmy would hold up a warning finger for silence, while the +outsider shot through the keyhole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> such remarks as "Jimmy Mason, loosen +up. You've mixed my clothes again;" or, "Hi, Jimmy! give me the +markings;" or, possibly, hurled a mass of unrepeatable terms at the +unresponsive door. Perhaps his roommate, Marion, would come in when the +lights went out; then Jimmy would call a breathing-spell, during which, +while "Nosey" went to bed behind the portieres, he drew his lamp from +its hiding-place and made strong coffee in the coffee-pot or +chafing-dish, whichever had been washed the more recently. Somewhere in +the small hours the seminary would adjourn with "international +complications," "tendencies of the age," "sub-head B," heating their +brains. Out of bed at seven for a final swift review of the subject, +Mason would sail over to class with a great unbreakfasted hollow beneath +his sweater, to pass freely and gloriously, and to forget the whole mess +by the time he had finished his afternoon nap.</p> + +<p>And to see Jimmy in the seminary itself! How masterfully he kept track +of headings, sub-headings and modifying circumstances! How he could +scent at a day's distance the things which the professor was going to +ask, as well as those he was going to skip! When he said, "Now, old +Morton is heavy on this," the seminary digested the subject in all its +bearings and ramifications; and when he said, "No use looking that up," +they skipped the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> heading, though pages of syllabi were slighted +thereby. When the wandering mind of Pellams slid off the work, it was +beautiful to see Jimmy lead it back with a word and a look; when he sent +some sleepy Senior to bed with the remark, "You're no more good. Sleep +it off and be fresh to-morrow," Jimmy touched the sublime.</p> + +<p>The glory of it all was that upper-classmen as well as Freshmen put +themselves absolutely under the Sophomore's rule when it was a question +of an examination. Thus does the elective system level all ranks and +give genius opportunity.</p> + +<p>On the night that Boggs dropped in on them, Jimmy and Pellams were +cramming alone. Two seniors who were usually in the group had gone +somewhere to mix up in a complication over Student-Body treasurer. A +Junior seldom out of line was a candidate for the Executive Committee; +he had put his head in at the door to say, "Dead sorry, fellows, but +can't get in it," and then gone down to Palo Alto to make himself +agreeable to a dig girl who had "influence." The popularity of some +people waxes strangely the latter part of April. A Freshman who was +taking the course when he shouldn't and who stood on the dizzy brink of +flunking it, had gone off with a Junior who wanted to stand well with +certain Freshmen of importance, and who had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> overjoyed the youngster +with an invitation to Mayfield, an event which made flunking clear out +of the University a thing of small moment to the Freshman's mind.</p> + +<p>Pellams alone showed up. He was not in politics; further, he knew the +value to himself of these evenings with Jimmy; not that the syllabi made +much impression on him, but he carried enough to class next day to +shadow forth an apparent knowledge of the subject. This he supplemented +with two or three original reflections that interested the instructor +and slipped him through. It was these flashes of intelligence that made +him worth the labor to Mason. Sometimes he could set the whole seminary +right on an obscure phrase; this made up for an hour of imperfect +attention.</p> + +<p>To-night the two men were hard at it. They sat at opposite sides of the +table, the electric drop-light illuminating the papers between them.</p> + +<p>"Say," said Pellams, "Bob Duncan's the luckiest baby in the bunch. He +doesn't know as much about this course as I do, and he's got +appendicitis, the doctor says—no fake."</p> + +<p>"Now, Pellams," said Mason seriously, "you have to remember Cromwell. He +did all this in sub-headings four to eleven. You've placed him, haven't +you?"</p> + +<p>"The guy that made them keep the powder dry?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The <i>minister</i> Cromwell; you remember <i>him</i>—the one who was bald."</p> + +<p>Jimmy had learned that Pellams needed a concrete peg on which to hang +his memories.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sure, I've got him; that throw-away-ambition boy. Hadn't a hair +between him and heaven."</p> + +<p>A knock came at the door.</p> + +<p>"That's it. Sh—sh!"</p> + +<p>"Let me in, Jimmy." The room was still.</p> + +<p>"I know you and Pellams are digging. I won't say a word to either of +you, only give me a smoke."</p> + +<p>"Haven't any," said Jimmy, rapidly transferring a sack of Durham and a +package of papers from the table.</p> + +<p>"Well, let me in, anyway. I want to read by your lamp. Oh, say, open +up!"</p> + +<p>"It's Boggs. If we don't let him in he'll stand and plead in outer +darkness all night."</p> + +<p>The door rattled. Jimmy howled "Ye-e-es!" in a tone of provoked +affirmative, and Boggs was opened unto.</p> + +<p>It would be hard to tell in what way Boggs did not block the seminary. +He found the tobacco by invading Jimmy's sacred drawer during an +absorbing discussion on land tenure; then he rolled and consumed exactly +fourteen cigarettes. Pellams kept count out of the corner of his eye. +Boggs was making smoke in the sunshine of free tobacco. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> put his feet +on Mason's laundry packages, freshly stacked in the corner. He broke his +word by talking politics steadily, and finally, when he drew out of the +room just ahead of ten-thirty lights, a double sigh of relief went up +from the crammers.</p> + +<p>"That article needs fixing," said Pellams, meditatively, as Jimmy got +out the chafing-dish and prepared the black coffee that makes additional +pages of syllabi possible before sleep comes.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said Jimmy, "if he ever bought an ounce of tobacco since he +came here. He's smoked mine every time he could find it since I've been +in college. I remember," here Jimmy stopped to laugh, "that when I was a +Freshmen—you'll bear witness I was a fresh one, too—I used to be +pleased clear to the red at getting all that attention from an +upper-classman. The satisfaction cost me a good many pounds of tobacco, +though."</p> + +<p>"His opinion of himself politically is what kills me. Lyman is his +ideal. He loafs in Frank's room until Frank has had to give up smoking. +It's fun to see him. I was in there the other night. 'How are you going +to stand on the election, Frank?' says Boggsie, as though it were a +conference of the powers. 'Oh, I think Higgins is pretty good,' says +Frank; 'what do you think?' Not that he gave a whoop; he was trying to +be polite.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> 'Well, I may use my influence for Castleton,' says Boggsie, +with his pet air of mystery. His influence consists of his roommate. +'The deuce you will!' says Frank, with sarcasm. All wasted though, for +Boggsie fairly chapped at the compliment of having surprised him. 'Yes,' +said Boggs, 'that's what I like to see, the office seeking the man; you +know, a fellow ought to wait and go about his business until people +recognize him. I don't like to see a man going around with his hand out, +raking the Freshmen in.' Then he looks around for applause and slopes +out, smoking the last of Lyman's Durham."</p> + +<p>"He rake in the Freshmen! It would cost too much! Boggs wants the office +to seek him, so as to save expense. When he was small I think he must +have been the sort of kid that won't play his marbles for fear that +he'll wear them out. He'd do anything mean to get office, but he won't +spend money for it; he has enough, too; he doesn't have to pinch as he +does, but he hates to spend a nickel when he can worm it out of other +people. I'd love to get a feed out of him in some way; oh, it would +taste good!"</p> + +<p>Pellams' ruddy face glowed fire-red with the dawn of an idea. His +inspiration had come.</p> + +<p>"James Russell Lowell Mason, I'll bet you the price of—anything you +name—that I can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> get a feed, a genuine, +Mayfield-with-all-accompaniments, a Mayfield +beer-beefsteak-Swiss-cheese-wine-and-song feed out of Boggsie!"</p> + +<p>The aroma of the coffee filled the room. Jimmy polished his stein and a +tumbler and poured for the two of them.</p> + +<p>"But for my principle never to bet on a sure thing, I'd take you," he +answered calmly. "You exclusive frat-men over on the Row" (Pellams was +always loafing around the Hall) "haven't lived long enough with Boggsie +to know him. He's a lobster, Pellams."</p> + +<p>But the fat Junior sat there with mirth shining from every line of his +face, and drank his coffee; then he rolled on the floor in joyous +delirium and beat Jimmy's rugs with an Indian club until the man +overhead jumped out of bed and shouted uncultured things down the +elevator.</p> + +<p>"Jimmy, darling!" cried he, waving a leg in the air for pure rapture, +"Boggsie will treat, sure. We'll get him on his one big weakness; we'll +play politics against pinching; you watch the office seek the man."</p> + +<p>"I don't—"</p> + +<p>"I do. Look here; to-morrow we nominate him. You have a mob on the back +seats applauding like fiends, and I'll be the power behind the throne to +such a campaign of blood, beer and boodle as you never saw, old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +Laundry-bags. We'll make Boggsie think he's ahead all the time; we can +get him <i>some</i> votes, you know; and then he's to go away election day +for the sake of the proprieties. I telegraph to him, 'Elected by one +vote. Feed!' We have the feed business all properly worked up by that +time, of course; just sizzling in his brain, and when he gets off the +train we'll meet him with a mob and a brass band, run him to Mayfield or +Menlo, and there'll be a sound of revelry by night at his expense."</p> + +<p>The ruin of this particular cramming seminary was accomplished. The +"coffee hours" were spent in a conference broken by smothered laughter, +and by "Nosey" Marion's sleepy protests from behind the curtains.</p> + +<p>Next day, after Higgins and Castleton had been duly placed in +nomination, Pellams rose from his seat in Chapel and nominated "Lorenzo +Boggs, gentleman and student; a man who has let college politics alone, +never having sought office from his fellow-students until now, when the +office seeks him—Lorenzo Boggs for Student-Body president," amidst a +storm of applause half ironical, half worked up by Jimmy Mason.</p> + +<p>Pellams flunked in the examination; his co-conspirator passed meagerly; +but Pellams' heart lost little of its wonted buoyancy. This was about +the last class of any kind he at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>tended in the week between nomination +and election. From the Row to the Hall and from the Hall to Palo Alto he +moved with an energy rare to his rotund body. It was a new sensation, +politics with a josh behind. He revelled in it.</p> + +<p>"We have to put up some show of constituents, you know," he said to +Mason; "and, as Higgins and Castleton have no strings on me, I might as +well help Boggsie out. Too bad my personal magnetism isn't being +diffused for a more likely candidate."</p> + +<p>"Looks curious," said Jimmy, "the fight Boggs is putting up. Yesterday I +struck the Women's Debating League; they won't vote for Higgins because +they have been credibly informed—by the Castleton people, of +course—that he's bad, and—"</p> + +<p>"You and I should have been nominated, St. James," interrupted Pellams, +crossing his hands on his breast and looking at the gas fixture.</p> + +<p>"And they won't vote for Castleton because they have found out that when +he fixed up the open meeting between his society and theirs he was only +playing for votes."</p> + +<p>"Do you know that Boggs has a girl cousin in Palo Alto? He has worked +her to whoop it up for him down there."</p> + +<p>"His literary society will go for him all right. They are tired of the +way Castleton<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> and Higgins have been waiting for the job to drop down +like a ripe plum. Those two marks have worked the thing too long."</p> + +<p>"Jimmy, you don't mean that Boggs has any chance?"</p> + +<p>"Not a ghost. But we don't have to work up the whole thing; there'll be +enough to make a decent showing and lend an air of truth to that +telegram of ours. What have you done?"</p> + +<p>"Got the Rhos, anyway. We won't vote for anyone as a frat; the fellows +hate Castleton on account of that Annual-board election last Christmas, +and Higgins has thrown mud at us that we know of. I've about signed them +all, except Duncan. Bob knew Higgins' wife's cousin in some dark corner +of the country. Say, it's funny how tired people in general are getting +of Higgins and Castleton and their gang politics. At Palo Alto yesterday +I heard a crowd talking about it. 'Down with organized politics,' they +said, and one of them who works in the laboratory with Boggsie said he +was going to vote for modest merit."</p> + +<p>"Keep it going, Pellams, it won't hurt. Soothe his feelings beautifully +after the banquet. I have it all fixed up to get him off the campus."</p> + +<p>Higgins' stock went down wonderfully in the next few days. Higgins, said +the Castle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>ton men, had pulled wires and worked combinations ever since +he had been in the University. It hurts a College politician to have it +known that he has been in politics. They pointed to his rather doubtful +record as a member of the <i>Daily Palo Alto</i> board. The sins of his +Freshman days rose up against him when they touched on the fact that he +had been elected class-president on a barb ticket, and had immediately +gone over to the enemy in a fraternity house. Finally, to fill his cup +a Freshman, who had withstood fraternity blandishments for a year, +glided through the hands of the Gamma Chi Taus, who fully believed they +had him, and appeared on the very Sunday preceding election in all the +glory of Higgins' frat pin. It was a bad slip; right there it cost +fifteen Gamma Chi votes with a large girl following.</p> + +<p>"It isn't the swell girls that count for numbers, anyway," reflected the +Higgins' supporters, wisely, and they turned to the cultivation of the +dig girl who trails up the cinder paths mornings at eight, and who lives +in the library during football practice. But the girl cousin of Boggs +had been there to good purpose when they turned in that direction, and +Roble only showed Castleton still ahead. Then a not over-scrupulous +Junior in Higgins' trail started a story on Castleton, a tale calculated +to put him in the same category,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> so far as being "bad" was concerned. +Wednesday evening the anecdote reached Roble; a girl who had a brother +heard it spreading at dinner, and by noon next day half the girls in +Roble had their opinion of a crowd that would start such a malicious +libel on Mr. Castleton "just to get votes." The Encina politicians did +not know Roble girls for nothing.</p> + +<p>So it happened on Thursday that Pellams clumped breathlessly into +Jimmy's room with a still wet copy of the <i>Daily</i> and tragically pointed +to the notice: "<span class="smcap">Withdrawal</span>: I hereby withdraw from my candidacy for +Student-Body presidency in favor of Lorenzo Boggs. Andrew Higgins."</p> + +<p>"Ye gods," gasped the Sophomore, "he can't win, Pellams, he can't! +Castleton gets it sure. For heaven's sake, don't put the gang on to this +until after to-morrow, though. I wouldn't have the double-cross worked +on us for a cool ten credits."</p> + +<p>Fair dawned the day that was to float or to wreck so many little hopes. +There are two periods of the year when the professor who has been young +forgets the roll-call, and the one who never has been, remembers it. The +first period comes in late November; the other is the morning of the +Student-Body election.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<p>With consummate tact, Jimmy had come to an understanding with Boggs as +to the propriety of his leaving the campus during the election.</p> + +<p>"You see, you stand a splendid show of getting it," he explained, "and +the appropriate thing for you is to keep out of sight. When Pellams +nominated you he made a point out of the fact that the office was +seeking you; that has been a leading feature of the campaign, and it has +won you lots of votes. You must not spoil the impression you have made +for yourself and which we have emphasized all along. See?"</p> + +<p>Boggs saw, or thought he did, and went to town, ostensibly to carry out +a commission for Pellams, but not before he had rallied some of his +constituents and given them final instructions. It was wonderful to see +what a variety of tastes and interests were represented. An older +politician would have scented danger from the fact that so many of them +had never come out into the arena before; but Jimmy only looked with +smiling curiosity on the Ethics major or the Education "shark," dug up +somewhere from their abstruse speculations.</p> + +<p>It was on their way to the station that Jimmy touched on the remaining +issue of the campaign which he was managing.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You remember my speaking about a feed the other day? I ought to have +spoken more fully, but I've been busy with other details."</p> + +<p>"Oh,"—began Boggs.</p> + +<p>"You know the custom," cut in the conspirator; "it will be expected of +you if you get the office; it ought to come off to-night to be done +properly."</p> + +<p>"That will all be attended to," said Boggs calmly.</p> + +<p>"You've seen about it?"</p> + +<p>"It's all fixed."</p> + +<p>"There'll be a lot of them; they will meet you at the train and you'll +have to do it in shape. I can lend you a little."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, old man," said the victim, squeezing Mason's arm, "but just you +leave that to me. It's all arranged to do the square thing by the people +who have stood in with me. So long. Look out for me, won't you? I'll be +down on the Flyer."</p> + +<p>When Jimmy got back to the Quadrangle there was a shifting mass about +the polls. Encina politicians were there, Palo Alto politicians, +serious-looking fellows from the Camp, and spruce ones from the Row. +Castleton's followers stood in groups, looking smug and confident, while +sour-faced Higgins people were revengefully putting in all their work +for Boggs.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + +<p>Every election has its Mark Hanna; this time it was Jennie Brown, whom +Pellams knew as "Boggsie's dig girl cousin." She was the silent spirit +of the whole Boggs campaign. Mason, in telling the story of it +afterward, said:</p> + +<p>"Pellams and I were there when the polls opened. That girl was on hand, +too, with a gang of Palo Alto girls all ready to start things for +Boggsie. Well, you ought to have seen her. Heaven help us and our +masculine schemes if they get women suffrage and the Brown lives. At +ten-thirty in the first rush she steered a whole Education class, worked +them beautifully past Castleton's hungry heelers, right up to the +ballot-box. <i>She</i> wasn't working combinations; it cut no ice with her +how they voted for managers, and treasurers and editors, so long as they +were solid for Lorenzo Boggs.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 657px;"> +<a name="Page_200f" id="Page_200f"></a> +<img src="images/illo4.jpg" width="657" height="437" alt="... THEN A LULL DURING CLASS." title="... THEN A LULL DURING CLASS." /> +<span class="caption">... THEN A LULL DURING CLASS.</span></div> + + +<p>"I numbered them off as they voted, and I could see that things were +going darkly and suspiciously for our friend the Lobster. 'What do you +think of it?' says Pellams. He was getting excited. 'We didn't know our +power, did we? Look at the votes he's rolling up. Say, we're corkers and +never knew it!' A few classes from the respectable part of the Quad, +where they do Political Science, came drifting along then with votes for +Cas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>tleton, and it went Castleton for awhile; then a lull during +class, followed by a scattering vote for Boggs. It was about an even +thing during eleven-thirty break, with Castleton still ahead. The frat +votes fell in bunches in the biggest rush at noon; I could catch old +Boggsie's name marked on most of them, but Castleton was full fifty to +the good then. I bolted lunch with Pellams at his house and came back to +the Quad. Things were beginning to happen. People I never heard of, the +kind of bird that floats in and out on the train and probably doesn't +know there is a Student-Body with troubles of its own; digs, crawling +out into the light, blinking away at the line; Laboratory fiends in +squads, actually losing twenty minutes of precious credit,—the darndest +crowd of resurrected stiffs the Quad ever saw, strung out from the +registrar's office to the polls, every last one of them squeezing a +ballot properly marked ahead, all looking as if it were a conferring of +degrees, serious as hell, you know, and the eye of the Brown girl or of +one of her crowd fastened on each of them. Poor Castleton, he was a +goner! His heelers got up against this line of sphinxes and fell back, +done up. It was two o'clock and after; still the vote rolled up. At +two-thirty they closed shop, and Pellams and I fell on each other's +chests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> behind a pillar, and busted at the josh on ourselves.</p> + +<p>"Then we went over to get the figures of our triumph. 'Boggs, 402; +Castleton, 375,' and the biggest vote in the history of the office. +Well, you bet we went down to the train! Couldn't freeze <i>us</i> out! We +were going to pry open the Lobster's claws and use them for a corkscrew. +So we piled into a 'bus. But, honest, we were paralyzed.</p> + +<p>"Down at the station was the conquering Brown with her people, all +watching for the train. Say, when Boggsie saw the whole gang of us, he +was a balloon. He got up on a truck and made us a speech of thanks. +Pellams and I yelled 'Hear, Hear,' right along. Oh, it was awful! He +gave us the whole history of the Student-Body from the days of +'Ninety-one up. Finally Pellams couldn't stand it any longer and called +out, 'Good boy, Boggsie. How about that feed?' and Boggsie waved his +hand like a Tuesday evening spieler and said, 'I have provided for that, +ladies and gentlemen. Miss Brown, my cousin, invites you all down to her +home in Palo Alto for a little refreshment. Everyone is welcome.'</p> + +<p>"I had to pick my fat friend up. Boggsie's getting out of the whole +thing without spending a bean knocked him cold. But he got his wind +later. You ought to have heard his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> speech down there at the house, with +a plate of melted strawberry muck in one hand and a glass of sour in the +other, replying to Boggsie's vote of thanks to us two, and skinning his +face at the Brown girl. Oh, it was a peach!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="IN_THE_DARK_DAYS" id="IN_THE_DARK_DAYS"></a>IN THE DARK DAYS.</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="In_the_Dark_Days" id="In_the_Dark_Days"></a>In the Dark Days.</h2> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Mrs. Leland Stanford has decided to sell her jewels to keep +open the doors of the University."</p> + +<p class="citation">Associated Press Reports, 1896.</p></div> + + +<p>Bonita, mother of racers, stood just beyond the shadow of an oak tree, +leisurely cropping the new pasture grass. Occasionally, she lifted her +head toward the red roofs of the University buildings as though she +expected somebody. The chimney sent up a stripe of black against patches +of cloud and sky, and the even hum of the shops came across the pasture +with a distinctness born of the motionless Spring air. Bonita, putting +her pointed ears forward, could catch the upper notes of the chorus, +rehearsing in the Chapel.</p> + +<p>Such a day as this should bring Craig into the pastures. He could lean +on the fence and pull at his pipe to his heart's content. The brood-mare +did not fancy the smoke, but she liked to have him talk to her. There +were a number of interests they had in common; the smell of the new +grass, the tempting silver-green of willows budding along the lake +beyond the fence, delighted him, too, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> Bonita herself was deeply +interested in his University.</p> + +<p>She could remember perfectly the days when the ranch spread undisturbed +from her paddock in the stockfarm yard to the deep shadows of the +Arboretum. Then she was only a colt, to be sure; but the world beyond +the paddock fence interested her. The grooms in the yard were not more +sorry than she herself that the last colt from a famous sire should be a +filly with an imperfect ankle-joint. When they took the other colts out +of the paddock to put them through their morning lessons around the +little ring in the kindergarten, she wished mightily to follow. She +turned about the corral at a good speed to show them that she had the +proper spirit of her blood, but they always shut the red gate too soon +and the others went on up the road impudently flicking their fuzzy tails +at her.</p> + +<p>A gray-bearded man with kindly eyes, whom they called the "Governor," +used to drive up under the blossoming eucalyptus trees every now and +then; he stopped one day by her paddock and came to look at her. Bonita +liked him at once, and she paid him the most delicate attention she knew +by trying to eat his clothes. The Governor laughed as he put her off, +and said that it was too bad about her ankle. Then he drove over to +watch the kindergarten learn the alphabet of race-winning.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<p>Later, she watched her fellows go lightly down the road to the stock car +and rumble away over the track to the main line and on to the great +world where men put trust in them and sent them back to the Farm with +newspaper clippings and horseshoe wreaths made of immortelles with the +figure 2-and-a-fraction in the middle.</p> + +<p>When she was grown and they had put her out in a side pasture, there +were some new stables there, with a lot of men thronging round them who +did not look like grooms. The knowledge that something of importance to +the world was about to happen the other side of the fence made her feel +more contented. If she could not travel in a box car to see such things, +it was good to have some of the excitement of it brought in to the +ranch.</p> + +<p>At first she did not notice much, being deeply interested just then in +the early education of Fenelon, 2.10-1/4, who was a fretful infant and +took up most of her time. When he had passed out of her immediate care +and was cropping sweet alfalfa with the rest, she watched curiously the +foundations sinking into the grass, the crowd of people who came one May +morning to hear things said round a block of yellow sandstone, the +fitting of the red tiling above the stone walls. By this time she knew +the reason of it all; the dead heir, the monument, the boys and girls +who were com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>ing to be taught in this great kindergarten. Finally, when +these had poured into the place, some of them straggled out into the +pasture and made friends with her. From them she learned more definitely +the great things that had been done and were about to happen; they told +her of the wonderful endowment, of the strangers from corners of the +world never reached even by the lucky horses who had rolled away in the +box cars, of the numberless buildings that were to surround and dwarf +the structures she had seen grow up in the sun.</p> + +<p>"The Governor" had driven less often through the yard since the yellow +buildings were up, and the boys and girls playing among them. After +awhile he ceased to come altogether. Then Bonita, the brood-mare, +understood that something had happened. It was more quiet everywhere +after this. Most of the horses and mares, her colts among them, went off +in the cars, not to come back, they told her. She stood under the dark +oaks for hours at a time, fearing lest they would send her, too. Her +longing for the world was past now; she wished to be left in the quiet +pastures with the students to talk to.</p> + +<p>It was during these days that Craig, who taught something to the younger +people, used to lean on the fence and smoke during the afternoons. He +was not much older than many of the students she knew, and she liked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +him particularly. He had lumps of something white and sweet, and he +rubbed her head in exactly the right spot. When she had won his +confidence, he told her many things about himself and the College. Once +he had been at another place, a college older than this by a long time +but not so famous. The Overseer of this one had written him to come and +teach there, at a better salary. He explained to her what this +meant—money for the support of his mother, and in a few years the study +in Europe of which he dreamed, and for which he worked and saved, and +beside this the growing up with a new university, from an instructorship +in the present to a full professorship in the wonderful future. He told +her what was promised him, and showed her a picture once of the plan of +the completed university, with its arch and chapel tower and the great +mechanical shops spreading back across her shady pasture to the borders +of the lake.</p> + +<p>Then she learned what the death of "the Governor" had brought upon them; +why the horses had been sold and why there were no more hammers nor +chisels ringing against the stone. The farm was losing a thousand +dollars a day, and the Government had seized upon the money they were +building the monument with and was trying to wrest it entirely from the +woman who had stopped once to pet the brood-mare when "the Governor" +was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> driving in the yard. These things were hard to understand. There +had never been any question of money here that Bonita could remember.</p> + +<p>One day she had nosed vainly for the sugar he used to bring; Craig told +her that for two months he had had no money to give his mother; that if +it wasn't for a grocer in Mayfield who was kind to people in trouble, +they would have had nothing to eat. Bonita, remembering the students she +had seen gathering mushrooms, suggested grass; but he told her, +laughing, that only one man to his knowledge had ever lived that way and +he was a king, long ago, in the holy times. He, Craig, would have to +have money. In an old vest he had worn in the East, his mother found a +few pennies and had walked to Palo Alto and spent them for stamps for +the sake of paying for something. After this explanation, Bonita did not +hunt for sugar.</p> + +<p>Although things grew easier after a time, Craig was gloomy enough during +the afternoons when they talked across the fence. Once "the Governor's +Wife" had been given five hundred dollars to pay her servants, and she +had given it to the Overseer for his teachers. But the Overseer had +begun at the houses where there were the most children, and he had not +got around to Craig, who had only a mother. When temptation came to +him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> he told Bonita about it and asked her advice. A letter had come to +him with an offer from his old college; it meant a full salary and the +hope of Europe. It was everything to him, he said, but he couldn't bear +to go away. The brood-mare had put her nose affectionately against his +arm. She understood little about the salary, but she knew how dreadful +it would be to leave the pasture. The man must have understood, for +after being quiet a long time and smoking harder than ever, he said that +he was going to stay. But many times after that, when other offers came, +he told her how hard it was to decide and how black everything looked +for the University. The Government was pulling at the fund, and the lady +who was building the monument was going to sell her precious things to +get money.</p> + +<p>The last time Craig leaned on the fence and whistled to her, he had been +very unhappy. Since then Bonita had not seen him. She was afraid that +he, too, had gone, after all, as the horses and grooms had gone, without +even a good-bye. She felt that if he had finally decided to give it up, +the smoke must fade away above the top of the chimney and the voices +cease altogether.</p> + +<p>But to-day, when the clouds were breaking and the clear blue of +summer-time looked down between them, the chimney-smoke was blacker than +ever and across by the lake fence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> some young people were pulling +mushrooms and laughing. Bonita looked over toward the buildings. Then +she cropped grass again, for only a gurgling meadow-lark broke the line +of the fence-rail.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she heard Craig's low whistle. He had come out from the +Wood-shop and put his elbows on the fence, his pipe sending up clear, +white smoke. Stopping now and then for a blade of grass, to show that +she was not too eager, the brood-mare walked slowly up to him. He was +not happy, as she had expected to find him. His brow was puckered and +his lips shut tightly on the stem of his pipe. Bonita put her nose over +the fence. The instructor took his pipe from his mouth and rubbed her +cheek slowly with the back of his knuckles.</p> + +<p>"Well, old girl," he said, "I'm afraid you and I won't have many more +talks over this fence."</p> + +<p>The brood-mare looked at him with questioning eyes.</p> + +<p>"I plead guilty," he went on, "I oughtn't to have kept the secret from +you, I know. The minute I got the letter I should have come out to tell +you about it, but it was raining; honestly, it was."</p> + +<p>He gave her a lump of sugar by way of conciliation.</p> + +<p>"You see, I couldn't resist this one," he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> continued, while the sugar +crunched under her teeth; "it's a big honor and three thousand a year, +and I've got to do something; now, haven't I?"</p> + +<p>His tone was doubtful, as though he were hardly sure of her opinion. The +meadow-lark which he had disturbed was releasing the joy of its full +throat under a shaft of sunlight further down the fence. The air hung +over them, sweet with the fragrance of the freshened pasture, charged +with the mysterious power of a Santa Clara Spring. No man, or horse, who +has caught that smell, ever forgets the valley of the Saint. Bonita was +looking across the green to the mushroom gatherers.</p> + +<p>Craig spoke, a little petulantly.</p> + +<p>"You never agree with me about my going, anyway. You seem to think that +the beauty of this campus and the freedom of everything here is argument +enough. But it's all too uncertain. I've told you that my salary is cut +away down and I'm not any too sure of ever having it made up to me; as +it is, we assistants are here only because the heads decided to cut +their own pay and keep us for the sake of the departments. If the suit +is lost, it's good-bye, anyway. I can't believe you have much idea that +we're going to win it to-morrow. It went for us in the lower courts, +here in California, but do you think<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> that the Supreme Court of these +selfish and United States is going to decide for us just because they +were gallant enough to Mrs. Stanford to hurry the case up in the +calendar and cut short her suspense? You don't understand things, if you +think so. Out here where you live, the rains may be late and the grass +seem never coming, but you know it'll rain sooner or later, and you're +getting hay right along and it doesn't take much water to bring up what +you want. But with me it's different. We're going to get a weather +prediction from Washington to-morrow that'll tell us definitely whether +it's to be winter for keeps around here or summer and a good crop."</p> + +<p>The instructor leaned on the fence and puffed on at his pipe. Bonita +endured the smoke that clung around them in the still air, for she felt +that they were at a crisis. She drew up closer to the rails and put her +head against the instructor's shoulder. Suddenly, the man let his pipe +fall into the grass and he laid his face against her soft, gray nose.</p> + +<p>"You're a good old girl," he said, "and you know more about it than +anyone. But you haven't any money question to worry you. You don't love +the place a bit more than I do; you don't love it as much, because you +only know the nature side of it, and I know the bigness of the rest of +it, too. But the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> hope's almost dead, old lady; I can't tie my ambitions +to a corpse, you wouldn't ask me to, and you know I'm not the only one +to be looked after. But, oh, it'll be hard to go, won't it! There's +something that grips you where you live—you understand it."</p> + +<p>The brood-mare did not pull away, although he was holding her head +tightly in his hot hands.</p> + +<p>"If it all goes smash to-morrow and I can ever raise the money, I'm +going to send back for you, my beauty. You're getting too old to bring +much now, and you'll have to go sure if the Government wins."</p> + +<p>Bonita lifted her head suddenly. A drop of cold rain had fallen against +her face. The clouds had drawn together sulkily above them. Across the +intervening turf hastened the mushroom gatherers, their baskets full of +the brown and white trophies. Craig picked up his pipe.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye," he said, with a caress. "I'll come over to-morrow and tell +you the final news."</p> + +<p>Bonita had never shown him how much she really cared, true to her +feminine reserve; but to-day, leaning her slender neck far over the +fence, she whinnied after him until he stopped at the corner of the +Power-house and waved back to her. Then she cropped grass slowly while +it began to sprinkle.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> + +<p>Next morning, when the second hour was about half through, a feeling of +excitement filled the Quad and penetrated the classrooms. Craig's +students were not paying very creditable attention to his lecture. He +himself was keeping his mind on the syllabus with considerable +difficulty. When someone passed the window and the eyes of the entire +class, including even the enthusiastic dig on the front seat, were +turned that way, Craig let his own wander and hesitated the least bit in +his talk.</p> + +<p>All at once, like a thunderclap, a half-dozen voices somewhere in the +Quad gave the yell. Craig stopped speaking and looked at the class, who +gazed back at him. A man with his back to the windows stood up and +looked out. The seats creaked ominously. Then, like grass after a +breeze, the whole class rose and craned necks at the window.</p> + +<p>The instructor, coming to himself, began feebly:</p> + +<p>"If you please—"</p> + +<p>Again the yell, not the desperate cry that is wrung out to cheer a +losing team, but the voice of victory, of joy and of great relief.</p> + +<p>Professor Craig went out of his classroom like a shot, the class after +him.</p> + +<p>There was a triumphal parade to the station, with flags and the entire +population of Roble beating time with dust-pans and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> brooms, to meet the +President who had sent the happy telegram. There were songs and speeches +and demonstrations in front of Xasmin House, with fellows hugging each +other or swinging round in side-line fashion, girls crying, and the +President's parrot incidentally learning the yell. Then, at night, the +alumni poured in on the trains from north and south, stirring the tumult +anew. Gay lanterns jewelled the porches of the Row, the Gym blazed with +light for more speeches and football songs, with no thought of football +in the singing of them, and round and round the shadowy Quad, where the +yell flashed in electric letters, went a wild carnival procession of men +and women, with torches and noise-machines, and Instructor Craig at +their head.</p> + +<p>The gleam of the unusual lights, the happy shouts, and the clamor of +firecrackers, came in mingled confusion across to the dark pasture where +Bonita stood by the fence with her head raised and her pointed ears +forward. Craig had not come that afternoon to tell her the final truth; +but, listening and watching from the shadow, she did not feel that he +had gone away.</p> + +<p>When she did see him again, he wore a new suit and, what was more +important, its pockets bulged with sugar. She was very glad to see him, +of course, but her greeting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> was an indifferent one after all; for she +was preoccupied, just then, with the infant needs of Pronto 2:17 ¾, +and could not stop to interest herself in the fact that the youngest of +the universities had been saved for all time.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CROSSROADS" id="CROSSROADS"></a>CROSSROADS.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="Crossroads" id="Crossroads"></a>Crossroads.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Oh see ye not yon narrow road<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So thick beset wi' thorns and briers?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is the Path of Righteousness,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though after it but few inquires.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And see ye not yon braid, braid road,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That lies across the lily leven?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is the Path of Wickedness,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though some call that the road to Heaven."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="citation">Thomas the Rhymer.</p> +</div></div> + + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p>The regular after-dinner crowd was smoking in Frank Lyman's Encina +boudoir, lolling over his sofa, their feet on his table, their legs +tangled on his iron bedstead. The steam heat was coming "Clank! clank!" +into the radiators, for it was a cold, clear evening in the time between +rains. Outside the fog was thick upon the hills, sending gray +ghost-fingers over toward the valley. You could lean from the window and +smell its clean moisture, mingling with the scent of young plants in the +fresh-turned earth. Frank himself sat close to the window and looked out +toward the gymnasium, because he had discovered a new amusement. There +was a section of the board walk between Encina and the gym which was +flooded just to its top by a pool from the late<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> rain, so that if you +stepped heavily thereon the plank gave a bit and dropped you into the +water. The diversion consisted in betting with "Pegasus" Langdon on the +style of crossing adopted by chance wayfarers. The stakes were five +cents a corner. Frank backed the class who took the thing at one bound; +"Peg" laid his coin on those who went over on their tiptoes, trying not +to spring the plank into the water. For every one who did neither, but +walked around the puddle, five cents a corner went into the tobacco +fund. It was just as good as matching nickels and involved less +exertion.</p> + +<p>There is a theory in the Hall that you can tell a man's habits by the +rooms he occupies there. The nearer he gets to the corner fronting on +the baseball field, the more sociable is his nature. Those who hold the +rooms at that corner or on the second or third floors, so as to be in +easy hail of anyone coming in at the back entrance, are Public +Characters. Their apartments are reception rooms in very truth. It has +never been explained why Encina does not sag at that end, like an +excursion steamer on the side toward a boat race. If, on the other hand, +you believe you have a Mission, or if you are a Dig, rooming in the Hall +because it is convenient to the Quad, then you dwell in "Faculty Row," +away off to the east, where the early sun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> pulls you out in time to put +the finishing touches to your Latin, and where there is no trafficking +to and from the Quad to disturb your evening study.</p> + +<p>It was said that Frank Lyman was the only man at the Quadrangle end of +the Hall who ever made much pretense of studying. By the same token the +keepers of the college tradition alleged that he alone of all the gang +stood high in the opinion of the Faculty. It was a way he had. He stood +well with everybody.</p> + +<p>If they had taken the trouble to investigate, those who wondered at his +ability both to loaf much and to study much, at his scholarship dwelling +alongside of his popularity, they might have found that he kept the two +things in harmony by a marvelous system. The gang dwelt in his room, +made it their hang-out, but only just so long; when the hour arrived for +Lyman's study-time, they vanished away mysteriously, took the hint +conveyed in some fashion, no one ever knew how, and were gone.</p> + +<p>To the under-classmen, Lyman was an object of healthy awe. Older than +the average senior, he had been already in the larger world. His opinion +of things had especial value even in his Junior year. After the football +season, when he had been acknowledged the keenest manager the college<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +had ever found, the under-classmen had a blind faith in his +infallibility. The older students relied on him in much the same way, +though there were some who said that self lay at the bottom of Lyman's +system of morals, that the watchword of his philosophy was "Does it +pay?" These men were sentimentalists who had ideals. Langdon, the +Sequoia editor, would have told you that he thought more of Lyman than +of any two men in the class; it is a question, though, whether he would +have recommended Lyman's advice in everything. Frank was a good man to +keep a Freshman's money for him, to listen to his class-room troubles or +to stand between the luckless youngster and Faculty wrath; but when it +was a case into which something deeper entered, perhaps the Senior's +worldly philosophy was not of the best sort. This was the idea of +dreamers like "Pegasus" Langdon, who said things about "sentiment" and +to whom Freshmen seldom came for advice. But Lyman continued to hold his +after-dinner receptions, and his admirers piled themselves comfortably +on his bed and believed in him implicitly.</p> + +<p>The psychological moment came for the regular withdrawal. Frank opened +his windows with care, donned the old bath-robe which was his armor for +the battle intellectual, put on his eye-shade over his straight brown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +hair, and opened his Pollock. At this hint the others slipped out; only +Jimmie Mason lingered, his gaze on the shadowy hills with their faint +fringe of dark green, the dregs of his pipe purring in the stillness. +Lyman's room-mate was somewhere queening. Lyman himself, pretending to +study, looked up from time to time, waiting for the Sophomore to unbosom +himself. Frank knew the symptoms.</p> + +<p>"Well, Jimmie?" he said at length—one couldn't study with that going on +and Frank had his stint to finish.</p> + +<p>"It's about my father."</p> + +<p>"Drinking again?"</p> + +<p>Jimmie only nodded. The smoke went out in his pipe; he knocked the ashes +from it and put it away mechanically in the common pipe-rack over the +radiator.</p> + +<p>"Tell me about it." Frank had closed his book, and was leaning back in +his tilted chair, his feet braced in the shelf beneath, his hands +clasped over his knees.</p> + +<p>"Not much to tell, I guess, no more than you know already. I got a +letter from the old lady."</p> + +<p>"Your grandmother, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. She says something must be done. 'In low saloons,' she says, and +I've been sizing it up—and Frank, don't you think I ought to go home?"</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p> + +<p>A silence again, with Lyman's alarm clock ticking placidly on the table +between them.</p> + +<p>It had come, the moment to bring the boy around; Frank had waited for it +in the weeks since he had known the story. In this silence he mapped out +his argument, as he would have prepared a brief.</p> + +<p>"How much has your father ever helped you, Jimmie?"</p> + +<p>"Not much. We've always been poor, you know."</p> + +<p>"Because he drank?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he never could keep a job but so long."</p> + +<p>"Not even when you were small?"</p> + +<p>"I wasn't with him then. When my mother got—when she left him, she took +me with her. Then she died, and I was with my grandmother awhile, then I +lived with him until I came here."</p> + +<p>"Are you very fond of him?"</p> + +<p>"No, Frank, I'm not; not a bit. He never did anything for my mother or +for me, to make me."</p> + +<p>"I don't see why you lived with him then."</p> + +<p>"He'd behave himself better. I had a sort of influence over him. He was +afraid of me, or ashamed, or something, and I stuck to him to keep him +straight. But, oh! I hated it, and when he got going all right, I cut +loose and came here."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What sort is the old lady? W. C. T. U. and all that kind of thing, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Something on that order."</p> + +<p>The Oracle leaned forward until his chest came almost between his bent +knees, as was his wont when he clinched his arguments.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you've never figured it out that people of her way of +thinking would call what little drinking you do at Mayfield 'drinking in +low saloons?'"</p> + +<p>By his silence Jimmie admitted that there was something in the position. +Frank followed up his lead.</p> + +<p>"So it may be nothing very bad after all. But let's suppose it is; +suppose he has slid back into the worst of his old ways, is it going to +pay to go on and break things all up for yourself, for the purpose of +trying to bolster him up? It seems to me you would let your enthusiasm +get away with your common sense. But it's your business, Jimmie. Only +the thing that gets me is the blooming uselessness of it all. What can +you do?"</p> + +<p>"I can work."</p> + +<p>"You could do that before you came here. You see, it was all right +before, when your plans weren't formed. Now it means not only his +sliding back, but yours too. You know as well as I do that a half-baked +man isn't worth a whoop, not a solitary whoop. You've got to drop down +into mediocrity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> just when you are on the way up to something. And after +sacrificing yourself, perhaps, it will have been for nothing. You can't +cure that thing in a month, nor a year, nor two years. If he is +drinking, regular and hard, you've got to catch him and stay with him +just about as long as he lives. You can't leave him after you get him on +his feet, or he'll go right back. You know that from experience, don't +you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Jimmie. The Senior's words came to him as a relief. He had +begun the conversation with the feeling that the thing for him to do was +to go home, and dreading lest Lyman should think so, too. Now Frank +showed him the folly of such a step, and Frank knew about things.</p> + +<p>"It means a knockout to your ambition," went on Lyman, "the spoiling of +yourself, and you propose to do this for a man you don't care for? I +don't understand."</p> + +<p>"He is my father," said the Sophomore. This reason had seemed ample, +when he was thinking it over alone; it did not sound so convincing now.</p> + +<p>"And suppose he is, do you have to pay for that? No, Jimmie, that's a +fine sentimental view of it that won't help either of you. Let him wait. +You have the right to do it. He can wait two years, till you've had your +chance. If it has been going on all this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> time, two years won't be long, +and then when you're through and ready to do something, there'll be +sense in it; there isn't now.—"</p> + +<p>Just then Freshman Halleck, who had a genius for poking in where he was +not wanted, knocked and entered with Encina abruptness, for Frank had +not locked the door. He made his stay so long that Lyman, with his +thoughts on his unfinished work, said:</p> + +<p>"Well, good-night, you fellows," as a gentle hint, and Jimmie withdrew.</p> + +<p>The fog had not yet come into the valley when the Sophomore opened the +window, down in his own room; it was reaching out, still driven before a +lazy wind. Indistinctly the singing of the Glee Club, rolling home from +practice in the Quad, came through the damp twilight. Jimmie had been +with them on the Christmas trip, tasting a social life he had known +nothing of till then. Now they were going to run him for leader next +year. He sat on his window ledge listening. The side of the Hall +stretched away from him, four tiers of light where the fellows were at +work or were bumming away the week-night. Through the opened windows +came the low tone of many conversations, stirred now and then by a +"rough-house" note. A coyote barked somewhere among the hills, a +re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>minder of the nearness of our higher life to the life universal. +Jimmie took a long, deep breath of the moist air, as though he would +draw it all, all unto himself. This was his life, he had made it for +himself, and he loved it, he loved it! He had no part any longer with +what had come before it. All these were in shadow, the people and things +of his bitter childhood. The fellows up there in the lighted rooms had +homes somewhere; there was a feed-box being opened even then, perhaps, +at some study table; they were thinking of vacation, most of them, and +of other places. But this was home to Mason, this wide, soft campus, +with the sandstone arching over it and bounded by shaggy hills, the only +place he could call his own. Most of the laughing people who lived here +with him were in a dream from which some Commencement Day would wake +them. To Mason it was reality. Yes, Frank Lyman was right. Jimmie was +glad he had asked him. The idea of going away had been a thoughtless +impulse, an immature judgment. He would stay—for the two years.</p> + +<p>He took off his coat and opened a book under the lamp; but a face came +and settled between him and the page, a bloated face with irresolute +lips that would not move from the black and white before him, but +flickered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> there and mocked him, until finally he closed the book, and, +without looking out again on the campus, turned into bed.</p> + + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>It was a quiet night outside. The last spring rain was over; the dry, +deadening California summer had begun its advance on the land. Already, +the green of the hills had faded into a lighter hue, a forerunner of a +yellow June and a brown July. The campus was astir with the movement of +a Friday night. Shadowy figures, in couples, came and passed down the +fairy-land vistas of the Quadrangle; the 'busses deposited the élite of +Palo Alto at the door of the Alpha Nus who had said that they would be +at home; noises of all kinds, from not unmusical singing to plainly +unmusical whoops, exhaled from every pore of the Hall. The piano on the +lobby was groaning out a waltz from its few attuned keys and the little +space between the big rug and the rail overlooking the dining-room was +packed with forms in various conditions of negligée, dancing earnestly +and painfully.</p> + +<p>Only one room, and that generally the center of disturbance, "sported +the oak." Jimmie Mason sat in the knockery, with a book cocked up in +front of him, and made a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> pretense of studying, but his thoughts +wandered. Finally he threw his work aside altogether, and looked at the +little patches of starlight visible between the branches of the tree +outside. It was so plain, the thing he ought to do, in justice to +himself, that he had thought the dream of the other thing a fancy that +had passed and had been put away with the notions of his prep-days. And +yet he had found no peace in his new decision. His plans for next year, +his work in class, his new success with certain ventures which after two +years of the hardest, closest pinching, had put within his reach the +means to gratify a few little whims, to indulge in a few things his +poverty had hitherto forbidden him—a few common things the men around +him enjoyed, and the lack of which he had ever concealed even from +himself—all these were made footless by the ache in the bottom of his +soul. And, as he sat and pondered on it, a hard, dull resentment which +he had hitherto kept down by sheer will power rose above his other +thoughts and claimed admission as a reality. His father had no right to +do this thing to him. He was an old man; his chance was past, given up +for a few barrels, more or less, of distilled spirits. It was for this +that the something inside was asking him to forfeit the chance he had +made for himself. The University was his home. His father had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> done +nothing toward this. The laundry agency had provided a living, and the +broad democracy of the college had done the rest for him. He was one of +the "prominent men" now, a somebody, as he had never been and never +could be in the travesty of home that had been his father's giving. Upon +his life here rested the possibilities of the future toward which he +looked dreamingly sometimes when his notes were written up, and the +laundry accounts checked. Assuredly, his father had no claim on this; to +admit it would be an injustice to himself, to his ambition, and to his +work. And yet this face which had come between him and his book the +first night the fight had been on must haunt him always in the hour when +his tide was turning.</p> + +<p>A thump on the window which opened on the front piazza recalled him from +his reverie. A dozen feet were shuffling on the stones outside, and a +ruddy face glowed over the sash.</p> + +<p>"Go away, Pellams. Got to plug," said Jimmie, hastily resuming his book.</p> + +<p>"Relate your predicaments to a constable," said Pellams. "There's going +to be a Thirsting Bee at the——"</p> + +<p>"Can't go. Got to work on my thesis."</p> + +<p>"Relate <i>that</i> to your Uncle Adderclaws. Tumble out, now."</p> + +<p>Jimmie only shook his head. There was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> conference outside in whispers; +then the gang withdrew with suspicious alacrity. Two minutes later, the +lock grated with the cautious insertion of a key, and the mob rushed in; +Jimmie had forgotten the passkey, for whose possession Pellams had held +up the Jap.</p> + +<p>"Ah, say, get out of here, you fellows. I'm digging."</p> + +<p>"I know it. And you're going to stop. Gentlemen adventurers"—here +Pellams mounted a chair—"James Mason, our small but thirsty friend, has +sourball. Now, I ask you, gentlemen, what is the universal cure for his +affliction?"</p> + +<p>"Beer!" The unanimity of the response would have done credit to a Roman +mob.</p> + +<p>"Quite right ye are, my merry retainers. And will ye, in loving kindness +to him, apply that remedy?"</p> + +<p>"We will! We will!"</p> + +<p>"Well said, me liegemen. Jimmie, move along!" and Pellams fell to +strolling around the room and criticizing its collection of stolen signs +with the air of one who has discharged his business and stands at ease. +The rest threw themselves on the man with sourball and were for tearing +off his outer garments and forcing on his sweater, but Lyman by some +occult means of his own got the boy aside. One never knew how Frank +managed the gang; it was always that way;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> his methods never obtruded +themselves, all one saw was results.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't if I were you," said he; "they won't understand it, and it +doesn't do you any good—this sort of thing. Better jolly up."</p> + +<p>The Sophomore did not speak; he only shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I know what you're holding back for," went on the other; "but going +down there isn't the same sort of thing; really, it isn't."</p> + +<p>Jimmie started a little, inside, as he realized for the first time the +base of his aversion to dragging himself out on the trip. He turned, +half-mechanically, and began tugging at his collar. That Phantom should +never come between him and one single thing he wanted to do. It might +embitter it all, but it could never prevent him from the outward act. He +threw his tie over a chair and took off his coat with unnecessary +emphasis in the movement. Ten minutes later he was treading the primrose +path of dalliance with an arm around "Nosey" Marion.</p> + +<p>There was a cool breeze off the bay, bringing the scent of salt water +along with the odor of spruce-trees. A voice from the upper regions of +the Hall called out to the cavalcade, crawling through the half-darkness +along the road:</p> + +<p>"He-ea, you! Bring some back for me!"</p> + +<p>A dozen windows slammed open at that,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> and twenty throats took up the +noise. Pellams was for answering, but Lyman discreetly checked him.</p> + +<p>Presently they swung out into the traveled road, until the noises of the +Hall were only a composite buzz. The squad was lounging in twos and +three, talking athletics or humming under the breath march-songs from +the Orpheum. "Peg" Langdon stopped at the white gate, and took off his +hat to the cool air.</p> + +<p>"This road down is the best thing about Mayfield!"</p> + +<p>"Drop the Sequoia!" cried Pellams. "Here, you fellows, hold him! We'll +have that in a rondeau or something, next week, if you don't hobble the +muse!"</p> + +<p>The editor laughed. It is better to be joked about your own special +forte than not to have it mentioned, so he was not displeased.</p> + +<p>"That's what the bard gets," said he, "for secreting the noxious fluid +known as the 'Sequoia' verse. But you can't stop the secretion. Some +day, I am going to write a Ballad of the Road to Mayfield—just to be +original."</p> + +<p>"And you'll kill the traffic."</p> + +<p>"Chain the poet!"</p> + +<p>"If you don't choke him, he'll get reminiscent."</p> + +<p>These from half-a-dozen voices at once.</p> + +<p>"Certainly I shall!" declared Langdon. "A reminiscent mood is the proper +one for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> road to Mayfield—just as you have to have an argumentative +one on the road back."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever notice," observed Dick, "that every Mayfield time has a +sort of motif? You have a central idea, and you expand on it, like +writing paragraphs for English Eight."</p> + +<p>"It's up to you, Mr. Langdon. Give us a motif and we'll do the +expanding," said Marion, shying a pebble at a gate where there was a dog +he knew.</p> + +<p>"How would Jimmie's sore-head do?"</p> + +<p>Pellams took it up at once. "Death to the sore-head! <i>A bas</i> Mason!" And +then, being safely away from the Hall, he caught up the old nonsense air +that has split student throats this century long,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To drive dull care away!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And Jimmie, a chum beating him on either side to exorcise the demon, was +singing as lustily as the best of them when they swung through the town +of buried ambitions and into the shrine of Bacchus.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, remember the motif!" cried Pellams, when they had made their +way through the barroom loafers, playing with dingy cards at the dingier +tables. The expedition was safely stowed in the back room around the +rough table with its carved patch-work of initials, Greek letters, and +nicknames,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> significant or obsolete, according to a man's perspective. +Pellams assumed instant control.</p> + +<p>"We will now turn our attention to the serious business of the evening. +Get your places. Hands on your bottles! Open—<i>corks</i>! And away we go." +The party drank in silence.</p> + +<p>"Do you begin to improve, James? There is a trace of a smile in the +left-hand corner of the patient's mouth. Ruffle up his hair and give him +another while we have him going!"</p> + +<p>Someone started a song, and they had another drink to punctuate the +pause between verses. A ruddier shade was creeping towards the roots of +Pellams' hair; Lyman, who smiled but seldom, was grinning across the +table at a Sophomore trying to flip cracker crumbs into his mouth.</p> + +<p>"This is a tryout," said Pellams. "The first man that balks at his beer +will drink raspberry chasers for a month. Hey! look at 'Nosey' Marion +trying to shirk!"</p> + +<p>Sure enough, Marion, who tried to keep up a reputation for capacity with +a naturally slim endowment, was slyly pouring his last potion into an +empty beer-case behind him. They fell upon the offender forthwith, +whipped him into the ranks again, and resumed their seats, laughing and +panting.</p> + +<p>"And now that our erring brother is punished and forgiven—that's as +good a phrase as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> I ever saw—punished and forgiven—stick that in the +Sequoia, Pegasus"—Pellams rambled on, "we've got to have the motif. I +move from the chair that the guest of the evening gives us 'My Old +Kentucky Home!' Punish your glass and tune up, Jimmie!"</p> + +<p>The cry went on until Jimmie had to respond. He began with the intention +of singing it quite carelessly, because there was much in his soul that +night that he dared not show before them all; but Jimmie had the gift of +song in his heart as in his voice, and he threw himself into the music +before the first stanza was half done. Only once before had he sung the +song as he did to-night; it was at last Commencement, when he sang it +for the Seniors going out on their adventures, and when he was done they +had all been still and quiet like men who have seen ghosts—as perhaps +they had, that night, the phantoms of men and times haunting certain +low, arched buildings they were to see no more.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Jimmie's tender baritone floated up from the table wistfully sweet, and +shaken a little with feeling, for the trouble of the week just past was +sweeping into it. Lyman, listening, knew of what place the boy was +singing, and mentally noted that he had better be thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>ful of the +youngster during the rest of the term.</p> + +<p>The fellows were quiet for a moment after they had droned out the +chorus, each one putting his own meaning into that sweet old song of +farewell, and then, to break the charm, a small voice with a Spanish +roll in it, piped "Tamales!" at the crack in the door.</p> + +<p>"Hey!—Lupe!—make him sing!"</p> + +<p>They raided the stock first, and rendered happy with the jingle of +silver the quaint little remnant of the race who named their valley for +the blessed Santa Clara. Then, when he had counted it and put it safely +away with the officious assistance of Pellams Rex, they set him on the +table in his blue overalls and over-sized hat and made him sing for them +in his pathetic treble, "La Paloma," and for encore, "Two Leetle Girl +een Bloo." Pellams removed him after that, claiming that Langdon was +about to tell the story of his life, which could not be published in the +Sequoia.</p> + +<p>Jimmie Mason had sat there all this time, taking it in and drinking with +the others, but there was never a cloud on his brain nor a waver in his +movements. The rest of them wandered from the motif; each was composing +a fugue of his own, according to the mould of his nature. Scraps of +their conversation floated in on him between songs—"Got him just below +the knees—now!"—"and the differ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>ence between me and a tank is in the +inferior receptivity—ain't that a peach?—of the receptacle"—"Now, the +fallacy of the original proposition, as Herbert Spencer hath it, lies in +the expression of the component particulars"—this was Langdon—"that +proves that if I had a board Pellams would be summarily chastised"—"Put +it down and order up another, here's good drink going stale"—"Whoa, +Pegasus, old hoss, that's my tamale you have designs on"—"and cut his +name there"—"sing it down! This is to break training for the third +time"—"What's the matter with ——ty-eight?"—All this came in on him, +as he watched them grow from geniality to hilarity and then on toward +enthusiasm. They had forgotten him; only now and then someone shied a +cracker at his head and told him to "jolly up."</p> + +<p>Another drink, and the patriotic stage was upon them. The King ordered a +glass, standing, to the Team, and one with a foot on the table to the +Captain, and one with both feet on the table and glasses to the ceiling +to the Victory next fall. Someone started the yell; it went round the +table. Then they joined in on "Here's to Stanford College," with a verse +for every class and its yell at the end, and before they were done there +were three howling factions, each trying to cry the others down.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + +<p>Frank Lyman, he of the steady head, who was quiet or hilarious as he +willed, but was never beyond the point where he willed to be, sat +watching good-humoredly from his corner, and noted that Jimmie Mason's +voice had risen the loudest, and that he, too, had forgotten the motif.</p> + +<p>Pellams had wandered into the outer room "to bust the proprietor's +blamed old nickel-machine and get even," leaving the disturbance to +subside of its own weight. Coming back suddenly to the door, he cried: +"Hey, I've got 'em! The raw material and the finished product! Let's +have a temperance lecture from Lyman."</p> + +<p>It was a queer group at the door. The half-gone Pellams, with his face +flushed and his hair dishevelled, in one of his hands little Lupe, +hanging to an empty pail and between laughter and tears; the other hand +tight on the collar of as dirty, as unkempt, and as drunken an old +loafer as ever hung over a Mayfield bar. Pellams swung the ruin in.</p> + +<p>"Now, tell us how you got that fine, large tee!" said the tormentor. +"Orate to us, General Jackson!"</p> + +<p>The old man braced himself, with drunken dignity, against the door.</p> + +<p>"You young fellows c'n make fools o' yourselves," he said, "but you +can't make fool o' me."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That's all right, pardner—Nature saved us the trouble in your case," +said Pellams, the thoughtless.</p> + +<p>The clear head in the room—Lyman's always—took it all in; Frank made a +step to come between the Junior and his victim. Then he turned, +half-unconsciously, toward Mason. Jimmie was standing with his hands on +the table, looking straight before him, and in that look Frank read the +certainty that the case was out of his control. For the Face was rising +before Jimmie Mason once more; it had twisted itself in with the +relaxed, foolish features before him, until he saw his father there, a +mock and a shame. It was not his father, of course—he passed his hand +before his eyes as though to clear them—but suppose that somewhere else +a crowd had his father—and he not there to——</p> + +<p>The Angel of Pity, or the Universal Conscience, or whatever it is that +you and I have learned from our books and our teachers to put as our +symbol of the belief in the higher things, wrote upon his records that +night that a prayer had gone up, for the first time, from the dingy back +room of the Hotel Mayfield.</p> + +<p>Pellams had the old man singing now, in a cracked, maudlin voice, and +his keeper was beating time with a billiard cue. Then the amateur +conductor had one of his inspirations.</p> + +<p>"Hey, a trio! The event of the evening!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> General Hardshell Jackson, +Señor Lupe de Tamale, and the renowned lyric barytone, James Russell +Lowell Mason, will combine in a grand farewell concert. Ascend the +platform, Señor!" he cried to the Mexican lad, who stood, wide-eyed, in +a corner. Then he gestured wildly toward the door.</p> + +<p>"Hey, Jimmie, come back here," he called; "don't let him out, boys!"</p> + +<p>Jimmie had reached the door when Lyman caught his sleeve.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"Home."</p> + +<p>"You mean the Hall?"</p> + +<p>Jimmie pulled free of the Senior's hand.</p> + +<p>"No!" he said. "Home."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="A_SONG_CYCLE_AND_A_PUNCTURE" id="A_SONG_CYCLE_AND_A_PUNCTURE"></a>A SONG CYCLE AND A PUNCTURE.</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="A_Song_Cycle_and_a_Puncture" id="A_Song_Cycle_and_a_Puncture"></a>A Song Cycle and a Puncture.</h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And I learned about women from 'er!"</span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="citation">Kipling.</p> +</div></div> + + +<p>Six Madonnas, from their places on the Chapel walls, gazed at the +spectacle of a student with long hair and energetic manner drilling a +chorus of young men and women from behind the preacher's desk. There was +no visible sign of agitation on the part of the six Madonnas, though an +operatic rehearsal in Chapel might be considered reason enough. To be +sure, one of them, with her feet upon a crescent moon, kept her eyes +fixed religiously on the ceiling, but this had become a habit. The +Madonnas were not surprised.</p> + +<p>The early years of the University, when there was no assembly hall and +the temporary chapel was used for everything that did not demand the +superior accommodations of the men's gymnasium, had prepared them for +anything. They had looked calmly down upon student farces and Wednesday +evening prayer meetings, professional impersonations and baccalaureate +sermons. Once, there had been a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> German farce under the protection of +the Germanic Language department, by a company from town, a boisterous +play with a gigantic comedienne in a short skirt. Beside this +performance, Lillian Arnold's singing a love duet with Jack Smith was +nothing very shocking.</p> + +<p>Connor, the man who was getting up the opera for the benefit of the +Junior Annual, waved his baton gracefully and looked pleased. The +rehearsal had gone well that afternoon, and now Cap Smith was singing +with creditable expression the love song in the last act. The experience +of Connor told him that this song would make even the bleachers at the +back of the gymnasium keep a respectful silence, which was saying a good +deal. Smith had a very pretty tenor, redeeming its lack of volume by a +sympathetic quality that was decidedly pleasant. In a song like this, +his voice came out well. There was a high note at the end to be taken +pianissimo with something else that signified "as though you meant it." +Smith could make it sound so, at any rate. One girl at the back of the +chorus always said, "Ah," under her breath when the song was ended at +rehearsal.</p> + +<p>Lillian Arnold, who played opposite Smith in the opera, did not conceal +from herself the pleasure she took in the part. Long before rehearsals +began, she had spent her smiles upon Connor with a view to that very +rôle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> Miss Arnold was a young person who knew the things she wanted; +one of them was Smith. 'Varsity end, champion pole-vaulter, Glee Club +tenor and Sophomore president, which means principally leading the +cotillion, he was well worth a girl's trouble. There was the more glory +in the winning of this capital prize because he was not very +enthusiastic about Roble. There was somebody up in town who took a great +deal of his blue fraternity-paper. Lillian Arnold knew about the girl in +town, so she accepted gracefully what the gods gave and was outwardly +content.</p> + +<p>The gift of the gods was Ted Perkins, whose vest was decorated like +Cap's and who had no entanglements. When the approach of the Sophomore +cotillion set Roble agog with a pleasant but hardly strong-minded +excitement, he "asked her." Peace of mind comes naturally after such an +invitation is given and accepted; on rare occasions this does not last.</p> + +<p>The first thing that occurred to ruffle Miss Arnold's complacency was a +chance remark dropped one noon by Perkins as they were strolling home +obliquely from the Quad.</p> + +<p>"Cap isn't going to lead with Miss Martin, after all," said he.</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" exclaimed Lillian. For some remote feminine reason the +announcement was interesting.</p> + +<p>"Her family has gone South suddenly, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> death or something. Cap is all +broken up about it. He was going to show her off in style that night."</p> + +<p>"I wonder whom he will ask, now," she said, as though it didn't matter +the least bit in the world.</p> + +<p>Down somewhere in a girl's heart lies the gambler's instinct. Lillian +would have thrown away then and there the certainty of Ned Perkins' +timely invitation for the torturing suspense, the alluring chance, that +attended the Sophomore president's second choice. Perkins, in his simple +masculine dullness, never guessed this.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe he knows yet; he wouldn't tell over at the house if he +did. Another plum for unengaged Roble."</p> + +<p>Perkins would have been less at ease over the condition of engaged Roble +could he have looked into the little east music-room where Lillian +played accompaniments, and Cap Smith, leaning over a wicker chair, went +through the music of his part. These cozy rehearsals in the quiet +afternoons had resulted in Smith's asking himself, during a cut home +through the Quad, why he had never noticed Lillian Arnold in particular. +Connor, the director, had a keener eye, evidently. She was pretty, +dashing and real good fun. Perkins was entitled to respect for his +selection. Lillian was "all right;" this is a masculine term<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> which may +mean anything from mild approval to the rapture of "just one girl." The +mild interpretation, of course, is to be put upon Smith's use of the +term, even after he had been to Roble two evenings. Their talk was about +the opera, nothing further, and when he had taken his high note with +just the proper emotional slur, they both laughed. To be honest, there +had been one chat on the moonlit steps of the Museum, but all of this +went down on the blue fraternity-paper among other confidences.</p> + +<p>One afternoon, in the middle of a Spring-time walk, Smith gave utterance +to a decision concerning which he had already written, dutifully, to an +interested party in the South. They had passed the willow-fringed bank +of Lagunita, the red boathouse, the double avenue of young pines, and, +crossing into the back road, strolled down to the low gate opposite the +Farm; this they climbed and came into a little hollow where knowing +people find yellow violets. He had just given her a frank compliment.</p> + +<p>"You are the best fence-taker I ever saw for a girl."</p> + +<p>"That's one practical result of an hour's credit in gym-work," she +laughed. "Sometimes, on lovely days like this, I feel almost as though I +could pole-vault the way you do. It must be glorious to go sailing over +the bar."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And hear it come clattering down after you?"</p> + +<p>They sat on the soft, new grass, and Lillian caught, one after another, +the shy yellow faces peering at her through the long leaves. She looked +so spring-like, so much a part of the fresh, young landscape in its +robes of early February, as she half reclined to reach out for a blossom +larger and yellower than the rest—a pose that she knew was good—that +the Sophomore president put an end to suspense.</p> + +<p>"I had expected to lead the cotillion with Miss Martin," he began, "but +she has gone South, so I'm badly left. I'm afraid you are engaged for +it, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>Lillian gazed fixedly at the white cupola on a stockfarm building. Her +heart was somewhere deep in hill-grass. She was the most luckless girl +in the whole college! The opportunity of her Sophomore year had come too +late. It was bitter enough for tears.</p> + +<p>"I had promised it to Mr. Perkins," she said, irresolutely.</p> + +<p>"I was afraid so. Of course, it was awfully late to ask you; but I would +rather go with you than with any of the others, so I ventured."</p> + +<p>It was a desperate moment for Lillian.</p> + +<p>"I would rather go with you, too," she said, gazing up at him.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'm sure I wish you could," he said, with sincerity. She was at her +prettiest that day.</p> + +<p>"I will anyway," she declared.</p> + +<p>"But Ted——"</p> + +<p>"I don't care," she went on, "it was only that he asked me first. +Couldn't I cut it and go with you? He ought to understand that I have a +right to change my mind."</p> + +<p>Smith watched the antics of a gopher for a full minute before he +replied. Although Perkins had said nothing to him of his intentions +regarding the dance—the two had few confidences—Cap had held his +theories. Still, he deemed he had a chance. Being a Sophomore, he +believed that he was thoroughly acquainted with the co-educated sex and +all their wiles and guiles; but a feeling of repulsion toward this frank +readiness to throw down another man, one of his own, too, drowned his +sense of self-satisfaction at finding himself preferred.</p> + +<p>"Of course, you and Ted must arrange all that," he said, and turned the +conversation.</p> + +<p>Cap's lack of confidential relations with Perkins did not stand in the +way of his mentioning the affair to him that night after dinner.</p> + +<p>"I thought you ought to know it, Ted," he concluded. "Of course, you +will do as you please about the matter, only I shall not take her."</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You don't think for a moment that <i>I</i> still intend to, do you?" asked +Perkins, fiercely.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe I'd blame you exactly if you backed out," said the +complacent Sophomore; "but, of course, it's none of my funeral now; I'm +only sorry I happened to ask her myself, and start the trouble."</p> + +<p>"I think I'll walk home with her after rehearsal," said Perkins.</p> + +<p>"Well, I shan't say anything about it one way or the other," said Smith, +and he started toward the Gym with a pleasant sense of having galled +somebody a bit.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Lillian had eaten her dinner with relish. The prospect of +trouble with Perkins did not worry her in the least. Perkins had been +rather a convenience, and to lead the cotillion with Jack Smith was a +delight that entirely divested the other man of all importance. The +rehearsal went through with a dash; Lillian was all animation and +witchery, and the love-scene was perfectly acted, though Ted Perkins sat +glowering in the privileged audience. Cap Smith took his high note with +a tenderness of voice and gesture that moved Connor, the leader (he was +also stage-manager and chief electrician), to call out, "Good boy, Cap," +and to shake his carefully untrimmed hair in approval.</p> + +<p>After rehearsal, the tenor slipped away just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> as Perkins, with an +artificial smile, approached Lillian.</p> + +<p>The Sophomore was in bed when Perkins came into his room.</p> + +<p>"What did you do about it?" Cap asked, to start things.</p> + +<p>"I simply said I wanted to be excused from taking her to the cotillion."</p> + +<p>"What reason did you give?"</p> + +<p>"None."</p> + +<p>"But you had to give some explanation."</p> + +<p>"She didn't ask for any. She guessed it, probably."</p> + +<p>"What did she say? Try to smooth it over?"</p> + +<p>"No, nothing, except that she was sorry, and that she would have liked +to go with me."</p> + +<p>"Humph," sniffed Cap. "I'll bet she was afraid I hadn't said anything to +you about it, and she wouldn't give herself away as long as you didn't +kick up a row. Now I suppose she expects me to take her."</p> + +<p>"That's where she was keen, all right; she never breathed a word about +you; only made me feel like two-bits in a fog for having turned her +down."</p> + +<p>"If I had been you I would have roasted her right there, fired the whole +string at her."</p> + +<p>This was the point for which the jilted man had come into Cap's room.</p> + +<p>"No," said he, "you said you wouldn't take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> her either, and I thought +that would punish her better than having any scene with me. She'll know +I have had my innings."</p> + +<p>This took Smith where he lived, but he put on a cheerful front, +perforce:</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll crawl gracefully out of it, to-morrow," said he. "I suppose +she'll be hopping when she thinks it over."</p> + +<p>Perkins went up to his room satisfied.</p> + +<p>When Cap Smith caught Miss Arnold at the post-office, he began to find +that it was easier to plan a graceful crawling out than to execute the +movement.</p> + +<p>"I shall have to take back what I said yesterday about the cotillion," +he began, cleverly, guiding her toward Roble, "because, you see, it +wouldn't be just square to Ted, would it? He might feel hurt, and I +wouldn't have that. We must have six dances, though, anyway."</p> + +<p>This, assuredly, would show her. Unfortunately, Lillian was either dull +or desperate.</p> + +<p>"But he released me last night."</p> + +<p>"Did he?" said Jack. He had started all wrong.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we settled it all very well; he didn't seem to care in the least, +he is so good-natured." She looked as serene as the sky above her, +although she was beginning to have biting suspicions. "So it's all +right."</p> + +<p>Cap Smith's feet had become tangled in crawling; he kicked out +recklessly.</p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, it's not all right. I don't believe in a girl's treating a fellow +like that, and I won't be a party to it."</p> + +<p>"Why did you ask me, then?" she challenged. "To tempt me because you +happened to be president and a girl loves to lead?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not so mean as that. How could I know Perkins had asked you. He +hadn't told me."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you told him about it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I thought that I ought to."</p> + +<p>"After telling me that I might arrange it. It was my business."</p> + +<p>"I knew how you would do it, and I wasn't willing that Ted should be cut +that way."</p> + +<p>"What a lovely friendship!" said Lillian. She was much vexed.</p> + +<p>Smith did not reply at once. The beauty of his friendship with Perkins +did not strike him very heavily at the moment.</p> + +<p>"At any rate, under the circumstances I don't feel that I can take you +to the cotillion."</p> + +<p>"Don't flatter your—" Lillian was too angry to speak without crying, so +she went into the Hall abruptly.</p> + +<p>With the approach of Washington's Birthday, the rage of Miss Arnold +grew. Inasmuch as everyone took it for granted that she was going with +Perkins, it was not likely that she would be asked again, instead, late +beginners, running cards for themselves and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> other people, asked her for +dances, and rather than admit her predicament she let them fill her +card.</p> + +<p>The afternoon of the cotillion she went to bed and was ill for a day; +then she appeared at the final rehearsal with a smiling face and a soul +full of wrath. She had very little to say to Smith, but otherwise she +showed no resentment, and her acting was as good as ever. One wiser than +Cap Smith would have augured ill from her fair seeming, a less confident +man would have been on his guard; but he had forgotten all that he had +ever read about the fury of women scorned, and he went to his doom +unconscious.</p> + +<p>The Gym had never held a bigger audience, and the opera, as usual, was +proving itself the greatest success in the annals of Stanford +theatricals; the show was so inoffensively proper, Connor declared with +a sigh, that it was disgusting. No hitch or jar marred the perfect +running of the performance, and the conductor, directing the +scene-shifting between acts, stopped now and then to shake hands with +himself. The borrowed scenery almost fitted; there was no wait of more +than half an hour; very few of the chorus got out of tune; the costumes +had been expunged by a board of lady managers and declared officially to +have no <i>Said Pasha</i> tendencies; the leading ladies were actually +keeping their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> tempers; things moved on as smoothly as though the Fates +were deadening suspicion in order to make the coming catastrophe the +more overwhelming.</p> + +<p>The third act drew on. The low comedian had just finished joshing back +and forth with the bleachers, whose chorus work had equalled, in some +respects, that on the stage. A soft light began to illumine the painted +heavens, and a three-hundred-candle-power Luna, the pride and joy of +Connor's heart, rose in wavering majesty. The house was quiet now, +listening to Smith's solo to Lillian in the moonlit garden. The music +swept softly on to the close of the song. As Jack took a deep breath for +his tender love-note, the note that was to make men sigh and women +quiver, Lillian leaned closer to him, as if drawn by the caressing +sweetness in his voice, and one round, white arm stole about his neck in +the prettiest gesture imaginable. No one knew that with the other hand +she had quickly drawn out the big black pin that held the flowers on her +breast. One wicked jab, and the precious high note broke in a wild +"ouch" of pain.</p> + +<p>The bleachers laughed uproariously.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="ONE_COMMENCEMENT" id="ONE_COMMENCEMENT"></a>ONE COMMENCEMENT.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p> +<h2>One Commencement.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></h2> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Within the camp they lie, the young, the brave;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Half knight, half schoolboy, acolytes of fame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pledged to one altar, and perchance one grave."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<p class="citation">Bret Harte.</p> +</div></div> + + +<p>There is one Wednesday morning, the last in May, when the sun, peeping +over the observatory dome on Mount Hamilton and flooding the wide valley +of Santa Clara, wakes unfeelingly a reluctant set of mortals to the +realization that this is the last of their mornings.</p> + +<p>The girl in Roble who has lived four happy, independent years where the +winds of freedom blow, and who is going back this afternoon to the +household duties and narrow sympathies of a not over-interesting home, +leans thoughtfully on the foot-rail of her iron bed; the dear, familiar +view blurs as she gazes out beyond the dormitory room and its +reminiscent treasures of program and photograph, out where the warm +light brightens <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>the concrete pillars of the museum and the arboretum +with its waving tops, and makes the whole fair landscape one Field of +the Cloth of Gold.</p> + +<p>The Encina student who has slaved his uneasy way, with no resources save +his willingness to do anything that may help him from one semester to +the next, springs exultantly from his alcove, for to-day he has finished +the struggle, and there is a good job waiting for him.</p> + +<p>Over in the fraternity house, the man who has sung his grasshopper songs +in careless disregard of changing seasons, and who has found some +impossible examinations barring his primrose path, blinks painfully at +the merciless sun of Commencement Day, laughing at him above the roofs +of siren Mayfield, and holds his foolish head in his hands; for last +night, while the other Seniors, full of honors and regrets, were trying +to choke down a little of the good-bye supper after the Promenade, he +went a bit too far in celebrating his mixed emotions of grief at +flunking and joy at coming back again.</p> + +<p>Upon all alike—upon him who has watched for it, dreading it through +four enchanted years, as upon him who has forgotten until the list of +candidates for graduation glared at him from the registrar's +bulletin-board with a vacancy in that section where his name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> ought to +be; upon him who has hoped for this as a commencement in very truth of +things great and new, as upon him who cares not—shines this early +sunlight of the last Wednesday in May.</p> + +<p>There is never a cloud in the sky this morning; the meadow lark sings +more joyously than on any other day; the campus is more radiantly +beautiful, because some hundred and fifty people are looking at it +through tears for the last time.</p> + +<hr style='width: 35%;' /> + +<p>On his own Commencement Day, Tom Ashley lay sleeping, hidden away from +the splendor of the morning, two-score miles from the smiling campus.</p> + +<p>The man lying next him in the upper tier but one rolled over and shook +him by the shoulder:</p> + +<p>"Wake up, Tom; it's Commencement Day! Don't you want your degree?"</p> + +<p>The Senior struggled back from sleep; a dream influence lingered with +him, a vision of a cloistered enclosure, a dream in which all his +senses, now assailed by the sights and smells and sounds of a +troop-ship, drew in again the familiar things; he beheld the red tiles +a-shimmer above the yellow stone; the aromatic scent of budding +eucalyptus was in his nostrils, the sound of the young laughter of women +in his ears. He sat up, gazing un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>certainly at the dark, crowded space, +the narrow stairway, the great iron racks covered with gray-blanketed +shapes; then he crawled into his uniform and out on the ship's deck. The +early dawn had set the towers of the city glittering; already the low +wharf-sheds along the water-front were astir with life. Back of the town +the twin peaks, named by the early Franciscans for a woman's breasts, +rose veiled with a filmy scarf of fog. Everywhere below them spangled +flags in myriads flapped from the tops of the city and among the crowded +shipping.</p> + +<p>Ashley leaned over the rail of the <i>Peking</i> and watched the yellow tide +slide by with its burden of dèbris. Not far away in the stream lay the +other two transports, unattended; it was too early for the fussy craft +that curtseyed about them during the day. At three o'clock that +afternoon these vessels were to sail for the distant Philippines, +bearing arms against the ancient country of the Spanish Fathers—the +pioneers who had shown the Saxon the way to this golden coast and had +made vine and rose flourish for him on the barren sandhills, that he +might now strip from the land of their forefathers the last possession +of a dying empire. By the strange turnings of history, from the very +city of their patron saint the New World was sending forth its first +hostile expedition against the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> Old, and the great community that had +grown from their nestling mission of Dolores would shriek Godspeed to +these enemies of Old Spain.</p> + +<p>Nothing of this was in Ashley's mind as he watched the water lapping at +the beach-side of the transports. He kept saying over in his mind the +words of his bunk-mate, "It's Commencement Day! Don't you want your +degree?"</p> + +<p>In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Tom, looking at his coarse +blue uniform, smiled as he thought on his plans for Graduation Week. +Those feet, now clad in new government gunboats, were to have waltzed +but two nights before in shining patent-leather at the head of the +Senior Ball. Only yesterday he should have been galloping around the +bases in fantastic costume at the Senior-Faculty game. Monday afternoon, +when he should have been before the Chapel site with Her, listening to +the glories of the Class as told over its freshly-mortared plate, he was +tramping on the wrenching cobble-stones of Market Street with a bunch of +roses in his campaign hat and another in his gun barrel, and the city +going mad on the curbing. Lord High Ruler of the Senior dance and +counsellor in all the affairs of the Class, he was cooped up with a +thousand others on the troopship <i>City of Peking</i>, a sergeant at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +eighteen a month and lucky to get so much, with a chain of superiors +ordering his comings and goings.</p> + +<p>All this because of the destruction of an American battleship in the +harbor of Havana.</p> + +<p>The notes of a bugle-call drifted across the water from the nearest +transport, and Tom's mind went back to the time when the unfamiliar +sound was first heard on the Stanford campus. It seemed like a very old +memory, although it was but three weeks past. He remembered how, when +the recruiting sergeant came down from the city, the after-dinner crowd +used to sit on the Hall steps watching him drill the men in the +moonlight. After drill, they would loaf in his Hall room, talking it +over, and when the civilians had drifted off to bed or to the inglorious +studies of a routine now ended for Tom, he would sit with "Nosey" Marion +and blow smoke. Neither spoke much, only a word now and then, but they +were thinking of the same thing.</p> + +<p>The days passed; the college used to drop out between recitations to +watch them drilling on the football field; the uniforms arrived, and +then the orders. There was a baseball rally that night, but when the +enlisted men came into the Hall and word was passed that they were going +on the morrow, the occasion was all theirs. Marion, who had been twice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +on the debating team, stood up, looking slimmer than ever in his plain +blue, and spoke for them. He said only simple things; it was not like +his speech of a year before, when his impassioned arguments turned +defeat into victory at the Inter-Collegiate; but the crowd listened with +their eyes on the floor and applauded with their hands only when he had +done, because they couldn't trust their voices. They sang the terrible +"Battle Hymn of the Republic" after that; Langdon led it. "Peg" could +hardly carry a tune with that awful voice of his, but he sang the verses +so that the chills ran down your back and you had to join in the chorus, +"Our God is marching on."</p> + +<p>Next day they themselves were marching on, forty of them, with hardly a +thought of what they were leaving behind, their minds fixed on the +distant Isles of Philip. Tom had never expected to leave the campus in +that spirit. He loved it all, from the quiet slopes by Frenchman's Lake +to that lofty redwood treetop, first rampart of the smiling city to the +eager Freshman, last long-watched glimpse of the land of his memories to +the reluctant Senior.</p> + +<p>He had always felt that it would be a tug to say good-bye, yet he, too, +his mind over-seas, had gone away to town with hardly a thought. He had +time to reflect in that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> dreary fortnight at the Presidio when the +unseasonable rains drenched his tent, and the wretched routine of beans +and coffee hurt the romance of enlistment.</p> + +<p>The life had its compensating features. Every city girl he had ever met +in College or town society came out to camp and asked for him at K +Street—K Street with its saucy cardinal flag waving above the first +tent to the left. Most of them brought candy; a vary few, with +super-feminine understanding, made it beer; one, she was a genius, sent +over on a drizzling evening a piping-hot steak. Then, too, he had three +white angles on his sleeve and "Sergeant Ashley" sounded well. Cap Smith +was not even a corporal; the emphasis with which Cap mentioned the fact +showed anything but college spirit.</p> + +<p>These things made it easier not to think about the campus and what the +rest of the fellows were doing, but the old life came drifting in after +all. Sometimes, after the long, hard morning drill on the green slope +beyond the car-track, between drill and the welcome mess-call, Marion +would come into the Sergeant's tent and they would sit apart to talk +about the Faculty game or the Senior ball and the dances they had +expected to put on their cards. Each Saturday some of the boys came up +and brought the campus news. One time, all enlisted Stanford tumbled +out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> of their tents, every last one of them, to welcome a big, +slow-moving, slow-speaking man, who plays first-base at the Commencement +Game. A corporal who had never been to college and who had a newspaper +idea of students, asked if that was the football captain whom they were +crowding around and almost trying to hug, and Marion answered no; that +he was a bigger man than even the head coach. The boys held their +visitor until the officer of the day ordered civilians out of camp, and, +when the unfeeling guard drove him out, they gave the yell in good old +style. The colonel sent his orderly to find what was the matter, for it +was a high offence against martial law, and when the messenger reported +that it was those Stanford kids in K, yelling for their President, his +superior said that he guessed it was all right; this was the first +California regiment, and the old man was a part of the state. This was +before the final dispatches came, before the men learned that they were +going on the first expedition.</p> + +<p>Monday morning and marching orders. On this, the morning of Wednesday, +as he looked across the water and watched the city growing brighter, he +thrilled again with the remembrance of that feeling, that purely +physical tingling of the nerves, which came over him at the barracks +when he lifted his gun to start. The load on his back was snug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> and +light as he stood there in marching rig; how much heavier and harder it +was to grow before he should stand on American soil again, he could not +know. Then, the shuffling of many feet and the flutter of a flag outside +the stone gates, so strangely like the gates which stand at the entrance +of the Land of his Memories—and his Commencement week had begun.</p> + +<p>Class Day, from that time, on, lay in his memory a mass of unassimilated +matter to be thought out in the long weeks of idleness on the <i>Peking's</i> +blistering deck. The crowd, huge, wild, packed from building to curb, +the merry, merry flags waving them on, the little kaleidoscopic flashes +of expressions which he caught, when he stopped to look at them, on the +grim faces to right and left,—all these impressions and many more were +jumbled in his brain. He remembered the excitement and sympathy mingled +in the countenances of the people. One or two little things were caught +along with the larger recollections—a woman's face that looked like +Hers and almost made him forget for the moment that She was then +doubtless listening to the Class history; a baby holding a flag in its +little hand, and staring with awed, uncomprehending eyes at the +sober-faced soldiers tramping on and on; a man mounted on a truck crying +above the cheering, "Give 'em hell for us!" A re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>membrance that stood +out above the others was that of someone calling a good-bye to the +Major, of the choke in the officer's voice as he answered. He was an +older man, and his expression of feeling nearly upset Tom. He trudged +on, file-closer for the front rank and six-feet-one of target, and +wondered if he had been a fool after all. It was well enough for those +people yelling acclaim from street and housetop; but they were going +back home, or down to the University, and he—to the troopship, and the +high seas, and after that no telling. The strap of his knapsack hurt +him. They said that Manila was a furnace. He wished that the women would +stop loading them with flowers; he wished that Pellams and the other +fellows wouldn't keep running out to march beside him; didn't they know +how hard he was trying to hold it back? And what did this going amount +to, anyway? If he had staid out, there would have been only one gap in +the company. Then, in a rest, Pellams got to his side with a bottle of +ice-cold Pilsener and Tom pointed its base to the sky and gained +courage.</p> + +<p>There was a falling apart to his right, and he felt rather than saw that +his mother had slipped through the crowd and taken his hand in her slim, +white one, was marching beside him over the cruel cobble-stones; +Pellams, too, closed up on the other side, for the of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>ficers were not +trying to keep the alignment as they drew near the end. These three went +on together, she trying to be brave now that the last had come, Pellams +clumping along over the rough pavement and joking in ecstatic disregard +of the discomfort of his fat body. It was over at last, the mounted +police were pushing back the crowd; it was to be all alone now. The +Stanford men gave their yell together, the volunteer held his mother +close for a moment. Then,—"Company, attention!"—the dock faded into +mist, so that he stumbled on the gangway.</p> + +<p>Not until that night, when a group of them paced along the wharf, had +anyone spoken of Class Day. Cap Smith had started it.</p> + +<p>"They are going to the Ball now," said he.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if Lyman came out ahead on the Show," said Marion, his eye on +the dollar, even at that solemn moment.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if the programs got down in time," said Tom, and then he +laughed to think of himself, the chairman of the Ball committee, +plodding along the splintered dock in a dusty uniform and buff leggings +and with the rudiments of a scraggly beard on his face. It was a queer +ending.</p> + +<p>Down there, the others were floating round, now, to high-priced music +from town. In a little note which Pellams had brought him from Her that +morning, she had said that she was to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> wear a small silk flag instead of +flowers this time. He would have liked to peep in, as he used to from +the gym roof when he was a Freshie, to see if she had really done it.</p> + +<p>During these wharf-edge musings, taps had blown, bringing the men on +board again. On the way up the plank, he remembered, they passed one of +the fellows with his face in his hands, and Tom had to put his arm +around the boy and lead him, so that he might be in quarters in time. +Neither of them could know that this was to be the one who did not +return.</p> + +<p>He had his first sight of the hold, after that, and the truth knocked +out some of the poetry. Ashley, and K Company in general, were quartered +just over the screw; but a man gets used to anything, even to bullets +that sing past your ears and clip off little bamboo leaves about two +feet from your hair. There were twelve hundred men below decks; when +most of the landsmen should be seasick—ugh!</p> + +<p>The second night, Tuesday, he had sat with Cap among the coiled ropes on +deck. Beyond the shipping, the city of hills twinkled at them, striped +with long, sloping lines of dotted light; out of the blackness above, +the crown of the Spreckels building made a circlet like a halo over St. +Francis and his city; across the bay slid the mysterious, luminous +honeycombs of the silent ferry-boats. Far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> aft, the band was trying to +cheer things up with a Sousa march. That very tune was being played, +probably, down there where the Quadrangle, softly glowing with the faint +edging of lanterns, shimmered in the fairy-land mystery of long +palm-studded vistas, a-flutter with white dresses.</p> + +<p>"They are saying good-bye to each other, now," said Tom, by way of a +feeler.</p> + +<p>"Humph!" said Cap. He was flat on his back, looking up at the stars. "It +doesn't mean anything. When you're going to pull out across the Pacific +for God knows what, then it's different."</p> + +<p>"I didn't expect to spend this evening lying on a ship's deck," murmured +Tom. He was thinking of what the Promenade Concert usually means to +people who have been taught something by co-education. That good-bye, +said in the Quadrangle when the music and the thoughtless people have +gone and the lanterns blaze up and drop, one after another, and lie +smoldering on the moonlit asphalt; those last words with people from +whom you have concealed yourself these four years and to whom you can +now afford to lay open your heart, as can the happy dead, because your +ways after to-night may lie apart,—Tom knew that this good-bye does +mean something, in spite of the superior announcement of Sophomore +Smith. Only it meant more to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> a fellow lying thinking about it among the +ropes of a transport's deck, with the Spaniards in prospect.</p> + +<p>Cap's cigarette shone like a glowworm in the shadow of the stack.</p> + +<p>"Our good-bye supper will be sloppy weather, all right;" said he. "Six +going out."</p> + +<p>"No," answered Tom, "it won't be a drunk to-night, Cap. You haven't been +in long enough. I'll bet they don't get through the first case; I'll bet +it's a cry. You didn't see '95 go out."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps," assented the Sophomore. "The fellows are pretty well +worked up."</p> + +<p>Tom went back to his Freshman days.</p> + +<p>"I remember our '95 feed in the Hall. Stanton cried that night, and +Gray. I never saw them do it before." Then, more slowly, "It must be +tough on a girl."</p> + +<p>After which he was not talkative.</p> + +<p>There was little enough, this last morning, to suggest Commencement, as +he leaned on the damp rail of the ship and dreamed over the last few +days. A voice at his elbow said:</p> + +<p>"Captain wants you, Sergeant."</p> + +<p>Tom started out of his reverie, and the military tilt came into his +back. He was not a student bidding the College farewell; he was a +sergeant at eighteen a month and lucky to get so much.</p> + +<p>The city had awakened when he came to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> the rail again. There was a tense +feeling abroad, a gathering excitement that grew through the morning. +All manner of water-craft fussed and fumed and dodged around the +transports,—tugs, rowboats, launches and clumsy river steamers strung +with flags and black with civilians. One tug that hung close by shone +with more color than the others by reason of the women crowding it; Tom +could discern the face of his mother looking, looking with yearning eyes +that would have called him back. He drew a quick breath of surprise and +his hands tightened on the black rigging. There on the tug, standing +beside his mother instead of among those who were saying good-bye to the +Campus, he saw the Other One.</p> + +<hr style='width: 35%;' /> + +<p>Soon after three, the screw throbbed, moved, the craft wheeled into +lines flanking the huge vessel; the noises of the city awoke:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"For the large birds of prey<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They'll carry you away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And you'll never see your soldiers any more."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The grey town lay back among her hills, shrieking with every manner of +mechanical voice her farewell to the troops. Above this uproar rose and +fell the weird sobbing of a siren and a cannon from the top of a +sky-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>scraper boomed in at solemn intervals. On the roofs were knots of +people flashing white signals of Godspeed; when the wind was right, one +could catch, very faintly, the sound of their cheering.</p> + +<p>The flotilla drew around the curving water-front and toward the Gate. To +the left, the remains of the camp dotted the plain below the Presidio +hills; every last man of them was on the bulkhead in front of the fort, +waving his brown hat and cheering the lucky devils who went first. The +great hill guns bellowed good-bye as the transports slipped through the +gleaming strait. Gradually the convoy wheeled 'round again, the bigger +vessels keeping up until outside the Heads. Then the first expedition +went on alone.</p> + +<p>Tom Ashley, Senior and 'Varsity fullback, with his eyes wet in spite of +himself, set his face to the west. The round sun hung red above the +horizon; a few seconds earlier, it had looked over the Palo Alto hills +at the deserted University campus. Beyond the ship, a path of gold lay +out toward Manila and its future. Marion, leaning beside him, looked +back at the fading line of surf below the Cliff House.</p> + +<p>"Well, Tom," he said, a bit huskily, "Commencement Day's over."</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the Sergeant, without turning, "we're up against it, all +right!"<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> On May 25, 1898, Commencement Day at the University, the +First California Volunteers sailed for the Philippine Islands. With +Company K of that regiment went thirty-five Stanford students, a part of +the hundred who volunteered, in various regiments, for the Spanish War.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +</p></div> +</div> + + +<div class="trans_note"> +<p class="center"><big>Transcriber's Note</big></p> +<p> + +Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvious +typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes and the like) have +been fixed. Corrections in the text are noted below, with corrections +inside the brackets: +</p> + +<p> +<a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents:</a> The Substituted Full-back[Fullback]<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#CONTENTS">Table of Contents:</a>A Song-cycle[Song Cycle] and a Puncture<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#Page_21">page 21:</a> typo fixed: "Ill[I'll] be hanged if I will!" shouted the patient<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#Page_106">page 106:</a> typo fixed: special runs up on the University track and stops betwen[between] the Library and Encina<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#Page_141">page 141:</a> typo fixed: all right at a city college or even at Berkeley, but on this campus, nit[not] so!"<br /> +<br /> +<a href="#Page_270">page 270:</a> typo fixed: when the civilians had drifted off to ed[bed] or to the inglorious studies of a routine</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stanford Stories, by +Charles K. Field and Will H. 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mode 100644 index 0000000..6a1e5f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/24735-page-images/p0280.png diff --git a/24735-page-images/p0281.png b/24735-page-images/p0281.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9439bd9 --- /dev/null +++ b/24735-page-images/p0281.png diff --git a/24735.txt b/24735.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..909acd4 --- /dev/null +++ b/24735.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6715 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Stanford Stories, by Charles K. Field and Will H. Irwin + +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: Stanford Stories + Tales of a Young University + +Author: Charles K. Field + Will H. Irwin + +Release Date: March 2, 2008 [EBook #24735] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STANFORD STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +STANFORD STORIES + +TALES OF A +YOUNG UNIVERSITY + +BY + +CHARLES K. FIELD + [CAROLUS AGER] + +AND + +WILL H. IRWIN + +_ILLUSTRATED_ + + + +NEW YORK +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY +1900 + +Copyright, 1900, by +Doubleday, Page & Co. + + +BLANCHARD PRESS, NEW YORK. + + + * * * * * + + +DEDICATION. + + + "To the newest born of the Sisters, + At the end of the race's march, + In her quaint, old Spanish garment, + Pillar and tile and arch; + Awaiting the age that hallows, + Her face to the coming morn-- + Whose scholars still walk in her cloisters, + Whose martyrs are yet unborn." + + + "We scatter down the four wide ways, + Clasp hands and part, but keep + The power of the golden days + To lull our care asleep, + And dream, while our new years we fill + With sweetness from those four, + That we are known and loved there still, + Though we come back no more." + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +These are stories of the University as it was before the era of new +buildings. While the attempt has been made to create, in character, +incident and atmosphere, a picture of Stanford life, the stories, as +stories, are fiction, with the exception of "Pocahontas, Freshman," and +"Boggs' Election Feed," which were suggested by local occurrences, and +"One Commencement," which is mainly fact. The original draft of "His +Uncle's Will" was printed in _The Sequoia_ with the title "The Fate of +Freshman Hatch." + +It may be necessary to add that, in the endeavor to present the actual +life of the University, it has seemed quite inadvisable to edit the +conversation of the characters from the standpoint of the English +purist. Since, however, those readers who boggle over slang could hardly +be much interested in the Undergraduate, it is sufficient merely to call +attention to the point. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + A Midwinter Madness, 3 + + Pocahontas, Freshman, 29 + + His Uncle's Will, 55 + + The Initiation of Dromio, 77 + + The Substituted Fullback, 91 + + Two Pioneers and an Audience, 119 + + For the Sake of Argument, 135 + + An Alumni Dinner, 171 + + Boggs' Election Feed, 185 + + In the Dark Days, 207 + + Crossroads, 223 + + A Song Cycle and a Puncture, 249 + + One Commencement, 265 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAST THE LONELY REDWOOD TREE TO THE UNIVERSITY, _Frontispiece_ + + ... TOWARD THE LA HONDA REDWOODS, _Facing page_ 148 + + A STROLL IN THE MOONLIT QUAD, PLANNED TO INTEREST THE CROWD + AT THE TUESDAY EVENING LECTURE, _Facing page_ 154 + + ... THEN THE LULL DURING CLASS, _Facing page_ 200 + + + + +A MIDWINTER MADNESS. + + + + +STANFORD STORIES. + + + + +A Midwinter Madness. + + Genius has been defined as a capacity for taking pains. + + +When a college man's good fairy makes her first call at his cradle, she +may bestow upon him the football instinct, with muscles to match; no +fairy could do more. But if she bumps up against Heredity, and is +powerless to give him the supreme gift, she may compensate for it in a +degree by leaving the kind of larynx and tympanum used in the Glee Club. +Failing this, she may render next best service by throwing a mandolin in +his way and bewitching his parents into paying for lessons. Some twenty +years later, behind the enchanted scenes of a specially hired theater, +or on the polished floor of society's inner temple, he may think of the +fairy kindly. + +Doubtless, all theatrical life means drudgery, but the Christmas tour of +the Glee and Mandolin clubs is drudgery amidst bowers of roses. The +hard-working professional would call it play; yet, even in this gilded +stage-life, there is the common affliction of being forced to appear at +every concert, and in places you don't care about--unless, of course, +you happen to be seriously ill. + +The Clubs had just done an abbreviated stunt for the Los Angeles High +School the afternoon before Christmas. The occasion was a big ad., but +they ripped matters through in a hurry, because the social event of the +trip came that afternoon--Lillian Arnold's reception at her home on +Figuerroa Street. + +At Hacienda Arnold there is running water along the garden copings, and +the grounds are large. It was bud-time, and the heavy fragrance of the +orange blossoms mingled with the bitter-almond smell of oleanders. Miss +Arnold served her refreshments on the lawn, and the girls looked peachy +in plume-laden hats and filmy organdies. The day was rather warm for +December. To this out-door reception came the prettiest girl in Los +Angeles, Dolores Payson; her full name, she confided to Cecil Van Dyke +that evening with a slight but captivating roll of her Andalusian eyes +and r's, was Dolores Ynez Teresa Payson. Van Dyke was the only man on +the trip who had thought to bring his summer togs, and he looked very +swell. Van played first mandolin and was notoriously susceptible. It is +down in the Club annals that she caught his game at first sight. + +Had she been given to genealogical investigation, the name Van Dyke +might have recalled to this descendant of many hidalgos that foggy +battle-field in the Netherlands on which her ancestor and his took +pot-shots at each other with the primitive cross-bow. Motley records +that on that day far-gone Holland laid low the Spaniard. The present +historian is forced to chronicle the final triumph of Spain. The only +bow used in this last encounter was in the hands of a mythological +person whose existence is doubted only by scoffers. + +They tried a dance or two in the crowded rooms, they strolled out into +the gardens, they ate ices under the roses in a secluded arbor. The +place, the time, the air had their influence on Van Dyke. He was from +Montana, where the magnolias do not shed their waxen petals at +Christmas, and the gold-of-Ophir roses sternly refuse to leaf until the +Fourth of July. + +Perhaps he might have withstood all the seductive charms of the hour if +he had not escorted Dolores home and essayed to bid her good-bye. There +was a great clump of flaming poinsettia at the Payson gate. Dolores was +dark, with a rich southern complexion; her dress was white. So she stood +against the poinsettia. That is why there is more to this story. + +Van Dyke meditated as he went into town. She was the finest girl he had +ever met. It was a hard graft, this playing one day in a live town where +one could meet charming people, and being forced to take the train next +morning for some uninteresting country place where they would have to +lounge around a cheap hotel until concert time. Why couldn't the manager +get up a schedule that would give them a day or so longer in a place +like Los Angeles? This making a college trip with the sole idea of +money-getting was degrading. He, for one, was willing enough to pay his +share of the extra expense. + +On his way he stopped at a florist's. It was a habit he had acquired +under similar circumstances. He was puzzled to know just what to send in +a land where the highways and hedges run riot with flowers, but he +finally selected some wonderful orchids of delicate lavender and mauve. +Purposely, he put no card with them, feeling that she would guess the +sender. + +He got into his dress clothes in rather an ungracious humor. Pomona was +the next place, a fruit town further south. Oh, it was too bad! Well, at +least he would see her again at the concert that night. He was grateful +for this much. Her seat was on an aisle, she told him; he would be able +to speak to her during the intermission; more than this, she had said, +in her best convent manner, that he might ride home with her papa and +mamma afterwards. + +Still, this was an unsatisfactory way of carrying on an affair of the +sort, especially when it was the first really serious one he had ever +had. Clean out of Van's mind had faded the memory of a Montana cow-girl, +a San Francisco actress, a senior in the Lambda Mu sorority, a----but +space forbids. He mussed three ties. Freshmen are petulant things. + +Perkins, who led the Mandolin Club, joshed him at dinner. + +"What's the matter, my boy; didn't you have a good time this afternoon?" + +"Of course he didn't," answered a guitar man. "You must have noticed his +bored expression all through; that is, when you saw him at all." + +"That was merely the blase look that comes with four months at the +Youngest and Best," said "Cap." Smith. "The Freshman was happy on his +little inside because he was so well got up. He really looked the part; +now he's in ordinary clothes, like a common strolling player, and he +feels cross." + +"No," growled Van Dyke, "I've caught cold or something." + +"Oh," said Phillips, the Glee Club leader. He took up his table fork and +bit the end; holding it to his ear he gave the table a starting chord, +and they hummed "Ma Onliest One," while Van grew red, and the rest of +the dining-room stopped to listen. + +Dolores Payson sat in an orchestra seat and smiled up at the immaculate +Mr. Van Dyke, above the only bunch of orchids in the theatre. He came to +chat with her during the interval between "La Czarina" and "Schneider's +Band." She was doubly guarded by her father on one side and her mother +on the other. It was a way they had. She introduced him demurely with an +adorable little wave of her black fan. He wondered if, should he quit +college right away, he could get a job which would enable him to support +a wife. He looked at the placid, olive-skinned mother, not yet old +enough to be very fat, and decided that he could; his glance wandered to +the angular, sharp-featured American father, and he was sure he +couldn't. + +Van could not remember ever having seen such great, dark liquid eyes as +now melted into his. It seemed hard not to behold them again for a whole +week. Hard? It was impossible. It was dreadful to leave her for the +little time while the mandolin club was on the stage. On his way up the +aisle his freshman brain was seized and overmastered by a brilliant +idea; he almost stopped to pat himself on the shoulder. + +Going into one of the dressing rooms, he sank dejectedly on a chair and +pressed his hand to his forehead. Perkins, gathering in his musicians +for the next piece, found him there. + +"Come along, Freshie." + +The first mandolin rose slowly. + +"What's the matter?" asked the leader. + +"Oh, nothing," said the other, "I'll be all right." + +After the piece he went back to the dressing-room. + +"Encore!" cried Perkins, rushing in. + +"I can't help it," said Van, in a contracted tone, "I can't go on." + +"Why not?" demanded Perkins. + +"I'm in awful pain, Ted," pleaded Van. "Something I've eaten, I guess. I +can hardly stand up straight." + +"Oh, rats!" answered Perkins sympathetically, and tore out again. + +Van took his coat and mandolin and disappeared. Between numbers he came +in and slipped down the aisle to the Paysons' seats. + +"Will you excuse me, Miss Payson? I can't go home with you after the +concert. I'm awfully sorry, but I feel pretty sick and I'm going back to +the hotel now." + +"Oh, what is it?" Dolores asked, and her mother leaned forward with +polite interest. + +Van smiled weakly. + +"Nothing serious, probably," he said. "Don't worry, please. I won't say +good-bye," he added, taking Dolores' hand, "because if I _have_ to stay +over to-morrow I shall try to see you in the morning." + +"Oh, I hope you'll be better, and I shall look for you." + +Then Mason came out to sing, and Van left with a hurried good-night. The +streets were full of Christmas shoppers. At the first drug store he +bought some Jamaica ginger; then he went to the hotel and slid into bed, +leaving the lights on. + +After the concert Perkins did not go to the cafe with the rest; he, too, +hastened back to the hotel. + +"I'll bet he's at the Payson ranch this minute," he thought, as he made +for Van's room, but the sick musician was lying on his face, breathing +heavily. + +"Well, what's the matter, anyway?" said Perkins, his suspicions fading. + +"I don't know," groaned Van. "It came on all of a sudden at the theatre. +The pain is here on my right side. Gee whiz, it knocks me out!" + +"Shan't I get a doctor?" asked the leader. "What do you think it is?" + +"Of course," moaned the sufferer, "it may be appendicitis,--I don't +think that could hurt more,--but it can hardly be anything like that. +I've taken the ginger, and it will set me up, probably." + +"You ought to have a doctor look at you, though. It's dangerous to put +it off," urged Perkins. + +"No," said Van. "I'll stick it out to-night, and if I'm not better +to-morrow, why, you may get one. Never mind me, Ted. Where is the gang?" + +"They're all down in the Grotto." + +"Go on and join them; don't stay here, it isn't necessary. I'll be all +right, I say, and I can ring if I'm not. Come in in the morning, won't +you?" + +"Sure. The train goes at ten-fifteen, you know. We can't get along +without you very well." + +"Oh, I'll be fit in the morning. So long, old man." + +"Good-night," and Perkins shut the door. + +The Freshman lay still awhile, then got up and, smiling broadly, turned +out the lights and tumbled back to sleep. + +Meanwhile Perkins joined the men at the restaurant. + +"Van Dyke is sick," he said. "I've just been up in his room." + +"What's the matter?" + +"We don't know. He's afraid it's appendicitis." + +"I'll tell you what it is," said Mason, the baritone; "it's heart +trouble. I wouldn't believe that man Van under a triple oath, if there +were a skirt in the case." + +"You won't have to search far in this case," laughed a deep bass voice +behind a cool stein. + +"Oh, I don't think so," protested Perkins; "he looked bad, bad. I think +it's square enough." + +"Don't you believe him a minute. I'll bet it's a fake, pure and simple." + +"He couldn't expect to work one on us." + +"Why not? The time the Mandolin Club went North with the Berkeley Glee +somebody played the same blooming game. It worked all right then and +they joshed the life out of the leader, too. I heard Shirlock tell about +it." + +The Freshman should never have allowed himself to go to sleep so easily. +By the time Perkins and Mason tiptoed up to his room, he was sprawled +out on his back, snoring with a healthfulness that was positively +vulgar. Mason gave the leader a significant punch and drew him down the +hall to his room. + +"See here, Perk," he said, "if he keeps up that gag to-morrow I have a +scheme that is a pipe." + +The invalid wore a woe-begone expression when the two fellows went in +before breakfast. + +"Are you any better?" asked Perkins. + +"No," said Van, miserably. "The pain is just as bad. I guess I'll have +to see a doctor after all." + +"How did you sleep?" inquired Perkins. + +"Bum. My fever was high all night," moaned the sufferer. "I heard you +fellows come up, and I hoped someone might drop in. I suppose you were +all too sleepy." + +"Yes," said Mason, with a side look at Perkins, "everybody went right to +sleep." + +"Well," said the leader, "we'll go down to breakfast now, and then we +will get a doctor to see you before we have to go." + +Neither of them stopped to eat. They hurried first to the Polyclinic. +There Perkins asked for the name of one or two physicians who were known +to have little practice, and who could afford to take charge of a man +who would require constant attention for a week, a middle-aged person +preferred. + +The man in charge gave them three names and addresses. They went first +to a Doctor Mead, who displayed his shingle in a quiet street. He was a +big, slow-spoken man, somewhat shabbily dressed. + +Jimmy Mason approached him with such hesitation in his voice as befitted +the part he was playing. They wanted the doctor on a delicate matter, he +explained; it was a private affair which lay very near to them, Perkins +added. + +"You see," said Jimmy, "we're all cut up. Poor little devil----" and his +voice broke artistically, while Perkins forebore to grin. + +"Perhaps the case is not so grave as it seems," said the doctor, with +professional calm. + +"I don't see how it could be any worse." Jimmy controlled his emotion +with an effort. "If it were just common sickness, but--but he's lost +some of his buttons--bughouse, crazy you know,--" his giggle turned into +a sob again, and Perkins, bearing up under his trouble, took the thread +of the story. + +"You see, Doctor, we are musicians from Stanford, travelling through +here; something has happened to one of our party; I don't know what's +the matter: some hallucination." + +"It struck him first at Santa Barbara," said Mason. "He thought that he +was very ill one evening when he was tired; said he was sure he was +coming down with appendicitis. We sent for Doctor----" + +"Brown," filled in Perkins with presence of mind. + +"A very able man; he stands high in the profession," said the doctor +gravely. + +All three being thus established on a common basis of mendacity, the +head liar proceeded: + +"The doctor couldn't find anything the matter, but the boy--he's only a +Freshman, you see--he raised Cain that night; next day he said he was +as well as ever. It's been like that ever since, Doctor. One hour he's +himself and then he goes to bed and swears he's sick and wants +medicines. We didn't get onto him until last night, when the poor kid +got to acting loco at the concert." + +Perkins played chorus at discreet intervals. + +"I haven't telegraphed to his people because I wouldn't distress them +till we knew. We must go on with the trip now, and we can't spare any of +our men because we took no substitutes; we strike this place again in a +week. You will be paid well for any services, and furnished a room at +the hotel. Now, Doctor, can you arrange with your patients so that he +will have your undivided time?" + +("Bet you haven't any to arrange with," was the unspoken thought of both +men.) + +Dr. Mead pondered. + +"We come to you," Jimmy put in, "because we need someone on whom we can +rely, a man of skill and tact." + +"It happens," said the doctor after minutes of profound deliberation, +"that I have no necessary calls to make until Saturday this week. What I +have to do can be managed over the telephone, and I presume patients can +call upon me at the hotel as well as here. Now, what are the exact +particulars of your friend's aberration?" + +"Can you walk up to the hotel with us, Doctor?" asked Mason, looking at +his watch. "Our train leaves at ten-fifteen; we have very little time +left." + +On the way the two gave to the unfortunate Freshman such peculiarities, +idiosyncrasies and hallucinations as seemed good; they warned the +physician that he must never be left alone, and that he ought to be +humored to the top of his bent in regard to his fancied attack of +appendicitis. + +"Then it's understood?" said Mason, as they came down the hall toward +Van Dyke's room. "Of course we can't speak of the matter before him." + +"Yes," said the doctor, "I think I can manage everything. You will +explain to the clerk in the office the peculiar character of your +friend's illness, and I shall have no trouble, I am sure." + +"All right," said Perkins, and they entered. There were several of the +club in the room saying good-bye. At the entrance of the physician they +filed out. + +"Where have you the most pain, Mr. Van Dyke?" began Dr. Mead. + +"Here," said Van, without a blush. + +The physician pressed his fingers upon the afflicted region, felt Van's +pulse and forehead and gravely examined his tongue; then he turned to +the two men and said: + +"It is probably appendicitis. The boy must stay in bed for the present." + +"Hate to leave you, Van," Mason said, taking the sick man's hand gently; +"but it's almost train time. Take care of yourself and do as the doctor +says, and you'll be O. K." + +"Good-bye, old man," said Perkins. "Have 'em telegraph right along; we +shall want to know just how you are. We shall have to cut the string +quartet, and that's pretty hard with Pellams out of the trip, but don't +feel bad about that. You'll be nifty by the time we are on for the +return concert." + +"Good-bye," said the man with appendicitis, assuming the look of one who +may be taking his last farewell of earthly things. "I shall come out all +right, I'm sure I shall." + +"Course. Good-bye. Doctor, look out for him." + +"Send up some paper from the office, will you?" murmured the Freshman +wearily. "I--I think I want to write to my mother." + +Ten minutes later the bell-boy brought the paper and a Bible. + +Dr. Mead arranged the bedclothes with a practised hand, then he sent out +for medicine and chatted affably until the stuff arrived. Van submitted +to a plaster on his abdomen and alternated messes for half-hour +intervals. He was contented enough. Early afternoon would be a good time +to find Dolores. + +The doctor settled himself by the window and talked about the University +and politics and climatic conditions in Montana and California; the +musician joined in the conversation politely but without great +enthusiasm, wondering when the man was going; there was not any too much +time now for breakfast and a careful toilet. He ventured to speak. + +"If you have other patients that call you, Doctor, you mustn't stay with +me. I can get along, even if it is lonely in a hotel, and you'll be in +again to-day, won't you?" + +"Appendicitis," said the doctor, with his heaviest air, "is not a thing +to be treated lightly. Just now you are in a critical condition inasmuch +as we are not sure what turn your trouble may take. You are likely to be +seized suddenly with the usual symptoms: then an operation will be an +immediate necessity. I have the needed instruments right here in my +valise, and I can give you relief at once. If, however, I should leave +you, I might not be within reach until serious complications had time to +arise; for that reason I shall be obliged to watch you through to-day. +Afterwards it may not be necessary." + +This speech fairly paralyzed the man in bed. Had he done this artistic +bit of acting for the purpose of spending his Christmas on the flat of +his back talking to a prosy old doctor? He lay still, trying to think +what answer could be made to this physician who told him seriously that +he had appendicitis. He put out a feeler. + +"That medicine of yours is the real thing. The pain is very much less +now." + +Dr. Mead looked at him over his glasses. + +"Is it entirely gone?" + +"Yes," answered Van, cheerily, "it certainly is." + +"That is a dangerous symptom. The plaster should have drawn the pain to +the surface, but not stopped it. That numbness is exactly what I wished +to avoid." + +He rose and poured out medicine from another bottle. Van nearly choked +in swallowing this. It was eleven o'clock. Sounds of Christmas revelry +floated even into his secluded upper room. The bells were telling to the +people of the City of the Angels their message of peace on earth, good +will toward men; they were dinning into the ears of the victim of a +modern disease the fact that he ought at that moment to be waiting for +Dolores on her pious way to Mission Los Angeles. He pictured her with +some ancient missal in her slender hands, and flanked on one side by her +sympathetic duenna of a mother. The certainty that her American father +would be safe at home did not detract from the charm of the situation. + +"The drinks seem to be on me!" thought he after his next dose. The sun +of southern California was shining brightly out of doors; it must be a +glorious day at Westlake Park. The bedclothes were warm and irksome, and +that confounded plaster had begun to itch. If he was ever to see Dolores +again he should have to make a clean breast of the whole thing. + +He sat up. + +"Say, Doctor, I haven't appendicitis at all; I am as well as I ever was. +I just put this up as a joke on the fellows because I wanted to stay in +town instead of going farther south. I've imposed on you, I'm sorry to +say. I haven't any pain whatever. I was faking." + +"Yes," said the doctor, soothingly, "I knew you were, but you are not +well at all, my boy, and my advice to you is to stay right there in bed. +You have appendicitis symptoms in spite of there being no pain, and you +might do yourself no end of harm by getting up now. I wouldn't let any +man go out of doors after taking that belladonna for the world. It would +be suicidal." + +"But, Doctor, I'm not sick, I tell you; I feel out of sight," and Van +threw off the clothes and was about to spring out, plaster and all. + +Dr. Mead thought it time to act. + +"Get back in there," he said, quietly but firmly. He was a man of +powerful physique and Van thought it best to obey until he could reason +with him. + +"I know what I am talking about, young man," he went on, "and you must +listen to me. I want you to stay in bed." + +This was too much. + +"I'll be hanged if I will!" shouted the patient, preparing to rise. + +"Keep covered up!" ordered the doctor. He had a big, deep voice. He +stood a little way off, with his forefinger pointed at the student, +sighting over it with a cold, gray eye. Something in his manner began to +frighten Van. He shivered under the bedclothes. A hideous story which he +had read about a maniac barber came into his mind with sickening effect. +The man's whole appearance, all his actions, his eager grasping of the +appendicitis theory, proclaimed insanity. He meant to operate on him, +whether or no! There were the surgical instruments in that black bag on +the bureau, and he was shut up in the room with the whole crazy outfit! +He would have given his soul to be in Pomona with the club. + +"All right, Doctor," he said weakly, sliding a little farther down into +the bed, "I'll do just as you say. Only I wish you'd ring and see if any +mail has come for me." + +The boy who answered the doctor's call was an athletic young fellow. Van +thought that between them they could manage the maniac; so he sprang +out crying, "Quick! This man is crazy. Help me get him down!" + +To his surprise the boy seized him and deposited him back in bed. + +"What in thunder is the matter with you people?" shouted Van. "I'm not +going to stay here with that man when there's nothing the matter with +me!" + +"There, there," coaxed the boy, "you're all right, sir; try to go to +sleep, can't you?" + +Then Van turned over to the wall and wept salt Freshman tears, and the +awe-struck boy gently closed the door. And Cupid, with his wings folded +over his little arms, sat upon the bureau and laughed long and +cynically. + +It was now past twelve o'clock. Church was over, and Dolores was +returning. Home-ward gently she rode with surging thoughts in her bosom, +and an expression of sweet, religious calm hovering over her straight +black brows. That was the Spanish of her. The moment the front door +closed behind her she sprinted for the telephone. That was the American +of her. + +Had Papa Payson not been absorbed in the forty-eight-page Christmas +edition of the Los Angeles _Herald_, he might have overheard the +following semi-conversation: + +"----" + +"Main eight-double-eight." + +"----" + +"Yes." + +"----" + +"Is this the Westminster?" + +"----" + +"Will you--er--that is--did the Stanford Glee Club leave this morning?" + +"----" + +"Oh! Will you tell me, please, whether Mr. Cecil Van Dyke left with +them?" + +"----" + +"Oh, I'm so sorry! What's the matter?" + +"----" + +"Appendicitis!" The receiver dropped and swung against the wall. Dolores +had fled to mamma. + +Perkins and Mason, treating each other at every station short of the +prohibition town of Pomona, would have felt less complacent over their +little joke had they seen the procession that left the Hotel Westminster +at one-thirty P. M. on that balmy Christmas day. The order of march, as +instituted by the American Dolores, was as follows: + +1. The Payson carriage, with Mrs. and Miss Payson on the forward seat +and a tenderly wrapped Freshman on the other, and the coachman +instructed to drive gently. + +2. Dr. Mead and the devoted bell-boy in a phaeton. + +3. Small citizens on foot. + +The doctor, obeying to the letter the orders of Perkins, who had +commanded him not to leave his patient for one moment, smiled broadly as +he gathered the lunatic into his arms and bore him past the fatal +poinsettia bushes and up the broad steps where the grave major-domo was +waiting to receive them. The scale upon which the Payson household was +conducted just suited the ideas of that worthy practitioner. + + * * * * * + +On Saturday, Perkins and Mason asked at the hotel for Van Dyke and the +doctor. + +"They gave up their rooms last Monday, not very long after you left," +said the clerk. "A lady took your friend to her house." + +"Who was she?" asked Jimmy, with dark foreboding. + +"A Mrs. Payson." + +Perkins collapsed on his suit-case. Jimmy made for the desk and began to +scan the directory. + +"What are you looking for?" + +"The P's. I'm going to haze that rattle-weeded Freshman and slay the +doctor." + +When the two defeated joshers paused inside the Payson gate, a scene of +touching domesticity met their gaze. Under a jasmine-covered corner of +the piazza, nestling in the depths of a great easy chair, lay Freshman +Van Dyke. Senorita Dolores, in the role of ministering angel, was +bending unnecessarily close. Dr. Mead, as near his patient as was +consistent with delicacy, was lounging in a hammock, and smoking a good +cigar. It is a tradition in Los Angeles clubdom that John Payson imports +his cigars direct. In the middle-distance, Mrs. Payson was approaching +with a cup of nourishing beef-tea. + +Jimmy Mason, afraid to trust himself to the expression of his thoughts +in the presence of ladies, was about to vanish gracefully, but Van Dyke +caught sight of them. + +"Hello, fellows. Hear you had a frost in San Diego," cried he. + +"You must be very much better--able to be moved, I notice," with a look +in Jimmy's eyes that pointed to future trouble. + +"Oh," said the Freshman, "almost recovered. I've had the very best of +care--and a very satisfactory nurse," and for the last time, in this +story, he gazed into those Andalusian eyes. + +"But not the nurse we engaged," said the aggrieved Perkins. + +"No," said Van, "this young lady was engaged only last evening." + +"S-sh," said Senora Payson, pointing to the open window, "Papa may hear +you." + + + + +POCAHONTAS, FRESHMAN. + + + + +Pocahontas, Freshman. + + "But when they lookt round for the Ladye Pocahontas, she + hadde gone to her Yorke woodes, weepyng they saye." + + ROWE'S LIFE OF POCAHONTAS. + + +I. + +To begin with, the college never called her Pocahontas to her face, and +no one would have found anything pat in the name until a long-remembered +spring afternoon in her Freshman year. After that day, although her +instructors still registered her as Hannah Grant Daly, she was generally +known as "Pocahontas." Students with visitors would point her out in the +Quad. "That's the girl they call Pocahontas." Then they would tell +briefly her story. She knew through her room-mate that the college had +nicknamed her, and she grieved over it. She did not know that John Smith +himself never called her Pocahontas; she had never dared to look at him +since the day they had named her. + +Early in September the noon train brought her through the oaks and the +burdened olive orchards, past the lonely redwood Tree to the University. +The brakeman's call: "Next station is Palo A-al-to!" stirred her with +fluttering excitement. The crowded carriages and people at the station +bewildered her. Eager 'busmen struggled for the hand-baggage of +strangers, men with "Student Transfer" on their caps clamored for +trunk-checks. Fellows in duck seized some of the men who came down the +car steps, carrying away their suit-cases and throwing lusty student +arms about their shoulders. The men thus welcomed introduced younger +fellows and the whole group piled into a 'bus and shouted "Rho House, +Billy," to the driver. + +The man who got out just ahead of Pocahontas was greeted by cries of +"Come on you Ca-ap!" and "Hello, Smithy, old boy!" He was evidently +someone of whom they were very fond. One fat fellow with a comical face +hugged him theatrically. Pocahontas watched them drive away, laughing +and slapping one another's knees. The man they called Smithy was the +nicest looking. + +She had given her new valise to a gray-haired 'busman who looked a +little like the minister at home. On the way up the long avenue of palms +toward the sandstone buildings low in the distance, this 'busman chatted +kindly with her, telling her wonderful, almost incredible things about +the University, so that she began to feel a little less strange. As she +paid her fare in front of the Roble he said: + +"Now, whenever you want a 'bus, Miss, just ask for Uncle John. That's +what they call me." + +"Yes," answered the Freshman, gratefully, "I will,--Uncle John." + +She passed up the dormitory steps, running awkwardly the gauntlet of +experienced eyes scanning the new arrivals. The Theta Gammas wrote her +down as material for a quaint little, quiet little dig,--not of sorority +interest. One of them ventured that there was an Oxford teacher's Bible +and an embroidered mending-case in the shiny valise. Another prophesied +that the newcomer would wear her High School graduation-dress to the +Freshman reception. These ladies had been at college for three years and +their diagnosis was correct. + +So Hannah Grant Daly hopped with no unnecessary flapping of wings upon +her perch in the Roble dove-cote. The matron put her into 52 with +Lillian Arnold, a Sophomore leader of local society. This was "to make +things easier for her." Their wedded life lasted three days. It was long +after lights when Miss Arnold returned the first night. Hannah had read +her chapter and was lying awake, bravely resisting a homesick cry. Her +roommate groped in with an animated tale of a Freshman spread on the top +floor at which the chief attraction had been oyster cocktails. +Pocahontas shuddered. In imagination she detected a faint odor like +that from her mother's medicine-closet. + +"I'd have asked you to go along with me," apologized Lillian, scrambling +into bed without any conventional delay, "but I thought you wouldn't +care for such things." + +"I hope I never shall," said the new girl, solemnly, and turned her face +to the wall. + +The following morning while Pocahontas arranged her share of the bureau, +the Sophomore draped a tennis net on their wall and fixed in its meshes +the trophies of her first year. She was putting a photograph in place +when Hannah spoke: + +"Who is that, Miss Arnold?" + +"That's Jack Smith," answered Lillian; "stunning, isn't he?" + +"He's very interesting, I think. He was on the train yesterday. There +were ever so many boys to meet him." + +"He's a Beta Rho,--belongs to that fraternity, you know. They have a +swell house here. I know most of them very well,--been over there to +dinner several times." + +"What class is he in?" + +"Mine,--Sophomore. He's a splendid athlete,--football and +pole-vaulting,--and he sings in the Glee Club. He was the only Freshman +to make the team last year,--he's really a perfect hero." + +"I knew he was somebody by the way they acted down at the station. I +think he has a good face." The new girl had come over from the bureau +and was looking up at the picture in the net. + +"Everybody thinks he is the handsomest man in college. You wait till you +see him in his red sweater. Don't say anything, Hannah, but I'm going to +have Jack Smith for my very own this year; you see if I don't manage +it," and Lillian, laughing, blew a light kiss to the photograph. + +Decidedly Pocahontas disapproved of her room-mate. Later, when she found +that a half-dozen girls who had dropped in after dinner were there for +the evening, she went out into a music-room to look at her new +text-books. Routed from here by more butterflies, with "beaux," she did +her reading on a bench in the hallway. Another day and she was rooming +with a Junior who was a hard student. Her departure caused Miss Arnold +sincere regret. A girl she knew had roomed with a Freshman the year +before and the child adored her and did the mending of both. Lillian +hated to sew. + +Pocahontas had been at college a week and was already learning that it +is not necessary to read all your references when her room-mate, coming +in from the library one evening, mentioned that there was a rush going +on over at the tank. + +"A rush?" asked Hannah, "what is that?" + +"A relic of barbarism; they ought to have put a stop to it long ago, +Professor Grind says." + +"Yes," said the Freshman, "but what do they do?" + +"Oh, get out and fight somehow,--I don't know just how,--something about +tying up. Only another way of wasting time, Hannah," and the Junior +plunged back into her Livy. + +At breakfast Pocahontas heard Lillian Arnold tell about going over to +the baseball diamond to see the Sophomores lying tied up beside the +backstop, and what a joke it was on her own class and what a ridiculous +figure Jack Smith had made in the coils of a Freshman's trunk-rope, with +his face and hair all grimy with perspiration and dust, and that laundry +agent, Mason, piled on top of him. Hannah left the table in secret +excitement. Between recitations that morning she met Pete Halleck, a +classmate from her own high school; bursting with pride, he took her up +to the Row to show their very own class numerals shining high on the +tank, and she realized vaguely that this was a thing of which she, too, +was a part. There grew within her a longing to reach out a little toward +the big, full life of the college, to know something of the men and +women who lived it. All this was very wrong, she told herself, for she +had come here to study hard. She had only two years in which to fit +herself to teach. Here was the precious book-knowledge for which she had +hungered and pinched so long. It must not be neglected, ever so little; +but the enthusiasm of the boy with her was infectious. In her soul she +took issue with the views of her room-mate, fortified as they were by +the approval of Professor Grind. + +In this rebellious mood she read on the Hall bulletin-board a notice of +the reception to be given to new students by the Christian Associations. +Here was a chance to satisfy that wicked craving without too great +concession, for of course there would be no dancing and the auspices +were so favorable. She spoke about it to Katherine Graham, a Junior, who +was in Lillian Arnold's "set," to be sure, but who had put her arm +around the homesick little Freshman one soft evening after dinner when +the girls were strolling before the Hall, and had drawn her down the +walk toward the Ninety-five Oak. Katherine was a fine, frank girl whose +talk about the University and her love for the campus and its life +stirred the new girl's pulses. She could listen with unguarded eagerness +to this Junior because she knew her to be a student. Pocahontas slipped +her arm wistfully 'round her friend's waist. To room with Miss Graham +would have been perfect happiness. + +"Of course you'll go," declared Katherine, when she had heard the +Freshman's confidence regarding the reception. "It's slow, sometimes, +but you'll meet the people you want to know." + +So out came the plain graduation-dress, folded carefully away since the +night she read the valedictory, three months ago; she sewed a rip in the +gloves saved from the same occasion, and she took out the fan which her +grandmother had given her, a wonderful fan she had considered it until +she saw a few of Lillian's. + +In the gymnasium where glistening bamboo and red geraniums screened the +chest-weights along the walls, and feathery branches of pepper climbed +luxuriantly over the inclined ladders, she found the crowd +characteristic of this occasion,--the Freshman men at one end, the +Freshman girls at the other, and between them a neutral zone of old +students chatting gayly, oblivious of the purpose of the affair. Oh, but +the reception committee! Save for these indefatigable martyrs, the +Freshman sexes might have gazed wistfully at each other across the lines +of upper class-men until the lights dipped and never been able to bow on +the Quad next day. Important-looking persons with silk badges and +worried faces circulated in a grim endeavor to "mix things up." One of +these wild-eyed people would dash into the crowd and haul some +struggling upper class-man over to the feminine section. With his victim +in tow, he would open conversation feverishly: + +"Name, please?" + +"Miss Newcome." + +"Ah, permit me to introduce Mr. Oldman. Miss Newcome, Mr. Oldman. Isn't +it warm to-night? Fine talk of the Doctor's, wasn't it? Well, you must +excuse me; we're very busy," the last words dying in the distance as he +sped away. + +Pocahontas contrasted this chill with the warmth of church socials at +home. She felt disappointed and dreadfully alone. Her sober-minded +room-mate was bobbing like a pigeon before Professor Grind, +enthusiastically telling him "how much inspiration she got from his +courses;" Katherine Graham was lost in a swirl of upper class-men. The +Freshman had half turned toward the dressing-room when out of the press +came Jack Smith, big, wholesome-looking, still smiling with some memory +of his latest conversation. Why did Hannah stop? It was certainly +bold,--doubtless it was half-unconscious,--but stop she did, and a +committee-man, wheeling suddenly, caught Smith, dashed through the +preliminaries, and the Sophomore had added Hannah Grant Daly to the +list of his acquaintances. + +Now "Cap" Smith had not come to this reception to meet Freshman +girls--at any rate insignificant ones with spectacles and sandy hair; +but no one could have told that he had not begged to be presented to +this one. + +"I'll have to ask you the same question we put to all," he began, +smiling pleasantly; "what's your major?" + +She would have given much to have answered something clever or +interesting, as no doubt other girls did, but she could only stammer: + +"Education." + +"You've answered so promptly I'll let you off the rest of the +text,--there are forty-two questions in all, each more inquisitive than +the last." + +The Freshman giggled; she did not know just why, unless it was that his +face and merry way inspired jollity. + +"Have the committee on irrigation attended to you yet?" + +"I don't know; I have registered," she faltered. + +He laughed, and she blushed uncomfortably. + +"Oh, pardon me," he said, "I must go slow with my slang; you've had only +a few days to learn it. I'm just joshing the weakness of the lemonade +the Associations give us. Let's try some, though; shall we?" + +They made their way to the lemonade booth. Such a vain, silly little +Freshman she was, to be sweetly conscious that people looked after them +as she passed along with this handsome, athletic young hero whom +everybody admired. Lillian Arnold was in the booth, dividing her +attention between filling glasses and entertaining four men. She gave +Pocahontas a cool bow and cast a look at Smith which the Freshman +interpreted "What are you doing with _her_?" At the same moment Lillian +thought of a foolish confidence she had made to the dig when they were +room-mates. Jack, however, was describing to Hannah the recent rush and +the glory of her class, and Lillian's glances were lost upon him. The +lemonade finished, he took the Freshman over to Professor Craig's +mother, and left her with a pleasant fairy tale about meeting her again. + +"Who's your friend?" laughed Perkins, as Smith dived back into his own +element. + +"Some little Roble dig. Don't ask me her name. I think people like that +are really lonesome, Ted. Say, those Phis have trotted Haviland 'round +long enough. Let's break up their interference." + +Others came up to Mrs. Craig, and Hannah found herself introduced to a +variety of men, but she cared little if she met no one else just then. +She stood watching Jack as he passed from group to group, chaffing +merrily, shaking hands with many people. There was no one else in the +room so well worth watching. + +That night, while the Junior breathed regularly on her side of the +alcove, Pocahontas lay a long time thinking dreamily. She knew he would +be like that; somehow he had looked so the first day at the station with +all those noisy boys. She should have answered something more than yes +and no at the reception. He would think her stupid. They had given her +advanced standing in Latin; perhaps he would be in the class when it met +on Monday; it would be splendid if he were; lots of the boys walked to +Roble with girls at half-past-twelve; she would ask him all about the +football; they would not have to talk about the Latin;--she felt so +small beside him as they went along the board walk--he looked down at +her and laughed--there was a seat under the Ninety-five Oak--all the +other people were talking, a long way off--the lemonade bowl under the +tree--shall we-- + +She met him on Monday morning near the Chapel. He came loafing along the +arcade one arm flung about "Pellams" Chase. He looked at her +good-humoredly a second, then, without recognition, glanced over her +head to the girl behind her. + +Hannah's heart nearly choked her. His having forgotten her was so plain, +that she had not dared to bow, though she had half done so. She hoped no +one had noticed her face. She bit her lips. He had not meant to do it; +on the bed in her room she told herself this over and over again. Their +meeting in the gymnasium had lasted less than ten minutes. It was two +days ago. She was not like the other college girls he knew. Why should +he remember her, having seen her once? He had been very pleasant to her +at the reception. She went resolutely down to luncheon. Cap. Smith was +still her hero. + + +II. + +One day when from the fences along the pastures exultant meadow-larks +were shouting "April," trilling the "r" ecstatically, and mild-hearted +people were out after golden poppies, the Encina Freshmen, dark-browed +plotters every villain of them, met in Pete Halleck's room. There was +trouble brewing. First, Pete counted them with an air of mystery; then +he pulled down the window shades, shut the transoms, and drew from the +wash-stand a tangled mass of rope, two cans of paint and a coil of wire. +With these beside him on the floor, he harangued the mob. + +"We have got to get a rush out of 'em, fellows," he said, keeping his +voice discreetly low, "and if they won't scrap, we'll force 'em. How +many of you remember how to tie a knot?" + +"We've had experience enough," spoke up a roly-poly boy; "it's the Sophs +who need a lesson in tying." + +"And we'll give it!" + +Halleck drew up and looked so melodramatically important that the +meeting snickered behind their collective hands. Just then there came a +knock at the door. Halleck put his fingers to his lips; the crowd sat as +if petrified; the roly-poly conspirator felt his bravado oozing out in +youthful perspiration. The knocking came again, more imperatively, then +a voice. + +"Let me in, you crazy Freshies." + +Silence in the room. + +"Let me in. I know about you. You're all in there, talking rush. Hang +your little pink skins, let me in!" + +Still no answer. + +"Pete Halleck, unlock your door. It's I--it's Frank Lyman, and I've +something to say to you babies. Open up!" + +The composite face of the gathering fell. With Lyman against them, who +could be for them?--Frank Lyman, oracle of Encina and father-confessor +of Freshmen! + +Pete threw the paraphernalia into his wardrobe. + +"The game's up, fellows." + +He opened the door, admitting the Senior, and with him, alas! Sophomore +Smith, President of his class. The sight of the enemy stirred Halleck. + +"Say, shall we tie up the two of them?" cried he, when he had locked the +door. + +"Key down, Freshie, key down," said the Senior. "You boys pain me to the +limit. Aren't you satisfied with tying up the Sophomores once without +scrapping the whole year through?" + +"What do you know about our wanting to scrap?" + +"I'm on to you, Peter: You have a ton of rope and a barrel of paint +somewhere about your den, and you're going out to-morrow to tie up the +Sophs at the ball game. Now you fellows have had three rushes this year; +when are you going to quit and give us a rest?" + +Halleck held the position that delighted his soul,--center stage,--and +he was a respecter of neither the Faculty nor his seniors. + +"We're going to quit when we get even with you for pulling twenty-five +lone Freshmen out of the Hall at night and making them rush against the +whole Sophomore class; then's when we're going to quit. Observe?" + +Halleck's shamefully fresh manner revived the drooping spirits of his +men. + +"See here, we'll call it off if you will," put in the Sophomore +president. + +"Yes, I guess you will," drawled Halleck. The mob howled. Smith's class +was notoriously weaker at fighting than their own. + +"We've rushed you three times," went on Cap; "you licked us the first +time we fought; then you pulled us out in the mud the night after and +did it again; but we got you the next week by strategy!" + +"By a sneaking trick!" + +"That's right!" chimed the Freshmen, "Pete's dead right!" + +"Well, say," persisted Smith, "we're willing to quit as it is. The score +stands two to one for you fellows, too." + +"Two to nothing!" and again the infant class shouted approval while +Lyman, the Senior, looked on amused. + +"I really have a chap for you children," he said. "Just because rushing +happens to be your game, you run it to death. How do you suppose the +Faculty are going to look at this thing? If you want rushing choked off +entirely next year, just keep on." + +Airily ignoring Lyman's speech, Pete Halleck put his chin out at the +Sophomore. + +"Then you won't rush?" + +"No," answered Cap, perfectly calm, "not even if you carry canes." + +Halleck's face shone. + +"Ai--i, boys, that's what we'll do! We'll get out there with canes +to-morrow and we'll make 'em scrap!" + +"Yes, you will! I believe it," sneered Smith. "You fellows are just +fresh enough to queer yourselves that way." + +"We'll queer _you_!" cried a valiant youngster "if you don't rush +to-morrow we'll tie up your baseball team and cart 'em off to Redwood." + +"Yes, sir, and we'll show you how a class president looks braided with +bailing-rope,--we'll show you the pretty picture in a mirror, Mr. +President,--even if we have to haul you out of the arms of twenty Roble +dames." + +Pete had taken his class-mates by storm and they piped acquiescence in +thin Freshman voices. Smith flushed angrily. + +Here Lyman interfered. + +"All right, make joshes of yourselves if you want to," he said, not so +good-natured as at first. "We have given you warning. Just open that +door and you may go on with your little conspiracy." + +"Come again when you can't stay so long," wittily yelled Pete down the +hall. "I'll meet you on the field to-morrow." + +"Oh, we'll be there," called back Lyman over his shoulder. "So will the +Faculty," and with this covert hint the peacemakers turned the corner. + +The sun shown brightly on the red-brown earth of the diamond when the +Freshmen, the Sophomores and the Faculty met, according to agreement. +The enterprising student-body management had chalked the Quad in +conspicuous places: + + RUSH of the YEAR, + Sophomore-Freshman Game. + Don't Miss It! + +and the college responded. The co-eds were there, radiant in the +snowiest of duck shirts, the gayest of shirt-waists. With them were +"ladies' men," in variegated golf-stockings and gorgeous hat-bands. The +Freshmen, gathered near first base, contrasted disreputably with this +display; they wore old clothes, ragged hats, and they carried a +miscellaneous collection of canes, borrowed from Juniors or stolen from +Sophomores. + +These stalwarts of the latest class were loaded with horns and +noise-machines. Defiance exhaled from them. It was an impressive +object-lesson on the evils of Freshman victories. + +A few sensible Juniors went over and tried to quell their disturbance, +but the infants were beyond any control of their class fathers; they +had at their head the redoubtable Pete Halleck, with his perverted sense +of the proprieties, and their uproar moderated not a bit. The Juniors +returned to the bleachers, shaking their heads in disgust. Professor +Grind, of the Committee on Student Affairs, was observed to write in his +note-book. The Sophomores who saw this rejoiced that they were not in +rushing clothes. Still the racket went on. + +Jack Smith, in spotless tennis flannels, sat on the bleachers. Some +girls from San Francisco, and one in particular as far as Cap was +concerned, had come down with Tom Ashley's mother that morning, and he +brought them over to the game. Pete Halleck picked him out at once and +reminded the others of their promise. + +Hannah Grant Daly, who did not know him to speak to, also picked him +out. To her he looked more goodly than ever this afternoon, contrasted +with the uncouthness of Halleck and others of her class. She watched him +covertly, laughing and talking with the town girl beside him. He had +laughed and talked very much like that to her, once, but he had +forgotten it. That was natural; she had forgiven it long ago. Lillian +Arnold, in the brightest of Easter hats, watched him, too. + +The game was not exciting. The Freshmen were badly outplayed; the +Sophomores galloped around the bases, and the babies' insolence grew +with their opponents' score. As the last inning dragged its tedious +length, the prospect of the Freshmen forcing a rush had become the +important thing with the crowd. The fighting class limbered up for +action. Now their third man struck out and the catcher's mask was off. + +"Ready!" Pete Halleck's voice came out of the silence of the waiting +crowd. + +"All set!" and the class was up and off on a trot toward the Sophomore +players, who were trying not to walk away any faster than was usual. One +after another the baseball men were overtaken and went down in clouds of +dust and hard language. + +Yet the Sophomores would not rush. Frank Lyman had exhorted them simply, +while the Freshmen were attacking their nine. One or two of the +hot-heads hurried to the Hall for old clothes, but the majority stood +looking on, angry but quiet. + +"Now for Smith!" yelled Halleck. His men turned toward the co-ed section +of the bleachers. + +"Shall we get out of this?" Cap asked Ashley. + +"Get out nothing! Stay right here with the girls. They wouldn't have the +gall." + +But the lust of fight was in the Freshman heart as the dust of fight +was on the Freshman skin. They lined up, a ragged mass of impertinence, +as near the women as they dared, and waited for the leader of the +opposition. He chatted on, explaining the college rush to the girl with +him, and gave no sign of moving. + +"Shall we go in and take him?" asked an excited youngster. + +"I'll give him a chance to come easy," said Halleck. He squared himself, +adjusted his dusty hat, and went straight up the steps. + +"Excuse me, Mr. Smith," said he, "you are forgetting an engagement you +made with some of your friends yesterday." + +This was the freshest thing in the history of the college. The +Sophomore's fingers twitched. + +"I think you can wait until later, Halleck," he said slowly. Then he +turned to the girl. + +From the time Halleck climbed the bleachers and went toward Smith and +his guests, the spectators were stiff with astonishment; nobody did +anything. They saw Halleck look for one moment into Smith's angry blue +eyes, go down the steps, and bring back two big fellows. Before the +Sophomore could move away from the girls, the three men had dragged him +down the bleachers; one heave of Halleck's broad back and Smith was +under them, with his wind gone, and a Freshman was getting a rope +ready. + +Then just as Ashley tore down the steps in a rage, a slip of a girl +darted past him and put her hands on Halleck's shoulders; a small, +sandy-haired girl with blazing eyes. + +"Untie him, you great brutes!" + +The man with the rope stared at her irresolutely, furtively slipping the +knot tighter. By this time, Halleck was on his feet again and had +recovered from his surprise. + +"Excuse me," he began. + +The girl looked him in the eye. + +"Get that rope off!" + +She was just a little thing, but her gaze never wavered. The direct gaze +is something that wild beasts and bullies, Freshmen or otherwise, cannot +bear. Pete Halleck looked around for moral support, but his men were +shame-faced and the bleachers were silent. He bent down and slipped the +rope off Smith's feet. + +With the rout of their leader the whole fighting class, weighing some +ten tons in battle trim, vanished like chaff before the spirit of one +Freshie co-ed. By twos and threes they slouched away, trying to look +unconcerned. + +She turned to the man she had rescued. + +"Are you much hurt, Mr. Smith?" she asked, her voice sweet with +sympathy. + +The Sophomore president stood there, rumpled, winded, flaming with +embarrassment. Away up on the bleachers a girl in an Easter hat tittered +and a general laugh followed. That laugh brought Smith to himself, but, +before he could turn to thank her, Hannah, with a swift, frightened +glance at the people, had fled to the Quadrangle. With swelling bosom +and eyes stinging with restrained tears she leaned her face against a +cool pillar and watched the swallows circle mistily about the red +tiling. + +People, coming from the ball-ground, passed her, unnoticed in the +shadow. A man's voice, ringing with merriment, cried: + +"Poor old Captain! I never saw him have such a chap. It's pretty hard on +a man to have a girl do the Pocahontas act like that!" + +A peal of Roble laughter answered. + +"Pocahontas! O--oh, that's a cute name for her!" + + + + +HIS UNCLE'S WILL. + + + + +His Uncle's Will. + + "It's a wise child that resembles its richest relative." + + MODERN PROVERB. + + +Walter Olcott Haviland came to Stanford in September at the age of +eighteen, and was rushed by the fraternities. + +There is nothing remarkable about this, unless considered from +Haviland's point of view. With his High School pin illuminating the vest +on which a mystic Greek symbol was ere long to shine, he passed down the +line of inquisitive Sophomores in Encina lobby, and into the Den of the +Bear, presented his receipt for the room he had prudently engaged months +ahead, and was duly bestowed within those plain white walls between +which the Freshman begins a charmed existence of four years or four +months, as the Committee may determine. + +It is recorded that once before Commencement two Seniors came from +fraternity houses at opposite ends of the campus and slept together the +last night, as they had slept their first, in their Freshman room at the +Hall. They had been rivals and in warring factions, but they lay down +together in that place of beginnings, before a new heaven opened for +them over a new earth. This is proof positive that you never forget your +first room in the Hall. You may give it up for an attic in a +chapter-house, you may go to live with young Freshleigh, with whom you +are already chums, and whose apartment has the morning sun; but the +first room is a foundation stone in your house of memories. Your trunk +is brought in by the Student Transfer man (first lesson in self-help) +and put down near the dreary-looking beds with their mattresses doubled +on the foot-rail. Then, sitting down by the bare, shining table where, +later on, theses are to be written and punches brewed, you stake out +claims for the decorative material in your trunk. Certainly decorations +are needed. The wardrobe stands forbiddingly against the wall. You will +soon learn how to move it forward, reverse it, and adorn the back. The +chilling whiteness of the walls is relieved only by one square, +uncompromising mirror. An "Addersonian" tenderness has placed a +yellow-flowered rug beside each bed. Otherwise, the place is barren. + +If there is time before dinner, you swallow your loneliness and get out +the home photographs and stand them up here and there, and the room is +changed. These walls may become a scrap-book of four years' association +with Alma Mater; the wardrobe may be hidden with kodaks of the gang and +its exploits; but to-day, before you have even met the gang, you come +into your own. + +The newly-arrived Haviland, in the throes of this emotion, looks about +him. He has put upon the ugly commode sundry pictures of his graduating +class at the High School, each one dressed in his best, each flanked by +floral offerings, each holding the impressive diploma. Later, these +portraits will be less prominent in this college room. + +He looks at them with a feeling of pity. It must be hard not to come to +college. He is a lucky boy. Sliding unobtrusively into the hall-way, he +strikes up an acquaintance with some other social Freshman, and together +they watch the upper class-men coming in. Man after man drifts into the +arms of waiting friends. How well they all know one another! Gradually +he learns who and what these men are, the Seniors who manage the Hall or +edit the College papers, the 'Varsity idols, the men who make College +life. Important beings they seem to the Freshman, men who have reached +heights above his modest possibilities, heroes who are great in the +land. After dinner he mingles in the stag dances on the second floor +hall-way; finding that a fellow class-man has neglected the graceful +art, he takes him up on the third floor and teaches him the step. He is +fitting in, you see. Then he hears the crowd surging into the lobby and +picks up the chorus of "We'll rush the ball along," and before this +first day is over he catches the contagion of that intangible, +pervasive, never wholly fading thing, College spirit. + +Jimmy Mason, Sophomore, hustling Student-Body assessments, drops in on +him, and stops to chat awhile. Haviland learns that our team this year +has lost such and such valuable men; that there are opportunities for a +chap with football in him. The Freshman thinks of the day when the crowd +at home cheered him as his school beat the Academy. He hands Mason the +assessment money, being beautifully green yet. Like oases are these +Freshmen to the Student-Body collector. Very likely the Sophomore +rewards him by coming to his door, after the lights are out, at the head +of a motley mob. They put him on the table, shivering in his nightie, +and make derogatory remarks about his shape and his personal charms; +then, having solemnly baptised him "Callipers," or whatever metaphorical +name his physical architecture may suggest, they make him cavort for +their delectation. If he shows modesty and courage in his unhappy +obedience, he is greeted as a nice little boy and is introduced to his +tormentors, who explain that the ritual was offered from the kindest +motives. Doubtless it is this knowledge that makes him enjoy so keenly +the sacrifice of fellow class-men, at which he is permitted to be +present the next evening. + +When he is spoken to mysteriously one night by "Pellams" Chase, a Junior +from the Row, and told to put on his oldest clothes and to get his +trunk-rope ("to rope up a Sophomore's trunk this time," hints the +Junior), for the first time he sees his class as a whole, and stands +shoulder to shoulder with them in the first College rush. The subsequent +pullings and haulings, the poundings and jammings of this experience are +happily compensated for if Chase takes him when all is over, binds up +his bruises and tells him about fights of other days when there were +giants upon the campus. After this, the College is never the immense, +far-away thing it has seemed. He has seen his own class-men together, he +has measured his strength with the dread Sophs, he is a University man. + +Long before this the fraternities have spotted him. + + * * * * * + +"What are you going to do next hour?" + +Haviland had just come out from his nine-thirty recitation and found +"Cap" Smith waiting for him. Smith was a Beta Rho, and he had waited +there in the same way for the same Freshman more than once in the month +since the opening. It was Pellams who had discovered the boy, one night +in Mason's room, where the Junior loafed half his time. Pellams had a +big heart surely, for he had at once interested himself in Haviland, +asking him over to dinner to meet the fellows. The Freshman knew it was +the Juniors' duty to look after the infant class. This particular Junior +was a College favorite,--Walt had seen that--and the boy from far-away +New England went across the campus to the Row feeling that he was +getting into good hands. The Rho house seemed about right. Dinner was a +boisterous affair where the men took hands around the table and sang a +rollicking accompaniment to Pellams' coon songs, strange table-manners +that did not appear much to disturb Perkins' mother, who poured coffee +at the end. Afterward they all sat out on the porch steps in the summer +evening with their pipes, watching three of the men play catch. One of +the fellows danced a shuffle while the rest stood around and clapped +time and shouted, "Come on you _Nigger_!" They were very happy; it was a +bully way to live; the homelike look of things appealed to the Freshman. +Two of the fellows walked back to the Hall with him, and when they said +good-night they shook his hand strongly and hoped they would see more of +him. + +This was the beginning. The college had become aware of his presence +now. So far he had taken just nine meals that he had paid for, and had +been away from the Hall one night out of four. + +At the reception to the Freshmen he had been introduced to the same +Faculty people six times over by members of as many fraternities, each +presenting him as an individual entirely under their auspices and for +whom they alone were responsible. Higgins, the sky-scraping Beta Phi, +whom he had met only that evening, took him arm in arm up to the +President's wife, and said: + +"I want to introduce Mr. Haviland, a particular friend of mine. You will +be good to him for my sake, won't you?" And the lady with a twinkle in +her brown eyes, having recently promised to do the same for Jack Smith's +sake, pledged her favors anew to the bewildered Walt. + +Haviland did not quite understand this attitude of open arms. His first +days in the Hall had not prepared him for it. He did not know that +because he was well-bred, well-dressed and athletically promising, he +was generally voted the prize Freshman of the year. + +Then came the bids. There were only a few of the crowds that did not +spike him; three who were manifestly not of his style and two who never +presumed to enter the game until the others had made their winnings. All +sorts of methods had been used. The first bid came early; he was given +twenty-four hours to answer it, as "the Gamma Chi Tau never wait for a +man." The Freshman, however, getting riper in the sun of experience, +interpreted this to mean fear of competition, and so "declined with +assurances of continued friendship." There was a crowd who slapped him +on the back and called him "old man." Once he had been fresh enough to +tell them a story, and they had laughed so uproariously over it that he +was dreadfully embarrassed. The hospitality of another set seemed to +consist of a sly but systematic attempt to get him drunk for some +mysterious purpose of their own. He had put some of them to bed and felt +superior, which was fatal to their chances. + +He had been to many varieties of dinner-tables. Some of them were +homelike; the talk at others had robbed him of appetite. + +"What do you think of our crowd?" asked Roach, keenly, after a +particularly disagreeable meal at which there had been much coarseness +and a wreck of a tablecloth. + +"They seem to me to be about the most congenial fellows I ever met," +answered the disgusted but tactful Haviland, and Roach, going back to +his house, announced authoritatively that the boy was theirs if they +wanted him. + +By this time he had learned the art of dodging invitations and remaining +non-committal when asked, "Well, Walt, are you going to do the right +thing?" Many a set, piled upon the beds in a fraternity room, sat up +late talking him over and wondering how he was "coming on." + +The Beta Phis, for instance, were in painful doubt. They were conscious +of a comparatively poor stack-up, but their rushing energy was +admirable, and once the persecuted Haviland had been obliged to ask a +Beta Rho to hide him from them. Pellams and Smith were merry at dinner +that night. + +In his heart, Walt had about decided on Beta Rho. This crowd treated him +with well-bred cordiality but with far less effusiveness than the +others. He was pleased when they had let him mix with them without +permitting him to forget the gulf between. This had put him off his +guard so that he had grown accustomed to them. Observing him expertly +from the corners of their eyes, they affected not to notice the way he +blushed after having joined unconsciously in a Beta Rho song. One day he +dropped over uninvited, and they understood. But in the first week of +their acquaintance they had told him to hold off and be slow about +pledging himself, and nothing more had been said so far. + +On the night of the first rush, ending in complete victory for the +Freshmen, Haviland had been so unfortunate as to clinch with Cap Smith, +and he was largely responsible for the ignominious tying up of that +husky Sophomore. He would much rather have been carted off himself, if +it hadn't been for the class. He saw his Beta Rho chances vanishing. +Pellams evidently did not know what had happened, he was so good to him +after it, rubbing his bruises and dressing his scraped cheek. The next +day Cap Smith came over and bid him to the fraternity. As a matter of +principle, Haviland asked for a week to decide. + +This indulgence was up to-day and now Cap was waiting for him after the +second-hour class. Walt knew what answer he should give. He felt very +contented. + +"I got your mail for you," said Smith, handing him an envelope. "I've a +letter of my own to read, so tackle yours while we walk along." + +They went up toward the stock-farm, and the boy opened his mother's +letter and read eagerly the home news and the affectionate questions. +She enclosed, she said, the check which his uncle, who was putting him +through College, had sent for October. Following this were a few words +that made him stare hard at the road before him, as he and Smith +strolled on. "Your uncle writes," said the letter, "that when he was at +Amherst he was a fraternity man, and thinks you ought to be one, and he +would like to have you join the society to which he belonged, the Beta +Phi. I am sure, Wo dear, you will follow his wishes in a matter like +this. It is not much to do in return." + +Poor Walt! The Beta Rhos had never seemed such smooth fellows as at this +moment when he felt himself suddenly pledged to the Beta Phis. In his +mind's eye the Phis passed before him, one by one, particularly a +certain long, unprepossessing member who had stayed till after twelve +one night and bored him with a dreary recital of the prominence of his +house in College politics, of the stump speeches that a former brother, +now a historical personage, had made in Mayfield for prohibition, to say +nothing of the essay prizes in philology that another ancient Phi had +won in the dim past, when the chapter must have been more prominent than +at present. In comparison with this record, the Rhos were numbskulls, +dwelling in an amplified smoking-room, Walt must admit; their control of +the Eleven and of the Glee Club was nothing. And now his future was +black with philology prizes, with meals at which stew was a staple, and +where only visitors had clean napkins. + +The two fellows had by this time reached the trotting stables. They +looked in at the beautiful, sleek racers, carefully blanketed and +booted, and stroked an inquisitive nose or two, reached out over the +white doors. Then they went on up the stock-farm yard and along the road +to the bridge over San Francisquito. Here Smith stopped; leaning on the +rail, he looked down at his blonde image in the shallow water below. + +"Well, Professor, what's your answer? You ought to know your mind by +this time, surely, and we want you bad, my boy." + +"Cap, old man," began the Freshman, his voice a little husky, for he was +sorely troubled, "you must know how I appreciate the way you fellows +have treated me, and that I want you particularly for a friend." He +stopped, but Smith kept silent. The fraternity had had refusals before; +they usually began this way. + +"I don't know just what I ought to say," went on the luckless Walt. "I +really did think you were the crowd I should join, but something has +come up and I can't say yes." + +"What is it? Is it because you think we don't study enough? We do, +though, a great deal more than it looks. This has been rushing season +and we had to do the entertaining stunt a lot, and Pellams would give +any crowd the look of bumming. We really do work hard the rest of the +year." + +"Oh, no," said Walt, "it isn't anything like that, Cap." + +"There's somebody in the gang that you don't like, then; somebody that +you don't know well and don't understand. Isn't that so? Who is it? You +ought to tell me." + +"I would, Cap, if that were the reason, but it isn't. I like every man +of them all." + +"What is it then?" + +"Nothing that I can tell you." Poor Walt, he was ashamed of his uncle; +Lyman at the Hall had told him that the whole Beta Phi fraternity was as +scrubby as their Stanford chapter. + +Cap's eyes had an angry gleam. "Somebody has been throwing mud," he +said, kicking up a splinter from the bridge floor. "There are plenty of +them to do it." + +"It isn't that at all. I wouldn't be influenced that way," protested +Haviland. "It's another matter." + +"Well, I suppose this is final," said Smith, struggling hard with his +disappointment. The Freshman's past attitude had paved the way for a +different answer. + +"Let's not say that," Walt began slowly. "Give me a while longer, Cap; +things may change. I had hoped--" He broke off;--he could never tell +Smith--he had not until that very moment told himself--how much he had +looked forward to being a Rho. + +"Things may change," he said again as Smith turned savagely and started +back. He was trying to compromise, but he had no idea how any change was +to come about. He brooded over it in his room that night, and the more +he pondered the more clearly he realized that the debt to his uncle +stood in his way. Plainly, he was up against it. He made the foot of his +iron bedstead jingle with a petulant kick, and, muttering the Phi yell +in a savage tone, went off to sleep. + +At luncheon the next day at the Phi house, the Freshman was so friendly +and so gracious that two of the Chapter went out into the kitchen and +shook hands. Had he not inquired solicitously about the fraternity's +position in Amherst, had he not expressed great pleasure at learning of +their high political standing back there? Never a word had they heard of +his uncle, however. The Freshman who is in his own neighborhood does not +donate additional arguments. + +The Phi house was shaken to its foundations. This was the greatest +piece of work for years. Walt was immediately invited to stay for dinner +and to spend the night and the next day, but although it was Saturday, +he declined. Even the tempting bait of a Populist campaign rally moved +him not. + +The days passed and Walter Olcott Haviland was an unhappy child. His +sudden intimacy with the Phis could not escape the astonished Rhos; he +was sensitive to the change in their manner, slight as it was. He would +have been glad enough to have stayed out of fraternities altogether if +it would have helped matters. There was a very jolly set in the Hall, +men who had refused far better bids than the Phis. Jimmie Mason and +Frank Lyman, "Peg" Langdon and Blake, the fullback; these fellows, as +prominent as any in College, were in the dormitory crowd; they used one +another's rooms and tobacco and clothes with the utmost good nature. +Walt had been fond of the big building from his first day there; he +could have had a happy time with this independent set. + +He was not made any happier by Lyman's saying, "Whatever you do, don't +join the Phis. They've no standing here, and you won't help yourself +any." Freshmen usually listened to what Lyman said. But Haviland had +thought and reasoned and struggled with himself, and had come to a +conclusion. To write to his uncle, "I have joined the Phis because you +are one," would be worth any sacrifice. Perhaps he could work to improve +the crowd a little after he was one of them. At least there was no +reason why they need be his only friends. + +He went to the lab one afternoon with his decision made. If the Phis +asked him to dinner, he would go and put his head on the block. + +As he came along toward the main entrance he saw Andrew Higgins, the +longest, lankiest Phi of them all, bearing down upon him. His heart +sank, but his resolution was firm, and he looked his fate in the face. +When his executioner had almost reached him, somebody touched his +shoulder; it was Smith. + +"Before your frat brother gets hold of you," muttered Cap, drawing Walt +aside, "I want to speak to you. The boys must have your final answer +to-day." + +The "frat brother" was not to be turned down. He loomed up steadily in +their direction. Walt was miserable. It was the beginning of the end. + +"I'll give it to-night," he said hurriedly, as the Phi reached them. + +"Will you come to dinner?" + +Haviland wanted one sunbeam before the darkness. + +"Yes, I'll come, Cap," and turned to shake hands with the Phi, whose +invitation was frozen half-way in his throat. Now the Beta Phis were not +of the people who let to-morrow get anything while to-day lasts, so +Higgins asked Walt to come down after dinner for the night, and the +unhappy boy, half-hearing, promised. + +It was a gloomy dinner for the Freshman, baked funeral meats and he the +corpse. Mrs. Perkins gave him a motherly smile and told him in a careful +undertone that she was glad he was going to be one of her boys, after +which he felt childishly close to tears. He sat out-doors with the +others and smoked and joined weakly in the singing. The roses clinging +to the porch had never been so sweet; the Rho dog had never nosed so +affectionately against his shoulder. There was to be no substitute for +this. He wished he had never seen the campus. His mood communicated +itself to the others and things grew slow. One by one the fellows +slipped away with various excuses. Finally Cap said: + +"Come up to the room," and Haviland went up stairs with the emotions one +carries to the dentist. + +Smith threw himself on the bed and motioned Walt to a chair at his study +table. They tried a little general conversation, but failed mournfully. +The Freshman had a wretched feeling that this room was home to him. He +had slept here so often and he knew every athletic picture and trophy +around it. There had been something said about his living here with Cap +after Christmas. The clock ticked spitefully at him. + +Smith's voice, deep and quiet, broke the pause. + +"What's the good word, Professor?" + +Walt swallowed a lump, nervously opened a book that lay on the table, +then looked at the big red sweater on the bed, and said: + +"I can't do it, Cap." + +Smith kicked a pillow of which he thought a great deal almost into the +grate, and said with fine scorn: + +"When do you join the Phis?" + +"I don't know," said Van, drearily. + +"Well, I think you're nutty; it's the cheesiest gang in College." + +The battle had begun. Walt might as well practice his defense at once, +so he said with a little dignity: + +"My uncle is a Phi, and it is his wish." + +"So that is it!" Such a reason was no discredit to the Rhos; therefore +it was the harder to accept. "You give me a jolt, Walt. Just because +your uncle is in a rotten fraternity you must crawl into the heap, too. +I'd see him hanged first before I'd queer myself with those yaps." + +Cap went on even more impatiently, but the Freshman heard not a word. +He was staring at the book open before him. + +"Cap, what book is this?" + +"The fraternity catalogue." + +"What fraternity?" + +"Ours, of course; whose did you think it was, the--" + +Walt gave a hysterical whoop and flung himself over the footboard upon +the astonished Smith. He rolled him over the bed and sent him to join +the pillow on the floor; then, sitting up on the bed with tousled hair +and shining eyes, he said: + +"Cap, if you still want me, I say yes!" + +"What's the matter with you?" asked the amazed Sophomore from the rug. + +"Nothing!" shouted Walt. "I see the whole thing; uncle's awful +writing--mother got it Phi instead of Rho--she doesn't know one from the +other--his name's in your book. Hoo!" and he sprang on Smith again and +lifted him bodily. + +The Chapter had been waiting. Hearing propitious sounds, they came +stringing in, and Haviland's explanation, with the celebration that +followed it, took such a length of time that the longest, lankiest Phi +fell asleep in the parlor and his lamp burned out about two. + + + + +THE INITIATION OF DROMIO. + + + + +The Initiation of Dromio. + + "I know a prof.,--not much to see,-- + Take care! + Mistakes are made here frequently, + Beware!" + + +The Rho fraternity called Walter Haviland "professor." Haviland was one +of their pledged Freshmen. In rushing, a good nickname, gracefully used, +is a great thing. It puts a Freshman considerably at his ease, and +impresses him with the feeling that he belongs to the set. + +The first day that Haviland came over to dinner, Bob Duncan, a Senior, +spoke up from his end of the table: "Are you a relative of Lamb, the +botany professor?" + +"I have never heard that I am," answered the Freshman. + +"Are you in any of his classes?" + +"No; I'm not going to take botany." + +"If you were, I don't believe the class could tell you apart. Doesn't he +look like Lamb to beat the band, fellows?" + +"He's a little heavier than the prof.," suggested Smith. + +"Oh, perhaps he is a little," admitted Duncan, "but their height is the +same to an inch, and the facial resemblance is great." + +"He can't look much like a professor," laughed the Freshman. + +"He doesn't," said Duncan, "they've got him down in the register as an +associate professor in botany, but that's all he has to his credit. He +gets taken for a Freshman right along. New students ask him if he is +registered and what his major is--sure they do." + +"They say there was a big farmer who went in to register in botany and +wouldn't do business with poor Lamb at all," said Perkins. "He said he +wasn't so green as he looked, and he knew all about these students who +make believe they're professors and give fake examinations. The +professor was as red as a beet." + +"I don't blame him," said Duncan. "Why, the man is married and has two +children." + +"Are you sure they're his," said Pellams, seriously. "I've seen them +with him on the Quad, but I thought perhaps he'd borrowed them for +effect, to keep off the Senior girls." + +"The year he came here the Beta Phis tried to rush him, didn't they?" +asked Smith. Duncan scowled across the table at the Sophomore. This was +Haviland's first day at the house; they could josh other frats later, if +he came their way; just now it was a break. + +Ted Perkins interrupted tactfully. "Have some of this Spanish goo? The +English department here is crazy on theatricals. They will probably want +you for a grand revival of the Comedy of Errors." + +"If I were you," came in Smith, to cover up his slip, "I would go over +and draw his salary some day. They would pay it all right if they didn't +look twice and ask questions." + +"Better look out," added Pellams, in his solemn drawl, "those babies of +his will be claiming you in the Quad in front of all Roble some sunny +day, and then you might just as well leave college!" + +This table-talk gave the men an idea for a nickname, and so, when they +knew the Freshman a little better, they slipped an arm through his and +called him "Professor." It was really the most civilized nickname in the +house. + +One Thursday, at football practice, about two weeks after Haviland had +agreed to join, Pellams spoke to him. + +"Professor, on Saturday night you are to be initiated. Bring over your +suit-case with a change of under-clothes and a pair of old shoes." + +"I was going up to San Francisco on Saturday," murmured Haviland, his +heart beating a bit faster, "but----" + +"You have changed your mind," finished Pellams, quietly. "We will have +dinner as usual, and you will be on time, please. So long, Professor." + +Haviland was not wholly at peace as he walked back to the dormitory. A +Freshman never becomes especially hilarious in anticipating his +initiation night; there is an uncertain certainty about it that he +cannot entirely laugh away, however much natural bravery he may have, +however hoary he may be in high school fraternity experience. At the +chapter house, where things have been made so pleasant, careless remarks +are dropped, full of sinister meaning. It is not nearly so comfortable +there now, and Freshman Damocles wishes the suspense were over. + +When the fateful Saturday dawned, Walter had a strong impulse to go to +the city as he had originally planned. Pellams had explained to him that +his having held out so long before agreeing to join would probably mean +his "getting it unusually hard." He knew that of all the fraternities, +the Rhos were the most severe in their initiations--one of the Rhos had +told him so. + +At the post-office that morning he met Professor Lamb starting for a +day's botanizing in the foothills. He did not know the instructor, but +he envied him as he leaned on his wheel and watched the botany man take +the fence and start off across the brown pastures toward the hills +beyond the lake. There certainly was a strong resemblance. + +"Oh," groaned the candidate for fraternity privileges, "I wish it was a +case of his resembling me instead of my looking like him. I only wish I +was the prof, now, I'd change places quickly enough. I'm afraid I'm a +coward." + +He wondered if they guessed how scared he was; he hoped not. He pedaled +around to the courts, where Cap. Smith was waiting to play tennis, and +he put on an infant bravado which secretly pleased the Sophomore. After +a few sets Cap. put his racket under his arm. + +"No more tennis, Professor," he said, with meaning; "you'd better rest +most of the day. Get out your work for Monday, you won't feel much like +studying to-morrow, you know, and don't forget to be at the house at six +sharp." Then, since the Freshman had visibly wilted, Smith grinned all +the way across the field. + +Haviland suspected two other fellows in the Hall of being in a state of +mind similar to his own, but as he had been instructed to keep the +matter absolutely secret, he could not turn to them for relief. He +worried through the long Saturday, making futile attacks on the work +prescribed for Monday, strumming in an aimless way on his banjo, and +finally writing his mother a letter between the lines of which she at +once read malaria. + +Dinner at the Rho house was the most miserable meal he had ever choked +his way through. A half-dozen graduates were present, and some men from +the Berkeley chapter. These visitors seemed a solemn lot, and +conversation included the candidates only now and then. During the lulls +in the talk, the Freshmen made audible sounds trying to swallow their +food; this was so embarrassing that they gave up the effort to eat, only +gulping water now and then during talk. It was a relief when some one +touched each Freshman quietly, and the condemned youngsters followed +upstairs, their faces wearing pitiful dumb-victim-at-the-altar +expressions, or trying with ghastly smiles to show how little they +cared. + +The young moon, sloping toward the shaggy rim of the Palo Alto hills +soon after eight o'clock, looked down into the pasture lands back of the +campus. There she saw Walter Haviland, blindfolded and with a rope about +his waist. Three other Freshmen were in a similar condition in different +parts of the field. Haviland had been intrusted to the tender mercy of +Cap. Smith, a 'Varsity man, and Pellams Chase, greatest of all joshers. +This was indeed a high honor. Two of the less distinguished members +hovered about them, eager to add their services. Their objective point +was a fence skirted by a gully through which water ran in the winter +time; into this gully they flung the luckless Walt and left him there +while they took their ruthless course to a part of the field where +another group of men had gathered. + +The moon touched delicately the redwood trees upon the western ridge, +then slipped down beyond them. With her last look into the field she saw +Haviland lying on his face at the bottom of the gulch. She saw also +Professor Lamb, of the botany department, hurrying home cross-country +from the day's collecting on upper San Francisquito Creek, tired, dusty, +bedraggled, thinking with an unscientific enthusiasm of the hot dinner +awaiting his homecoming. The lingering moon, peering over the mountain +edge, saw the instructor clear the fence and plunge into the shadowy +gulch. Then, before she could see what happened next, the stern law of +the solar system drew her reluctant down. + +The four men who had charge of Haviland came back from their +consultation with the others. When they were near the place where they +had left their victim, a man appeared, climbing out. This called for +investigation; they bounded along through the gulch and came up with the +fellow. To their surprise it was Haviland with his bandage off and the +rope nowhere. It was the first time a man had ever tried to give them +the slip. He should pay for it! Cap. Smith threw himself on the Freshman +at the first glimpse of his face. In a jiffy there was a new bandage +over his eyes and another rope coiled around his waist; this time it +included his hands. He struggled resolutely, but in silence, for his +breath had left him when he struck the ground with Smith on top. + +They seized him firmly and ran him at breakneck speed over a terrible +course, heading for an old well which waters a back pasture. Here they +stopped, spent with running. + +"On your knees, Professor!" gasped Pellams, with as much authority as +his lack of breath would allow. + +The panting victim remained standing. + +"Down!" accompanied by a resounding blow of a barrel stave. + +Still no movement, but a gurgle was heard as though speech was being +labored for. + +Biff! + +The unfortunate creature sprawled beside the well, but struggled up +again to a half-kneeling posture. + +"This--must--stop!" he gasped, painfully. "It--is--an--outrage. +I--am----" + +"No levity, sir!" said Smith. "You've got to do what we say, Professor, +or you won't get in at all." + +"I don't--want--to--get--in," panted the poor wretch in desperate +protest. "It's--a--mistake--I----" + +"See here, Professor; where's your nerve? Be a man! You'll never make a +Rho at this rate. Brace up, for Heaven's sake! Rise, Neophyte." + +They gave the rope a cruel wrench, which brought their captive to his +feet. + +"Let's kill him," whispered one of the men. Never before had there been +so shameful a display of the white feather. + +"We'll duck him." + +They brought their Freshman to the brink of the well. They tightened the +rope under his arms, and, before he could divine their intentions, they +were lowering him down the slippery side. When his feet struck the cold +water he struggled violently, shouting something which his splashing and +the echo of the well made unintelligible. Presently they hoisted him, +dripping and speechless with rage. + +"Thou hast now been cleansed of thy sin and cowardice, O Neophyte," +declaimed Pellams. "Forward to the joys that await thee!" + +They dragged him home on the run, taking the road this time and making +all haste to the house. The half-dead initiate had to be carried +upstairs. Smith took off the rope and told him to strip for a bath. The +victim sat on the edge of the Sophomore's bed and shook his head +feebly. He was evidently exhausted. + +"Come, hurry up, Haviland," said Cap. He felt a brutal impatience to see +what the barrel staves had done to the fellow's back. "Get bathed and +put on your dry clothes and be ready for the feed." + +The initiate raised his hands slowly and untied the bandage. He blinked +a moment at Smith, then he said huskily, "I am not Haviland, Mr. Smith, +nor do I want any 'feed.' I want to know what this means." There was no +anger in his voice, only great weariness. + +The freezing truth dawned on the horrified student. His first impulse +was to rush out of the house and to keep running. He managed to stammer: + +"Where's Haviland?" + +"I don't know where Haviland is," muttered the tired instructor. "I +don't know who Haviland is. If I have taken his place I am ready to +change again." He looked down upon his clothes, stuccoed with tarweed +burrs and wet mud. + +Then Jack Smith laughed aloud. + +"Professor, when we've found Haviland, and you've seen him, you'll +understand the whole horrible mistake, and----" + +"There was no mistake," said the other, coldly, "you called me Professor +while you were beating me." + +This only set Smith off again. + +"That's our name for Haviland. You see he looks like you--oh, I can't +explain it to you, Professor; but when you've seen the man you'll +forgive us, I know you will. And you've simply got to stay to our feed +now, if we have to tie you up again to keep you here." + +Professor Lamb, of the botany department, smiled wanly. + +"I think I will take a bath, anyway," he sighed. + + + + +THE SUBSTITUTED FULLBACK. + + + + +The Substituted Fullback. + + + "Shadows, you say, mirages of the brain! + I know not, faith, not I; + Is it more strange the dead should walk again + Than that the quick should die?" + ALDRICH. + + + "Frank Lyman, Football Manager, Stanford University: + + "Blake died three forty-five. Body going East. I return five + train. DIEMANN." + +When he had sent this message to the University, the instructor in +Psychology went gloomily down to the Third and Townsend Street station. + +There was nothing more to be done just then. He had telegraphed to the +dead athlete's parents; the undertakers had their instructions about +shipping the body to Ohio, and the hospital bills would be arranged for +later. He slipped into a single seat at the back of the car to avoid the +chance of a travelling acquaintance. Now that the business part of it +was over, he could not talk to anyone. + +The whole thing had been so sudden that it was hard to feel the truth. +Barely a week ago he had stood on the practice field at the University, +following Blake's splendid play and listening to the shouting of the +crowded bleachers, who idolized their great fullback with the absolute +idolatry of a college crowd. It was not easy to believe that all this +physical manhood, all this intellectual promise, had been snuffed out +like a candle before their very eyes. + +Diemann pressed his face against the car window and stared out at the +terraced produce gardens slipping dimly by in the early November dusk. +Between him and the dead fullback there had been such companionship as +comes now and then to an instructor under thirty and a man nearing the +end of his college course. When Diemann, just home from Germany, came +West to teach Psychology, he found young Blake the college hero. The new +instructor had himself been a noted back; he still hovered somewhere +between enthusiast and fiend. At Stanford he at once identified himself +with the football men, and they welcomed him gladly as assistant coach. +During that first season, two years ago, he had come to know and like +Fred Blake. Later, the fullback took Diemann's course in Psychology, and +to the elder man's gratification, developed a passion for the subject. +The instructor recognized the quality of the athlete's mind, and before +long the two were working together, reading and discussing along the +line of the teacher's special interest. + +Coming home from the sober materialism of Leipzig, Diemann had realized +more fully than ever how thoroughly the interest in matters occult had +pervaded the mind of his native country. To this department of +Psychology he turned with an admitted interest in things unseen and a +confidence in the restraint of his University training. He felt that he +stood barely upon the threshold of the subject, held back by material +prejudice and the conservatism of little faith; yet his enthusiasm grew +daily. He weighed the evidence of phenomena with an impartiality that +other people pronounced belief. The attitude of those about him was for +the most part unsympathetic. Some to whom he had made furtive +confidences called him "spooky," a spiritualist; but he was merely an +investigator, trying to be fair. It was an alluring study; perhaps he +ran the risk of over-enthusiasm--he had known people who had +spiritualized the palpably material--but he was guarding against this +danger; it would take an exceptional impulse ever to get him to that +point. + +It might be that some such temptation was coming to him now. He had just +seen his friend pass into perfect knowledge. Blake had said something to +him at the last that still ran in his ears, above the rumble of the +train. "I will come back, if there is anything in it all." + +Diemann, peering out into the deepening gloom toward the bay shore +faintly white in the luminous mist, thought over this last interview of +theirs; he was finding it hard to realize that their friendship had +ended. + +Only eight days before, he remembered, Blake first complained. It was at +the practice, and Diemann had given him a shot about his listless work. +Fred had answered: + +"I can't help it, Die; I feel dead, somehow. I'm afraid I'm going stale, +after all." + +He recalled the drawn look on Fred's face. But the boy would come out +the next night, for there was only a week before the team would leave +for the Springs, and so much had to be done that the captain simply +couldn't lay off. Toward the end of the practice, he collapsed. With his +arm over Lyman's shoulder he had gone back to the Hall, dragging his +feet heavily, while the crowd sat on the bleachers, quiet and +frightened. Then the pain came, tearing its way into the heroic body, +and the specialist hurriedly summoned from San Francisco had said that +they must get him to the hospital. + +Now it was all over, and Diemann was following his melancholy telegram +to college. He could guess the effect of the news. A week ago the +knowledge of Blake's illness had staggered them; the college had grown +sick at heart; the city papers published details and the hopes of +Berkeley bounded to certainty of victory, for there was only one Blake. +Without him the Stanford team was nothing exceptional, and common +estimate gave the chance to California. The Stanford management did the +only thing they could do by putting in Ashley, the scrub fullback; but +this did not help matters materially. Ashley was a man of beautiful +physique, and the most conscientious player on the field. There he +stopped. He utterly lacked the head-work that Blake put into the game. + +For the star fullback had possessed the football instinct. Beyond his +quickness and dash, he had the mysterious faculty of staying with the +ball. If he were breaking the line, he placed the hole the fraction of +an instant before anyone else perceived it. They used to put him at +quarterback in defensive work, and he knew by inspiration where the play +was going, so that the line felt confident with him at their backs. + +Tom Ashley had nothing of all this. He punted as well as the 'Varsity +man, generally better, at the beginning of the season; but was slow with +his kick, often fatally slow when the 'Varsity broke through the scrub +line. He was late in starting, too, though a strong runner when out in +the field. The chief beauty of his game was a quick and certain +straight-arm. At another time he might have easily been the 'Varsity +fullback, for he put up a hard, steady game from one end of the season +to the other; but he had come to college with Blake, and the position +had been out of the question. Besides, there were a couple of star +halves; he was not good at end, either. So he staid on the Scrub eleven, +and worked doggedly for three years. + +Diemann lay back in the car seat and aimlessly thought of his work with +the substitute the week of Fred's illness. He had done his best with +Ashley, trying to instill into him something of the other's style and +dash. He had talked with him long and carefully, showing him the subtle +points of Blake's game. During the few practices following the star's +departure he had watched the new man faithfully through every play, +giving him all his time. He was sorry for the sub. A man could be placed +in no more exacting position. + +Ordinarily, such a chance would have been a god-send to a scrub player, +for the second-eleven man is the type of the Great Unthanked. Diemann +thought of the three months through which the scrub trains religiously, +sacrificing beloved pipe, or sorority dance, or week's end trip to +Mayfield, or to the Orpheum in town; leaving the "gang" singing in the +moonlit Quad, while he turns in at ten according to pledge; faring day +after day on the same service of rare beef and oatmeal water; getting +pounded and battered about over a hard field every afternoon. Ashley had +had three years of this sort of thing--and all for what? At best, to +squat in football clothes on the side-lines, Thanksgiving day, with +Blake's or Smith's sweater around his neck, waiting for the accident +that may give the game to Berkeley at the same time that it lets him +trot out on the field, while the crowd calls out to him encouragingly, +although they are sick at heart. He goes through each season borne up by +the excitement, working breast to breast with the honored 'Varsity, but +lost in their mighty shadow. When the big day comes he slips back into +the great, wild crowd that lifts the team to its shoulders; worship is +not for him, no, nor remembrance either, in that hour of homage. Such +men, to the bleachers, are but working material for the 'Varsity; the +scrub player is part of an inorganic thing--until his chance comes. + +Yet, when fortune gave Ashley his chance he was not to be envied. To be +put suddenly, at the last moment almost, into the shoes of the college +hero, when the hopes of the University had been centered in that one +man, this was too much for any fellow. In his docile way the substitute +went into the trying place, working along as faithfully, and to all +appearance with as little concern, as in his old position. Secretly, the +responsibility wore upon him. It was a hopeless undertaking to be like +Blake; but everybody expected it of him. He tried his best to grasp the +patient coaching of Diemann and to put it in play at the right time, but +he never seemed quick enough; that cursed slowness of his came in to +show how futile it all was. Everything he did or could do as a football +man was made negative by the fact that he was in Blake's place. It was a +hard graft. + +Diemann had known all along what the fellow was suffering, and he pitied +him. According to Ashley's room-mate, the boy talked in his sleep, all +night sometimes, chiefly about Blake and the play. If they did not look +sharp, the coach said to himself, there might be another stale man on +their hands. + +Diemann had been thinking of this that very morning when he got the +doctor's telegram. The shock had driven out every thought of Ashley and +the team. All through his work with the sub it had not occurred to him +that anything fatal could come to Blake, he had been doing so well; +then, without warning, came the message saying that he was sinking. He +had got there just in time. Now it was all over and he was going back +to college, where Fred would never hear them shout for him again, never +feel an arm about him in the long walks over the hills. + +When the train drew into Palo Alto, Frank Lyman, the football manager, +quiet and sober-faced, stood under the station-light. + +"Can you come to dinner with me?" asked Diemann. + +The two rode along under the oaks to the instructor's Palo Alto +boarding-house. When they were alone upstairs, the manager said: + +"Will you tell me about it? You got up there all right?" + +"Yes," said the other, slowly; "not any too soon. The boy was conscious +at the last, and knew me and talked a bit. It was all football, pretty +much. I don't think he was quite clear enough to talk about other +things." + +"What did he say--that is, anything special?" + +"No; he said he was more than sorry that he wasn't going to get in the +game; it was his last and he wanted to play, but, of course, it wasn't +his fault, and the college wouldn't think he had thrown them down. He'd +never been a quitter, he said." + +"No, never," said the manager. + +"He went on in that strain a good deal; said that he wished that he +could have stayed longer, just to play for them again. At the end he +pressed my hand and said: 'I'll come back somehow, Die, if there is +anything in it.'" + +The Psychology instructor had spoken half in revery. He added quickly: +"He was pretty well gone then, poor old chap, and wandering a little, +and soon after that, why, he went over the line." + +He was sorry for having let that sentence slip out. The student would +not understand it; he could not know what those last words of Blake's +had meant to him, who saw their meaning. Lyman would only think it a bit +of ghastly humor that need not have been repeated. But the manager did +not take it so, evidently. + +"That reminds me of something, Diemann," he said. "I haven't talked it +over with anyone yet, because everybody is sour-balled enough as it is. +It's about Ashley. I'm afraid he is going stale." + +"Yes?" said Diemann, with dull interest, "I've rather been afraid of +it." + +"Of course, I knew he was up on his toes about his job, but I didn't +know just how bad it was until this afternoon. You see, you weren't +here, and after practice there were things to speak about, so I walked +over to the Hall with him. Then I thought I'd rub him myself, because +Billy is overworked, you know. He didn't answer questions for a time, +but lay quite still and looked at me, yet I don't think he saw me at +all. He began to talk away, speaking of himself, in the third person, +mind you, and about his poor play and all that. He was as clean nutty as +any man you ever saw; as near as I could make out he thought he was +Fred." + +Diemann faced the manager. + +"What time was this, Frank?" + +"About five, I think. Shortly afterward I got your telegram. He went on +giving the straightest kind of football talk; but he was no more himself +all the time than I am he. This went on for several minutes; then he got +clear again. Pretty soon he rose and said he was faint, but guessed he +was all right. I didn't know whether to speak to the doctor or not. Now, +that sort of thing won't do; the man can't have such attacks and keep in +shape. If he goes stale, where will we be?" + +"He talked like Blake, did he?" + +"Yes, really he did. He had even Fred's little way of sliding over his +r's. Being troubled about having Fred's place has unstrung him. You've +noticed his absent-mindedness out on the field? I know Ashley pretty +well; he's always been sensitive as to what people think about him; he +likes to feel that he's doing what you expect of him. He was struck on +the head to-day; I don't doubt that's what made him a little off. +Still, his nervous condition must be bad." + +Diemann rose and knocked the ashes out of his pipe. + +"Yes," said he, thoughtfully, "we must watch him. Perhaps we ought to +speak to Dr. Forest; but I'll look after him a while first." + +"Very well. We won't have any practice to-morrow, out of respect to +Fred; we couldn't stand it, any of us; that will give Ashley a rest, +then Friday we have the last practice before going to the Springs." + +"I am going up there with you. I think I'll turn in early to-night; I'm +pretty well knocked. I'll see you in the Quad before noon to-morrow." + +Lyman went, and the Psychology man, refilling his pipe, stared at the +fire and smoked until midnight. + +"I don't know," he thought, as he settled into bed, "it may be only a +case of dual personality, it may be something greater. I've got where I +must guard against myself." + +With an intensified interest, the coach resumed his work over Ashley. He +waited for a recurrence of the phenomenon which Lyman had marked and he +yielded again to the general excitement over the approaching contest. +Absorbed in the two unrelated interests, he gradually came to connect +them. This he kept to himself. + +The last campus practice was half over, the bleachers were crowded. +Across the field the confirmed fiends were standing along the ropes to +get a nearer view of that tangle of human bodies, not a movement of +which escaped them. On the side-lines the privileged advisers, from +rubbers and Freshman manager up to associate coach, squatted on the +adobe, careless of their clothes. + +The whole University had come out. An air of sorrow hung over +everything, the rooters were silent, and the teams played listlessly. + +Frank Lyman went over where the wildest howlers usually sat. + +"Boys," he said, "we can't send the men away like this, it would take +them a week to get over it. We must have some yelling. We're not +honoring the memory of Blake this way. Do you know what his last words +were? He said to Professor Diemann, 'They know I never was a quitter.' +Do you think he would like a practice like this?" + +Then the crowd started up and gave the yell as one man, and the others +joined in until something like the usual demonstration arose about the +field, and the 'Varsity, feeling the inspiration, bent down and hammered +away at the Scrubs as they meant to do against the Blue and Gold on +Thanksgiving day. Here and there a fraternity dog, showing his head +between a pair of golf-clad knees, joined the quick, sharp yell of the +people about him with an imitation that raised a laugh. When the +bleachers were still just before a big play, one could hear in the +breathless silence the slap of the canvas suits, the thud of heavy +shoes, the sniffling of men just out of a scrimmage. Far across the bay, +the hills that were cool and blue when practice began, grew luminously +red in the level light of the dying rays; against the fading color of +the west, the power-house chimney rose picturesquely dark; the swift, +elusive twilight of California settled down on Santa Clara's broad +acres, so that Diemann had to stare hard to follow Ashley's play. Then +the whistle sounded, sharp in the still air, and the teams came trotting +to the side-lines to take their sweaters and caps from devoted admirers +and to stroll off, arm over shoulder, with people who minded not in the +least the campus dirt those heroes had been gathering. + +Diemann took Ashley's arm. "Let's walk together," he said. + +The substitute fullback had been playing hard ball. The gloom hanging +over the first half of the practice had affected him strongly and he had +flung himself into the game, trying to forget, to cast off the foolish +sense of an implied reproach. Diemann could see that he was very tired. +He made him lean upon him, and they started for the Hall. Suddenly he +realized that the football man was not answering questions, that the +weight on his own shoulder was growing heavier. He glanced up into +Ashley's face; there was an absent look in the man's eyes. + +"Fred!" whispered Diemann sharply in his ear. + +"Yes?" answered the fullback; then he shook himself and said: + +"It's chilly, Die, I'm wet. Let's get in." + +Some fifteen minutes later, the two came down the corridor toward the +training table. + +"Good-night, Ashley." + +"Won't you stay to dinner, Diemann?" + +"No, I must go down, and you are late as it is. Hurry along in." + +"All right. I'm not going stale if I can help it. I just felt a little +faint over there; I got pretty tired." + +Diemann stepped up closer to him beside the curving balustrade and +looked the football man steadily in the eyes. + +"You are playing more like Blake every day," he said. + +"I wish I were." + +"We are going to the Springs to-morrow," went on the coach, "and you can +rest. By the way, if I were you I wouldn't say anything about your +feeling faint just now. It would only trouble Lyman and the rest of the +boys." + +"What does it all mean?" Diemann mused as the palms bordering the +bicycle path flashed by him. "There was something about him like Fred, +in his way of speaking, and some of the things he said about the game, +but it stopped there. With all my questioning, I never got a word that +belonged to us two alone. I suppose I must admit that it is merely the +memory of the subjective mind, a case of dual personality brought on by +hyper-aesthetic conditions. Oh, if it were only the other thing, if I +only could know! But it can't be; he would give me some clue, some sign. +Then again the substitution has not come at a critical time, only after +the practice, when Ashley is tired. If it were Fred, he would appear in +the play, he would come at a time like that, if there is anything in +it." + +Diemann gripped his handle-bar tightly as he shot through the sandstone +gates. + +"Oh," he thought, "whatever it is, if it would only come stronger, if I +could only be sure!" + + * * * * * + +On Thanksgiving morning when the long special runs up on the University +track and stops between the Library and Encina, the flaming bunting +looped along its sides starts the excitement of the day. Everybody is +out on the walk, bristling with the College cardinal, from Professor +Grind and his wife to the Jap who cleans house Saturdays. If there is +anyone who cannot or does not want to go up to town to-day, he has +hidden himself in grief or shame. The President wears a ribbon in his +coat, and talks gravely with Professor Diemann, who has been at the +Springs with the team. A knot of students have already determined to get +the Doctor to lead the yell when he comes in to the grounds. They know +he will do it; he is as full of the spirit of the day as any of them. + + "Rah, Rah, Rah, + Rah, Rah, Rah, + Rah, Rah, + Stanford!" + +The engine whistles it, the crowd shouts it, and the +hills give it back again as the laden train slips down to the main line +and starts on its way to town. Streaming with cardinal bunting, it looks +like a burning thing as it rushes over the marsh land, sending the +horses in the field snorting away, and bringing women to the doors of +cottages along the tracks. In their excitement the delirious Sophomores +and Juniors hang out of the windows and throw kisses wildly to these +women, who grin and wave back, doubtless saying something about "them +crazy students." A placid red cow is greeted with cheers, the scarlet +under-flannels of hard-working South San Francisco, flapping merrily +from the line in the November breeze, fan the frenzy, while the engine +toots the yell and the car-windows are aflame with gleaming flags. + +From now on the students besiege the city, and the town is theirs as +surely as if the Mayor had met them at its entrance with a symbolic +golden key. Shop windows are brilliant with the rival colors, the +streets are a shifting riot of red and blue and yellow, with a +plague-spot here and there where some fanatics have striped their derby +hats with blue and gold ribbon, or a color-blind Stanford man flaunts a +villainously purple chrysanthemum. On the curbing, fakirs are selling +shining red Christmas berries and violets and great bursting carnations, +and chrysanthemums like yellow ostrich-plumes. + +Through all this splendor you keep close to Professor Diemann, for you +know he is going to the hotel where the team is, and that stalwart +lineman you are thinking of most to-day is up there with them. You slip +upstairs under the protecting shadow of the associate coach, passing the +suspicious eyes of the trainers and the hurried, unsympathetic glance of +Lyman, the manager, and you find your particular hero lying on his bed +in all the glory of his new sweater with its clean white S, a great +fresh specimen of the lustiest student-body in the world. You take his +hand, almost afraid to squeeze it tightly, lest you cause some harm to +the big frame in which your hopes are centered, and you tell him how +glad you are he has made the team and that we are bound to win. And if +this is his first game, or if some man has pressed him dangerously for +the position he had last year, he will smile and say, "We'll do our +best." Then the rubber comes in and you slip away, wondering why the +beneficence of the Creator to man on earth should have made one fellow +like your idol up there on the bed and another like you, crawling +unnoticed into the street, throwing out your thin, incapable legs in a +quick walk to join your crowd at the restaurant. + +Diemann found Ashley quiet in his room. The fullback was in splendid +fettle; the week at the Springs had done him a world of good. There was +no staleness about him now. It had helped him to be away from the +College, away from that excited crowd that sat on the bleachers and +watched him play, demanding that he be like Blake, who had died. He +breathed more easily in the quiet air of the mountains where the team +had secret practice. People stopped urging him to be like Blake; only +Diemann went over the thing again and again, explaining, reminding. Now +Thanksgiving had come, and the substitute fullback had never felt better +in his life. He would do his best, and they could not say he had not +tried. + +The manager was radiant over Ashley's condition, and the other men +slapped Tom's big shoulders and said that he would put up a good game +for the College. Diemann alone seemed sour-balled. The rest of them knew +how Blake's death had broken him up, but that was no reason, Lyman said, +why he need keep nagging the new fullback about Fred. The College +realized that the two men were hopelessly different, and they were +fairly reconciled by this time. If the boy played the best that was in +him, the team might make it in spite of the odds. It was too bad to take +the spirit out of him by constantly suggesting that he play like Blake. +The manager said this to Diemann, but the coach only shook his head and +answered: + +"It won't do any harm, Frank, and it may possibly work him up to +something like Fred's game." + +But a week's watching at the Springs had made Diemann despondent. The +phenomenon he had witnessed the evening of the last practice had not +appeared again. He had allowed his theories to lead him away into +impossible hopes. The man on the bed was Ashley, slow, normal, in +perfect condition, hopeless, and Ashley he would remain. The chance for +a psychic manifestation ceased when Ashley's football worry was over. +Opportunity had come and gone, unfruitfully. + +That afternoon, the athletic grounds were banked with great flower-beds +of people, where red and blue and yellow blossomed and faded and burst +out again as the teams swayed back and forward on the white-lined +gridiron between. The wild noise of the college yells greeting the +teams, the taunting horns that shattered the music of the rival bands, +the shrill treble of gamins who had climbed over impossible fences, the +hoarse bellow of the brown paper megaphones,--all this tumult had hushed +suddenly into a tense, aching silence in which fingers dug into board +seats and College hearts stopped beating when the teams faced each other +for the kick-off. + +The uproar boomed forth again, and presently the Stanford bleachers +became silent from breathless watching. The first five minutes of play +meant most to the cardinal. In that dozen rushes, they could tell +whether there was a chance of winning or whether the hope of victory had +died with Blake. The first Berkeley play went at the line and crumpled +up without gain; again it held and again, until the crowd felt that +there was more than hope, that the Stanford stone-wall defense would win +out once more. Yet so closely were the teams matched that they swung +back and forth without score for a good half. + +When the game was almost at the end of the second half, the score was +tie, 6-6. But Berkeley was sure of the day. She had forced her +adversaries to their five-yard line, and there were only six minutes +left to play. Stanford took a desperate brace and Berkeley lost the ball +on downs. If only Stanford could gain ground now, or if time could be +called. Nobody wanted a tie, to be sure, but defeat was hard to +accept,--the first time, too. + +Diemann of Stanford crouched on the side-lines with a heart of lead. The +game was lost. What he had looked for, hoping against hope since play +was called, had not happened. Ashley had played his usual hard, +consistent game, straining every muscle, punting longer and higher than +ever before, but missing stupidly some golden chances, the chances Blake +would never have let slip by. Diemann had talked to him between halves, +a few eager words, urging him to quickness, reminding him of Fred. The +substitute had only shaken his head, and muttered that he was doing his +best. Toward the end of the second he had shown the severity of the +strain. Playing his hardest, with despair in his soul, it had told on +him. In the last scrimmages his work had been very ragged. Indeed, the +whole team seemed to have slumped, and the Berkeley line had hammered +them down toward their own goal while precious seconds slipped by. + +Now the men lined up rapidly. Stanford tried an end play. No gain. +Diemann stood back of the team at one side of the goal; he was +struggling hard to be calm, but he did a strange thing. He seized a +small megaphone from the hands of an urchin beside him, and just as they +lined up after Stanford's unsuccessful trial at end, he stepped to the +white goal line and raising the funnel to his lips shouted in a voice +audible to every man on both teams: + +"Now, Fred Blake, play your game!" + +Lyman heard and looked back, wondering. + +Ashley heard. He stared at the grandstand with a bewildered, appealing +face. Then the signal was given. It sent Ashley through tackle. The boy, +feeling as though he had lost the game for his College where the other +man would have won, went into the line with the energy of a forlorn +hope. The Berkeley men gathered their superior force, and the Stanford +team was lifted up and borne back, a gradually shifting mass, to its own +goal line. + +Were they over? The Berkeley crowd yelled, and an exultant sub threw +his sweater in the air. No, the teams were up, and the ball was almost +on the line, not quite. There remained a chance to punt it out of +danger. Could Ashley do it quickly enough? He had been punting too +slowly; the other line could surely get through and block his kick, and +there were only two minutes to play. + +Diemann, rigid with anxiety, saw that a Stanford man still lay on the +ground. Straining his eyes through the dusk, a glance at the team told +him that it was Ashley. The drawn muscles of the instructor's legs +trembled, the blood beat in his temples. Was it coming, at the last +moment? + +As the trainer shot out from the side-lines with bucket and sponge, +Diemann saw Ashley spring up, slap the grimy moleskins of the men +nearest him, and get back into position to kick. Stanford was standing +on her own goal line. He saw the ball snapped back; the fullback kicked +it, in time; then, instead of the long, curving drive that was to save +the day, he saw the ball rise almost straight in the air above the +teams, and he groaned aloud as the Berkeley men broke through, and +people with delirious laughter waved the blue and gold frantically about +him. + +The ball comes down among the struggling players. Suddenly, out of that +jumble of men darts a red-sleeved figure, dashing through the scattered +field, bounding like a stag toward the Berkeley goal. + +The expert eye of the associate coach tells him that, by a marvellous +piece of football instinct, Ashley has found his way through the +confused teams, realizing that he is the only Stanford man on side, and +has caught the ball on the fly and got clear with it. Though they +understand nothing of this, the vast crowd goes shrieking to its feet. +The bewildered teams turn and follow close upon the flying figure, the +speedy Berkeley right-half leading them. Back in the field stands the U. +C. fullback, grimly waiting. The two collide, and the chasing halfback +gains; but the Berkeley back drops to the tackle a fraction of an +instant too late and runs fair against a straight-arm. Tom Ashley, with +the ball clutched tight against his breast, his set face gleaming white +in the half-light, sprints down the long barred space toward victory, +keeping the distance between himself and the straining pack, running as +only one man has ever run for Stanford. + +And Diemann, tearing along the side-line, knows that Ashley himself +never could have done it. + +The fullback falls across the line, the ball gripped in his convulsive +hold, just as the linesman's whistle blows. Diemann is there almost as +soon. He keeps back the frenzied men crowding about them, and bends over +the unconscious player, calling him "Fred" irrationally, while the place +catches fire with the cardinal and Stanford goes mad on the field. + + * * * * * + +Ashley came to consciousness at the hotel. Diemann sat beside him, and +Lyman and Dr. Forest stood by the window. The substitute fullback sat +up. + +"I felt faint just then," he said. "I couldn't help it; you know about +it, Diemann." He looked at the other men. + +"Did they get it over?" he asked. + +Lyman ran across the room. + +"Tom, old man," he said, choking, "you won it for us, and you'll never +be forgotten, you and your run!" + +The fullback looked at him blankly. + +"My run?" he faltered. + +Diemann came between them. + +"Better lie down and rest a bit, my boy; you can talk later." + +Then, turning to the others: + +"You see," he whispered, "he's wandering a little yet." + + + + +TWO PIONEERS AND AN AUDIENCE. + + + + +Two Pioneers and an Audience. + + "The Mother sits beside the bay, + The bay goes down to wed the sea, + And gone ye are, on every tide + Wherever men and waters be!" + + +On the Sunday night following the Game the smoking-room at the Rho house +held the greater part of the Chapter. As a rule, there were not so many +loafing there Sunday nights; that time was generally given either to +sentiment in other places, or to digging out Monday's work upstairs, +while the fire burned for the two or three who seemed never to have any +work more important than magazine reading or solitaire. To-night, +however, nearly every one was gathered there, for two "old men" were +visiting. + +These old men had been out of college for two whole years. One of them +was Ralph Shirlock. If you were at college in his days you knew him by +sight, at least, though you were the mossiest dig that ever kept bright +till morning the attic window of a prof's house on the Row. If you have +come up to College since then, and are sufficiently posted to know that +there have been other annuals before this one just issued by your +friends the Juniors, you have found his picture or his name on every +other page of the earlier editions. Harry Rice, who came with him, was +not half so well known, save to the Faculty and the circle of the +chapter. He was doing very well in business, people said, better than +Shirlock, probably. Rice was a keen fellow, the new men could see that +at a glance; but they did not put an arm about him instinctively in the +after-dinner stroll, as they did about Shirlock. + +The two alumni had spent Sunday calling upon the Faculty in Palo Alto +and the Row, and in post-mortems with some of the football men in +Encina. After dinner, the fellows sat out on the porch, strumming +mandolins and singing. Shirlock had been a star on the Glee Club two +years before, and he sang again the songs the college hummed after him +in those days, while the upper-classmen looked at the Freshmen with a +"now-you-see-what-you've-joined" expression, or nudged each other +reminiscently, until the live-oaks in the pasture almost blended with +the long shadows under them, and hoarse-throated frogs were tuning up in +the irrigating ditches. Then they formed four abreast and went down for +the mail, humming a march song and lifting their hats in concert to +Professor Stillwell and his wife, smiling from their porch. At the +post-office the lines broke and the entire body, except the alumni, +struggled into the over-crowded room ("the daily press" Pellams called +it). This was hardly necessary, since one man could have opened the +fraternity box and distributed the letters; but this is a distinct charm +of Sunday evening at the post-office. Moreover, you never know who may +be standing inside, and if you have forgotten to arrange things ahead it +is sometimes well to be first. + +The pleasant uncertainty of the evening mail being over, the fellows +mixed a while with the sundry groups about the low red building, then +joined forces again, and marched once around the Quad, arm in arm, a +line of sixteen, while Bob Duncan, who had been prepped at a military +school, shouted, "Change step, march," and "Left wheel, march," then +home together, all but two or three, who were called the "Incurables," +and who had plunged back into the shadow of the Quad for Chapel, +perhaps, or some other form of Sabbath evening devotion. This breach of +hospitality the alumni forgave, made indulgent by a sweet sympathy. + +Alas for you, old worshippers at empty shrines! Those divine presences +are gone, new and unknown deities queen it in the ancient temples. Go +back to the hearth where some still know you and talk to the few who +gather around you there, of the old days when you, too, placed your +offering at celestial feet. These men of a new generation, sitting in +places that once were yours, will listen indulgently to your stories of +the past, and hear with patience the odious comparisons you inevitably +make; they will thank you for the advice you give them, and say +something pleasant about your college spirit; then in the morning when +you have taken the early train back to the World, they will go down to +the Quad with their books under their arms and something in their minds +that is anything but your talk of the evening before; the College life +will go on very much as if you had not been back, O wise fossils, and +there will be new graduates going out to learn your lessons and new +undergraduates who will pay no attention to them in turn. So be thankful +for this brief hour before the fire, with its chat as light as the +tobacco smoke floating over "old" man and Freshman lounging together, be +glad of the fellowship that welcomes you, and be content. + +Each couch in the smoking-room had its load of sprawling figures. The +lights were out by this time and the Incurables had come back to the +house and ferreted places for themselves among the tangled golf suits +and 'Varsity sweaters. Duncan had a lamp on the table where he was +"bossing a rabbit"; Pellams said this was the only kind of lab-work in +zoology in which Bob could get credit. A pile of plates warmed before +the fire where Smith was toasting crackers at the end of a sharpened +stick. At the piano, Pellams was softly playing "barber shop" chords. It +was all very lazy and comfortable. The alumni grew reminiscent. + +"This noon while we were walking up from Palo Alto," said Shirlock, +"Mrs. Stanford passed us in her carriage, coming from Chapel, I suppose. +I asked Harry if he remembered how they used to drive about the place +inspecting things, when the Senator was alive." + +"Of course I do," spoke up Rice, "it seems odd that there are so few in +college now who remember them together. To you fellows, I suppose, Mrs. +Stanford is the source of the University. To us who saw them stand +together on the platform that day in October, '91, it is the two +always." + +"Harry, do you remember our serenade at the residence, after they +returned from Washington the first time?" + +"No," answered Rice, "I remember, but I wasn't there. We played a game +somewhere that day and I stayed over and missed the fun." + +"Tell us about it, Ralph," said Duncan, as he emptied the cubes of +cheese into the chafing-dish. + +"Well, you see," said Shirlock, unbraiding himself from two affectionate +under-classmen on the couch and sitting up in the light, "the story +really begins with the first football game, which came off in the spring +of '92, and was ours, as every Freshman can tell you, even though he +doesn't know just what is meant by 'Pioneers.' The day of the game, +Whittemore, the captain, got a telegram from Washington wishing us luck +in our first encounter, and that afternoon we sent back answer in much +the same style that Caesar used on one occasion--I suppose the little man +to my left here can give me the Latin words?" he added, rumpling the +hair of a horizontal Freshman. + +"Not long afterward the Senator and Mrs. Stanford came back from the +East and someone over in the Hall proposed that we give them a welcome +home. We could get a bigger demonstration there in those days than you +can now, I'll bet; you know everybody who was anybody at all lived in +Encina then; that was the center of the College life, politics began and +grew up there, and it was over there in the old lobby that we started +the Stanford spirit. Things were great, that first year. It's all right +enough here by our own fireside, with our own little gang, but I tell +you honestly if things could have lasted as they were that first year, I +wouldn't have wanted to come over here. We were all together, right in +line for everything, wise or foolish." + +"It was the student body then, all right," put in Rice, "and we had the +Faculty with us too whether we were around the gridiron, where they +first had it, east of the cinder path, you know, learning the yell and +incidentally getting the team into condition for that 14-10, or whether +we were crawling by our lonelies through the fence over in the +vineyard." + + "The days of grapes, + The days of scrapes," + +sang Pellams from the piano. + +"Were there any profs on that flat-car?" interrupted Duncan. He had come +into College while a memory of that pioneer adventure yet lingered. + +"It's unkind to remind us of that affair! No, I don't think there were. +The Faculty had their fun later, and we put mourning wreaths on several +chairs in the dining-room." + +"And you came mighty near getting a bouquet of the same kind, yourself," +said Rice. + +"What was it about the flat-car?" inquired a voice from the pillows. + +"Oh," said Rice, "that was about the first of those senseless +ebullitions of youth that the Shirlock person usually identified himself +with. There was a flat-car standing outside Encina on the track there, +just about where it turns and slopes down crosslots to the main track. +This is just what Ralph and his precious gang wanted, of course; they +thought it would be a bit of innocent, boyish play to have a little free +railroading, so they piled on and turned her loose and slid down to +Mayfield. They barely stopped the car before she switched into the main +line, and they all fell off into the gopher holes along the side and +made for Mayfield, red-eyed. The Faculty raised Ned when they heard +about it, which was proper." + +"I hope the Freshmen will pay particular attention to Mr. Rice," said +Shirlock. "He is a noble influence to any sweet, unfolding soul. I feel +that I should have escaped a great deal of enjoyable sin had I only +known him better those first few weeks." + +Ralph got up for some cigarette tobacco from the skull on the +mantelpiece. + +"Well, the Faculty were with us in about everything," he went on, +rolling a cigarette; "many of them lived in the Hall then." + +"Yes, a number did," put in Rice. "Do you remember, Ralph, the night +that Professor Torts had his little beer-and-skittles party in his +lair, and Burns, who roomed across the passage and who was the worst +bummer in Encina, went down to Fessler, and complained that he couldn't +study because of the noise in that number? And Fessler forgot who roomed +there and came up and gave them Tartarus through the keyhole and nearly +dropped when Torts opened the door?" + +"We all enjoyed that," answered Shirlock. "Why, the profs used to come +to our feeds and jolly up with the crowd. Often they were the best fun +there. It's different now." + +"Oh, I don't know," said Duncan, "they come over off and on, now. Doc +Jordan was here last Sunday to dinner, and Diemann drops in sometimes; +last year he came a lot." + +"Oh, they come over all right," sighed Pellams from the piano. "I had a +report to make one day. I didn't have it done, and I bribed Ted to go +down and tell Engbee I was sick in bed. I was playing cards in here when +Sniffles rushed in and told me the old boy was coming up the street. I +smelt danger and tumbled into bed like a six-day bicyclist, and fixed my +face up with some grease paint and magnesia. Sure enough, he came in, +darkly suspicious, thought he had me all right, but he found a wreck +that melted him. His wife sent me a bunch of violets next morning. For +my part I don't like the Faculty for intimate friends," and Pellams +played "Comrades" with the soft pedal down. + +"It's not the same thing, though, really," persisted Shirlock. "They may +come over here to dinner or perhaps to a smoker, but it's always +Professor So-and-So; his chair is a little higher than any of yours, and +he never forgets the family waiting for him in the Row; in those first +days the family was in most cases beyond the Rockies, or as yet a dream, +and it wasn't always easy to pick out the professor from the jumble of +story-tellers on the bed. + +"Of course, it was all too good to last," the alumnus went on +thoughtfully, "and it wasn't natural it should. We weren't so many then. +When the number increased, I suppose the relations had to change and the +different cliques must separate. I'll admit that there is more in the +life now, it's more complex, there are more institutions and more ways +of having joy; but those were good old days, those first days in Encina +when the crowd was one. + +"I can see them now, can't you, Harry? out on the veranda and the steps +of the Hall after dinner, with the fellows playing ball on the lawn, and +other men sitting up on their window-ledges. The night I started to tell +you about, when we went to serenade Mr. and Mrs. Stanford, we got the +mandolin fellows, the beginning of your present club, and fell in +behind them and started off down the road, past the mausoleum and +through the vineyard--never broke ranks there, either, we were on our +good behavior, besides, it was Spring--and so on over to the house, +where we drew up, and the mandolins played their piece, then we gave the +yell--it was only a few months old, that yell, but it had been loud +enough to knock out a twenty-five-year-old one we met up in town not +long before, and we were proud of it. + +"During the pause that followed, the front door opened and the Senator +stepped out on the porch; a lamp shone on his gray head and on us +fellows in a big black crowd on the gravel below, looking up at him and +cheering. When we stopped he said, very much as though a friend had +driven up, "Gentlemen, will you come in?" and the whole two hundred of +us piled over the piazza, getting a grasp of his hand as we came into +the hall, and a word from Mrs. Stanford, who stood beside him. They took +us into the library; we formed a hollow square, two rows deep on the +sides, and the Founders came into the square and talked to us. I +remember that Mrs. Stanford said, 'We were very glad, young gentlemen, +to hear of your success in baseball,' and what a chill it gave us, just +convalescing from the football fever; but we forgave the mistake when +she asked, a minute later, 'Which is Mr. Clemans?' That blushing hero +with the other ten we forced into the center to be congratulated, and we +sang the new song, 'Rush the Ball Along,' until the bric-a-brac +trembled. + +"When we were quiet again, the Senator talked to us informally, as +though we were in reality his children as he had said we were to be. It +was an earnest talk, about his ideals of what the University was yet to +be, and his hope for their fulfillment; of economy and judicious living; +and of endeavor to be of use to the world. It was a privilege to stand +there listening. He appealed to each one of us individually. We could +not know then how few more such opportunities we were to have. When he +had finished, the dining-room doors slid back--it was a put-up job, that +serenade--and it was Mrs. Stanford's turn. After the supper, we gathered +for a little personal talk with both of them, then we had some more +mandolin music, and Baker sang 'Suwanee River' to Capron's +accompaniment. + +"That evening brought the Founders pretty close to the crowd. It was a +good thing to have happen, it began things right. Then, you know, he +died suddenly, in vacation. I was in Yosemite. When term opened, it was +hard to get used to seeing her driving around the campus alone. I don't +think any of the people who came after those early days can ever be so +loyal to the Founders, to the person of one and the memory of the other, +as we are. I'm sure none of us who went over serenading that night will +ever forget it. It's one of the Pioneer memories." + +Both graduates were looking into the fire. Freshman Haviland snored +softly in the window seat. The eyes of the rest of the chapter were +fastened on the chafing-dish. Shirlock's story had seemed pretty long +and the rarebit sent out a tantalizing odor. + +Duncan called out, "Supper's ready, children," and the heated plates +came clattering up from the hearth, bringing the visitors back from the +far echoes of their own beginnings to the noisy unconcern of a Freshman +year that knew a kind, white-bearded face from pictures only, and never +could understand. + + + + +FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT. + + + + +For the Sake of Argument. + + "For we are frank and twenty + And the spring is in the air!" + HOVEY. + + +"Well!" said Miss Meiggs, spreading across her lap one of the Beta Rhos' +new monogrammed napkins, "I must say _your_ being here is a surprise." + +Pellams answered in vague interrogation, not a little surprised, +himself, to be caught at a "girl-supper." Now that he was cornered, it +would be uselessly impolite to tell her how the Chapter had reasoned and +pleaded with him until at the last minute "Cap" Smith ruined his clever +escape by catching him midway down a porch pillar. Smith, sitting on the +other side of Katharine Graham and wearing the smile of satisfied +revenge, would doubtless enjoy telling it. There was so much of genial +malevolence in that smile that Pellams, the woman-hater, who knew only +enough of the co-eds to avoid them, wondered what sort of a girl he had +been placed next to at supper. He had an intuitive idea that she had +been given him by general consent. An experienced society man would have +scented this at once in the company of Mrs. Perkins, for when there is +a choice of tables, chapter-mothers are apt to sit where there is the +least sentiment; but this was the Junior's debut, practically, and he +was conscious of little more than that the fellows had it "in" for him, +and that this girl had begun the conversation by a personal remark. + +"I judged," the girl was saying, not having waited for any explanation, +"that in the milder forms of social entertainment you were somewhat out +of your element." + +Pellams had missed his guess. On sitting down to their small table, he +had decided that the conversation would naturally split into two +divisions of three rather than into three couples, for Mrs. Perkins, +Professor Grind and this Meiggs girl would enjoy themselves together, +leaving him to share Smith's talk with Miss Graham, whose eyes had +somehow an engaging twinkle. The idea was rudely dispelled by Miss +Meiggs's immediate and decidedly personal attack. At least, he would +have preferred to talk about other people, but he faced the music. + +"Oh, I disapprove of them only for myself," he replied, "not for +others." + +"And why for yourself, particularly?" + +The face of the Glee Club's comedian had assumed just the right +seriousness. + +"Because I'm more than susceptible and I don't want to run risks." + +"Your time has come at last, then," put in his captor, Smith, with a +gallant look at Miss Meiggs. + +"Not at all," retorted Pellams, whose combative sense was less rusty +than his skill in compliment. "If I'd been afraid of one exposure like +this, do you think I'd have suggested being on deck to-night?" + +Smith, with a fresh memory of their struggle, laughed at this blocking +move. Katharine Graham, although she did not laugh, enjoyed Pellams's +unconscious "like this." She was a Theta Gamma with Miss Meiggs, and of +late there had been a little rift in their sisterly love. + +The older girl was not disconcerted. She had her estimate of Pellams +Chase, and he was not disproving it. There were certain things she had +long wanted the chance to say to him. + +"I admire your self-restraint under temptation," she said; "it is +characteristic of you in other circumstances, I believe"--this with +discreet emphasis--"but, really, why should you dread letting _this_ +susceptibility get the better of you?" + +Pellams caught the faint sneer in the words. He hoped that Mrs. Perkins +had been talking just then to her Faculty partner. Increasing his +affected earnestness, he replied: + +"Because, when you get gone, it is bound to knock scholarship." + +Here Smith giggled audibly, for Katharine and he were really feigning +talk, being more entertained by the couple across the cloth. Katharine +knew that by this last statement Pellams had sounded a dominant note in +the soul of her opinionated sister. She was not surprised, then, when +Miss Meiggs turned more fully toward the woman-hater. + +"Tell me, are you one of these people who think co-education an evil?" + +"I'm afraid I am." The speech gave Pellams a certain pleasure. There was +nothing about this partner they had given him that tended toward +converting him to the Chapter's point of view as to the advantage of +girls at college. + +"Of course," continued she, "I do not take your remark about scholarship +as worthy of consideration in your case, because I am in one or two of +your classes, when you attend them," and Pellams, listening, gave thanks +that he and Professor Grind opposite had no such relation; "but +monopolized time is really the cry of a good many who would wish to +work, and it is all wrong. There is no reason why we should not come +here and work with you, combining friendship and study. Our presence +here is, in a way, preventive of many worse things." + +Pellams turned his empty salad plate between his fingers. + +"Well," he drawled, "I'm not sure I know what you mean by the worse +things, and I've never been to another college, except Berkeley but I +can't believe as much time is spent on them as some people here give to +girls," this with a dreamy look over Smith's head; "the cigarette heart +can't be much worse than what takes men out of college here, and if you +refer to beer----" + +"I _do_ refer to beer," said Miss Meiggs, in an iced voice. + +"Oh, no!" expostulated the Junior, spreading his hands, "they couldn't +do it!" He looked at her frankly. "You get a head after too much beer," +he went on, reckless as to pronouns and listening professors, "and you +stay sober and work, for awhile, any way. In co-education you don't get +any such call-down until the Committee meets." + +"Don't let him tease you, Miss Meiggs," put in Mrs. Perkins, frowning +mildly at Pellams because of Professor Grind's sphinx-like smile; "he's +making it all up out of his inner consciousness, like the German +philosopher and the--elephant, wasn't it, Professor Grind?" + +"Yes?" answered Miss Meiggs, with a world of irony packed into the +syllable; "your inner consciousness, then, Mr. Chase, proves rather +forcibly that in one case the influence is against refinement, while in +the case of co-education it is all for it. You will grant that, I +think?" + +Quite by accident, Pellams caught Miss Graham's eye. The twinkle there +was a sort of glorified "sic 'im!" + +"On the contrary," said he, perfectly composed, "I think it's the girl +that's refined." + +Miss Meiggs's "_What!_" was almost a shriek. Foo, the table-boy, brought +her just then a plate of creamy rarebit. He had a jacket of luminous +green silk, with the fraternity monogram in white, and he wore his cue +hanging. But the fragrance of the rarebit and the splendor of Foo's +toilet were alike lost upon the aroused Miss Meiggs. Such a statement, +from this man of all others! + +"You are judging us with yourself as a basis of contrast, I fancy!" + +Not displeased at having put her in ill-humor, and refusing a gentle +attempt on Mrs. Perkins' part to lead the conversation elsewhere, he +went on with aggravated seriousness: + +"But there is hope for me here, with the Faculty and with books"--he +choked a little over this; "a man doesn't need to go through from one to +eight love-affairs." + +The champion of co-education sniffed. + +"Nothing was further from my thoughts," said she. "The association of +men and women in an atmosphere of study does not mean sentimentality. +The relation should be normal and helpful, not spoiled by extremes." +Katharine had heard these views before. + +"But they can't dodge the extremes, you see," persisted Pellams. "It's +the place here, the walks and drives in the country and all. Your theory +might work all right at a city college or even at Berkeley, but on this +campus, not so!" + +"The reasoning of inexperience. There are stronger interests in nature +than boy-and-girl foolishness--unless one is idle. Where it results in +that sort of thing, I agree that it is all wrong and prejudicial to +scholarship and thoroughly unnecessary and inexcusable"--with these +words a slow glance at Katharine that spoke of arguments in the past. "A +man does not have to fall in love purely because he and a girl are in +the country at the same time." + +"But all the girls are not like you," began Pellams, and stopped at the +sound of the words. They were not in the least intended to be taken as +he felt that the table-full had taken them. Miss Meiggs put her fork +viciously into the neglected rarebit. In the uncomfortable pause, Mrs. +Perkins flutteringly passed her the cayenne pepper, but Miss Meiggs +ignored the courtesy. She turned to Pellams. + +"Even a love-affair," she snapped, "would benefit you more than the +substitute you have chosen! You are a nice one to argue the refinement +of the college girl! Are you refining yourself, your fraternity or your +favorite side of the student-body by carousing at Mayfield and carrying +the viciousness of that town to others where you may represent the +University?" + +"Oh, I say!" protested the Glee Club man, uneasily, for Grind was on the +Committee; "don't be too hard on me." + +"I'm sure you're unjust to Pellams," said the Chapter-mother, with a +troubled look at her black lamb, who wondered what was coming: "I don't +believe he----" + +Miss Meiggs, peppering her rarebit deliberately, interrupted, with a +little toss of the head. + +"I will ask Mr. Chase one question then." She gathered some of the +cheese upon her fork, and, balancing it midway to her mouth, went on +with a gloating clearness of enunciation. "Please tell us why you came +to the afternoon concert at the Chico Normal School this summer in a +colored shirt and your dress suit, and why you did not sing your part of +the program?" + +"That's two questions," murmured Pellams. He could not look at Mrs. +Perkins, to whom he had made certain solemn promises before that very +trip; but his adversary had turned toward her with a look of righteous +triumph. So deftly that even Pellams barely saw it, Katharine reached +across him and peppered the forkful of rarebit just before the lips of +Miss Meiggs closed over it. His answer was overlooked. + +Mrs. Perkins took the sufferer up to her own room and Katharine vanished +somewhere with Smith. When the tables were removed, a girl sat at the +piano; her song finished, she struck briskly into the "Hot Time," and +every one turned to Pellams. He sang the rag-time as though he were +bursting with fun, while the Chapter sat before him, beaming its +innocent gratitude. But the Glee Club man was singing to one guest +alone, and he could not see her, or Smith either. When two songs had +failed to bring her into view, he stole off upstairs unmolested and lay +for some time with his door locked, grinning before sleep. + +They hammered at his door next morning with appeals for his appearance +at first-hour recitation, and fraternal reminders that he hadn't +sufficient stand-in to cut. Foo went clanging the bell through the +halls, dodging the shoes that flew at him through the door of a man who +had nothing before the fourth hour, and the rush and hurry of late +breakfast-time filled the house. But Pellams lay smoking in his narrow +bed, engaged in the novel task of solving a point of etiquette. The +affair of the night before was to be his final appearance in local +society. His experience in small-talk with Miss Meiggs confirmed his +decision to live a college life into which co-education did not enter +outside his class-rooms. Yet, having once departed from the mode of such +a life, he found himself under an obligation. A co-ed had found him in +trouble and had done the "white" thing by him at a critical moment; even +Jimmy Mason, over at the Hall, could not have stood by him any better. +In an obligation to Jimmy there was no problem--only the matter of time +to do his part--but with a co-ed, Pellams felt that it was different. +She was not a feature of his life. To the woman-hater's mind, if a man +has become indebted to a girl, honor bids him pay the debt, the sooner +the better. He need never see the girl again, once the score is even. +This philosophy evolved, it took another cigarette to decide just how +the balance could be struck, and then Pellams went downstairs to wheedle +a remnant of breakfast from the indulgent Foo. + +Applied to the new element into which he had ventured, something of the +keen observation which the Junior devoted to football practice might +have made the payment of his debt to Katharine Graham a transaction of +less public note. He would have waited, probably, with the brazenness +that characterizes local courtship, at the door of the library and +caught her as she emerged. Or he would have learned what mails she +usually waited for at the post-office and would have lingered until she +had opened her box and had started back toward the Quad pretending to +look over her correspondence. Or else he would have watched her classes +and happened along by accident just as she was coming out for a vacant +hour. But these established forms had escaped his notice. Instead, he +did what he considered the "proper," and drove dashingly up to Roble in +Paulsen's best single rig and his own new fall suit. + +Roble caught sight of him beyond the flower beds, over the heads of the +tall pampas. The news electrified the dormitory. A Freshman stopped her +experimental lab-work with the piano, and joined the others behind the +lace at the parlor windows. A group of girls, chatting on the yellow +railing of the steps, watched the approach of the apparition. Pellams +Chase coming to Roble! Not since the morning Mt. Hamilton was covered +with snow had there been such a phenomenon. + +"I believe he's coming to take Florence to drive!" said a mischievous +Theta Gamma, looking toward Miss Meiggs, who sat frowning at the +approaching buggy. + +"He ought to," laughed Katharine Graham's roommate, "for not telling her +how much red pepper she had put on her rarebit while she was absorbed in +talking to him!" + +"If he's coming for me," said the Senior grimly, "I shall not disappoint +him." + +"What!" cried Katharine; "you wouldn't go with him, Florence! Why, we +none of us met him until last night." + +"Last night I was unfortunately absent-minded," answered Miss Meiggs, +"and I did not say all I wanted to. It wouldn't be a pleasant drive!" + +"He would have you at his mercy--you shan't go!" laughed another girl, +"it would be flying in the face of Providence as well as of Propriety!" + +"I can't imagine whom he's coming for," said Katharine, who was sure +that he was coming for her. She thought out the severe little refusal +she should make him when he had drawn her aside. + +The stranger scraped his buggy wheels delicately along the curbing of +the Roble walk. The group of girls on the steps was an unexpected +ordeal. He caught sight of the amused faces behind the curtains above +him and almost lost his nerve. + +"Rubber!" he growled. He had made many a clever entrance in the student +theatricals, but to-day in climbing out of the buggy he got badly +tangled in the reins. In spite of his desperate will, his face was +growing red. With painfully fixed gaze he came up the steps toward the +Theta Gammas; standing uneasily before them, he blurted out, with no +preliminaries whatever: + +"Miss Graham, would you like to go driving?" + +Katharine straightened and looked at him coolly. One of the girls gave a +little gasp at his impertinence. + +"It isn't customary, I believe," said Katharine, "to ask to go driving +with a girl you have met once, at a supper." + +"Isn't it?" faltered Pellams. There was not a vestige of his usual +bravado about him. Katharine met his honest gaze, hesitated, then said: + +"But I shall be delighted to go, just the same. Will you come in and +wait till I get my things?" + +They curved round the Dormitory lawn and away toward the La Honda +redwoods, leaving the astounded young women on the porch to discuss, as +women sometimes do, the peculiar behavior of their departed sister. + +She explained it to Pellams during the drive. To his surprise, he +learned that he had been hopelessly ill-bred to ask her at all; that had +the invitation not been given before the other girls he should have +driven away alone. As it was, she was in for no end of criticism. She +discouraged any conversation upon the subject of cayenne pepper. +Furthermore, she declared herself in full accord with Florence Meiggs +as regarded love affairs; she believed in them as little as her elder +sister; good-fellowship, without sentiment, was possible and quite +sufficient. Pellams, having resolved upon the utmost good-nature during +the drive, put the pride of the livery stable through her best paces and +allowed his companion to declare her views unquestioned. Toward the end +of the afternoon, he deposited her at the Roble door with a pleasant +feeling that he had done his duty and was through with co-eds forever. + +A wild uproar filled the Rho dining-room when the gallant came in to +dinner, late. With an exasperating readiness of conclusion, the crowd +congratulated him upon his change of heart, they welcomed to their +ranks, with much clinking of water glasses, another true lover, and +Smith sang derisively an adaptation of his own: + + "Pellams Chase, the Glee Club Man, + Swore upon the book + For wife he'd have a cider-can, + For bed the ingle-nook-- + Petticoats he thus forsook!" + +Instead of raising the expected storm of denial, Pellams looked guilty +and uncomfortable. In spite of their knowledge of the man, they did not +divine that their teasing had given him an inspiration. + +[Illustration: THEY DROVE AWAY TOWARD THE LA HONDA REDWOODS.] + +His idea for a josh involved Miss Graham. So he waited for her +deliberately outside the door of the French class next morning; she had +stopped to talk to the instructor after the class had left. Jimmy Mason +and four or five of the regular Quad loafers were talking football on +the curbing. Pellams joined them. Then the gravity of the step he was +about to take came over him with a sense of oppression. He felt much as +on that Easter morning, years before, when his mother had dragged him +out to be confirmed. + +"The Berkeley faculty won't let Dudley play," Mason was saying. "He +hasn't--where are you speeding in such a rush?" he added and then +stopped, paralyzed. + +It is probable that if her eyes had not laughed at him with that twinkle +of good-fellowship which he had noted on the night of the supper, +Pellams never would have had the nerve. That look hauled him over the +Rubicon; they went down the arcade together, in the face of Jimmy Mason, +the loafers, the whole crowd shifting between lectures. Yet the sun +shone as brightly on the palm-circles, the Quadrangle pillars kept their +perpendicular. A little later Mason saw the couple sitting under the +'Ninety-five Oak. He whistled to himself with a look that meant: "You +wait, old josher till you get into the Knockery again!" + +"Now," said Pellams, under the Oak, "you have about the same ideas on +love-affairs as I have and you'll sympathize with me in this thing. When +I got in to dinner last night, the gang gave me the hottest jolly of my +misspent life. They're all alike; they can't understand having a +straight friendship for a girl without it's being a puppy-love. So they +tumble at once that my driving you means I'm yours for keeps. That sort +of a thing makes me tres fatigue and I've a scheme." + +"Not your first, is it?" + +"In what way do you--" + +"I know something of your 'schemes,' young man; that fake fraternity and +the snipe-hunts and an examination in English 1 c." + +"Oh, those!" Pellams did not blush at the record. Instead, he smiled. +His smile was always worth seeing. It was the point of one of his Club +stunts. Every muscle got into the interference and his round face grew +rosy into the roots of his thick brown hair. + +This grin was not lost upon Katharine. + +"What am I to do, pray?" asked she; "pose as Professor of Domestic +Economy?" + +"This is a bird of a josh on the house," he cried. "You'll come in on +it, won't you?" + +"Plans first, before I commit myself. You might want me to elope in a +buggy." + +"Never again!" declared Pellams; "my idea is, why can't we pretend to +have a case on each other--not any passing fancy, but a real peacherino, +like the best of them?" + +Somewhat to his surprise, the girl was not visibly enthusiastic. + +"Just how do I profit, please, if I butcher myself to make your Roman +holiday?" + +"You can die happy, knowing we've pulled their le--bluffed 'em +beautifully. You're down on love-affairs yourself, you told--" + +"Your philosophy of heaven includes a josh on the other fellow, I verily +believe," returned Katharine, smiling; "but it is just possible, you +know--shall I be very frank?" + +"You have been, before!" + +"Well, then, I might, you know, prefer the society of some other men in +college to the exclusive privilege of yours, even with this wonderful +josh thrown in." + +"Who, Smith?" + +"There are others." + +"I know I'm not much of a sq--ladies'-man," he persisted; "but I can +learn, can't I?" + +"Your manners are not very dreadful when you think about them; but oh, +you have lots to master, the little things, you know." + +"I let you carry your books this morning--" + +"Bravo!--if you only learn to think of them sooner--all the little ways +a girl--" + +"Sure--you can teach me and rap my knuckles--" + +"That would be a pleasure. I've wanted to do it for months." + +"And, you see, you'd have the distinction of being the only one I +couldn't hold out against." + +"Oh, above all things, don't be conceited, or I can't think of it." + +"That means you will think of it?" + +"You're really not half bad! You caught _that_ on time. Yes, I'll help +you in your joke, to punish their silliness, but only for a week, on +trial you understand." + +Pellams, gratified, put out his hand, not in fashionable wise, but as he +would grip a man's. Yet in doing so he noted, looking at her fully for +the first time, that the light hair on her temples came down low on the +sides, as his mother's did. + +On the way up to her room, Miss Graham stood for some moments smiling at +an irrelative picture of Westminster Abbey, hanging in the parlor. +Having gone driving before their faces, it was more presentable not to +be dropped. Also, there was an undeniable pleasure in refuting any of +Florence Meiggs's arguments, the one concerning love-affairs and +scholarship, for instance. Besides, he was a dear, amusing thing, and a +perfect novice. + +During the week that followed, Pellams learned a few things. The +experiment was by no means a bore. He discovered that it is easier to be +joshed than to josh--when you know in your heart you have the joke on +the other fellow. He learned the revengefulness of Perkins' nature, old +Ted, who was ragged to death when his case on Lillian Arnold developed +and who now paid him back with interest. He found how great an object of +interest to the co-ed element a man becomes when he is in love. All this +was good for the woman-hater, giving him new views of things and +teaching him patience. Many times during the ordeal he blessed his +dramatic talent. It helped him to pretend a chap when he did not feel +it. It served him in assuming an air of "the game is worth the candle," +when the whole tableful at the house requoted to him certain scathing +remarks on the girl-habit which, in the day of his single blessedness, +he had made to each one of them separately. It was more than useful to +him when he rolled into the "Knockery," the second evening after his sad +condition had become patent, and the assembled company rose to smother +him with sofa cushions and lecture him, with decided seriousness, on the +evil effect of girling. There were times, indeed, when he didn't have to +assume any chap at all, when it came of itself; for example, when the +crowd punned on the girl's name, "Graham gems" was a favorite. Somehow, +he wished that they wouldn't drag in names that way. + +The week ended. He had done beautifully. Looking it over, he was proud +of his achievements. Two evenings at the library; a brazen walk every +day at the 10.30 period, which both had vacant; a stroll in the moonlit +Quad, planned to interest the crowd at the Tuesday evening lecture; two +calls at Roble--that was going it pretty heavy. The whole college was +smiling at them, and the foolish Rho house hugged itself in the blissful +silence of his sarcastic tongue. + +This review of the week delighted Pellams. He hunted up Katharine the +last afternoon and asked for a renewal of the contract. + +She laughed. + +"Are you sure you can help the extremes? You know the Quadrangle and the +walks in the country--" + +"Listen to the Mocking Bird!" gurgled Pellams. He was feeling very well +pleased with things in general. + +[Illustration: A STROLL IN THE MOONLIT QUAD, PLANNED TO INTEREST THE +CROWD AT THE TUESDAY EVENING LECTURE.] + +"The product of the means is a bully good josh," he laughed, "and I'm +not afraid of the product of the extremes; it's only equal to the same +thing--now there's higher mathematics for you!" and Pellams danced the +and she made him be serious and take up his work. The first quarter of +an hour she called him to order twice--first for trying to trap with a +lariat of grass an inquisitive gray lizard spying at them from a +fence-rail; second, for enticing into conversation the huge Danish +hound, whose bark is so much worse than his bite, and who, having been a +pup with the University, knows something of every Stanford "case" ever +developed in the pleasant shade of his domain. After fifteen minutes of +impeccable behavior, Pellams whispered: + +"Say--" + +"Silence!" + +"Well, I'd like to have _some_ attention paid me. Call me down just to +show that you're alive." + +She pointed to his History and subsided into her English Poets. When she +came to earth again, the sun was low beyond the eucalyptus trees. There +was a regular sound near her which she realized having heard for some +time in her sub-consciousness. She peeped over the high-growing root +between them. The man whom she was helping slept peacefully, his book +closed and his mouth open, and only the suspicion of a snore stirring +the quiet autumn air. + +"I shall never have any trouble with him!" thought Katharine, with just +the faintest discontent, as she dropped a twig on his face, by way of +waking him without embarrassment. + +The autumn rains came and the dry, sniffly dust of the campus lay flat +under the quiet air; the clear, fall weather that is mixed in one's mind +with the pungent smell of tarweed in the pasture lands, and with long +exciting afternoon practices, hung cool over the land, and still Pellams +went girling, with his beautiful joke on the college. Katharine's secret +joke on him had succeeded equally well. The woman-hater's class work had +undergone a transfiguration. People noticed it. At the opening of the +term he had put Professor Leyne's course in "Renaissance Poets" on his +schedule card, because it was a proclaimed snap and because two of the +three Rhos who took it the year before had kept their set-papers. +Professor Leyne loved to draw covert allusions from what he called "the +ocean of young life that swells around us." One day he threw out a +direct allusion. Stopping in his remarks about chivalry, he sunk his +voice to an impressive, confidential tone, looking almost directly at +the impassive Pellams in the back row. + +"And I think sometimes," he said, "when I see the youth feeling the +uplifting earnestness of first love--when I see it taking him gently by +the hand and saying to him 'my son, there are higher things'; when I see +him putting his spirit with new zeal to the tasks that are laid before +him, when I see him realizing that life is indeed serious and its end +the fulfilment"--and so on until the bell rang, while the subject of the +eulogy, outwardly calm, grinned fiendishly in his secret soul, for only +himself, the professor and one other knew that he had scored an A on his +last two papers as against a D earlier in the year. The professor +himself did not know that these same papers were a good part Katharine +Graham, who had suggested the ideas to Pellams and had then stood over +him while he put them into his own turgid but interesting English. + +Similar results ensued in French, which they prepared together, and he +so endeared himself to the History professor that that worthy expanded +to the point of a hint at an entrance to the seminary the next semester. +The superior Miss Meiggs, pondering upon the remarkable change in her +classmate, saw with concern this renegade disproving an argument with +which she had enlivened many a Theta Gamma meeting. She never guessed +with what patience Katharine was training his wandering attention. She +was not present during the afternoons of real, quiet study which were +forced out of him between luncheon and football practice. + +By the time their contract, renewed from week to week, had been +operating for two months, Pellams began to wonder just where the point +of the joke came in. People had become used to the condition. The House +could rely on him and his singing, and girls came oftener than ever to +Sunday supper. The Knockery took his affairs as an accepted fact. They +no longer had any new jokes on it. Jimmy Mason grumbled now and then +because his chum was queening "like all the rest of the frat-men," and +their jovial expeditions to Mayfield were over, "because _she_ wouldn't +understand" (most conclusive proof!), but he ended by taking it as he +might have taken an inequality of temper--as a flaw in character to be +overlooked in a friend. Then again, Pellams found it positively uncanny +to be getting on so well in his work, an uneasy feeling as though he +were walking along the edge of a steep place. As for the joke itself, he +could laugh over it with Katharine, but there was no way to spring it. A +josh that has not a public end lacks art. He realized that the idea had +seemed very rich when he conceived it and that he had plunged into it +without considering its finish, and of course an impractical girl +wouldn't look so far ahead. Now, he saw that it had ceased to be a josh +at all, where other people were concerned. + +When he came to the thought of dropping it, he suspected that it was no +longer a josh where he himself was concerned. The realization of this +quite stunned him, the afternoon it came to him. They were sitting below +the Sphinx, at the back of the Mausoleum, and the quail were calling +among the pines. Katharine was reading to him from one of his +text-books. He heard very little of what she read. To him the book kept +repeating that she had the most attractive mouth and chin he had ever +noticed; that the low-drawn hair on her forehead was made to be smoothed +back, very gently, from her clear skin. The consciousness that he could +not give up these study-afternoons came over him with a stab, and told +him that he had not been listening at all well lately; that this was why +he could not remember the stuff in recitation and why he had not dared +to tell her his recent marks. She trusted him so thoroughly now that she +did not stop him so often when he talked, instead of working. If she had +guessed the real reason of his laziness, she would have been honestly +disappointed in him. This was the tragedy of it. He could never let her +suspect that he was not still fooling the Rho house. She was a girl +entirely without sentimentality--this was what he liked in her at first, +and now it was his overthrow. If she should so much as dream that his +feeling toward her was anything more than the friendship he had outlined +in the beginning, she would shut her book with a slap and declare the +compact at an end. He must keep on acting, only his audience had changed +and the people he had been joking with were now behind the scenes, +though they didn't know it. So he would put his chin in his hand and +gaze at her as though the peculiarities of the Renaissance Poets were +his greatest concern. He laughed, too, about the joke itself, finding a +sort of painful relief in _double entendre_. Sometimes his mind +wandered, and when Katharine failed to reprove him, as in the earlier +days of the compact, he felt as though he had betrayed a confidence. +Once they had forgotten all about football practice, and it frightened +him; but she seemed not to have realized the gravity of the thing, and +he laughed the alarming incident away. During lectures, he tried to +reason himself out of the predicament. It was entirely possible that +this feeling toward her was but another instance of habit, a natural +affection for a chum, with some subtle influence of sex combining to +frighten him into thinking it more serious. But he was not entirely +comforted. + +Crises occur properly at the end of a semester. On the evening of +Friday, the closing day, Roble gave an impromptu dance. Katharine made +Pellams come; it would be final evidence in their joke, since he was +known to dislike dances. He agreed to attend, adding his own emphasis to +the reason as stated. Katharine filled out his card for him, allowing +him three dances with herself. The evening began in misery for the +woman-hater, and ended in perturbation of spirit. There were girls, +oceans of them, and not one of them had any sense. Katharine was +different. These girls didn't know when they were joshed, and they +couldn't josh back. They were an uninteresting lot. She had filled his +card with them and he had to hunt them up and dredge his head for +conversation. It was an awful bore. Katharine was the only girl whom he +had ever seemed able to talk with easily, and he had only three little +dances with her. He was savage. + +During the third dance, he was floundering through an absent-minded +conversation with a Freshman girl, whose eyelashes were pale pink, when +Cap Smith glided past him, waltzing with Katharine. They looked as +though they were having a very good time. Pellams felt that Cap, fine +fellow as he was, generally grew too familiar with girls. He noticed +with disapproval the man Katharine drew for the fourth dance, and she +had Cap again for the fifth. He went over after that dance and asked for +her program. Cap was down for two more dances. Pellams gave her back her +card. He laughed a joking sentence on another subject, then he slipped +down stairs and blundered out into the rainy night in a towering rage +at Katharine, at Smith, most of all at himself for being a certain +Thing. + +Jimmy Mason had not attended the Roble dance. Instead, he sat at his +table in the Knockery, going over his accounts as laundry agent. He was +deep in these end-of-semester figures when Pellams burst in at the +window, like a storm-driven creature. People never stand on ceremony at +the Knockery. It is the corner room on the ground floor. The place has +always been the Knockery ever since Mason roomed there, just as the big +room over the old dining-hall will be the "Bull-pen" forever. It is the +universal avenue after the lights are out, and the doors locked. You +open the window as gently as you can and slide in. If the tenants are in +bed, you get through into the hall on tiptoe, if possible; if awake, you +stop and chat a bit by the way of courtesy; no one ever has to study in +this enchanted bower. Moreover, if you do not live in the Hall, if you +are an Alumnus visitor from town, if there are girls at your frat-house, +or if you dwell off the campus and are belated, there are extra blankets +under the lounge in the corner. Make up your own bed and turn in, +without waking the sleepers. You are not crowding anybody. Once a whole +baseball team, with the help of two extra mattresses, slept comfortably +in the Knockery--but that is history. + +When Pellams slammed in and flopped disconsolately into a chair, Mason +looked up, knowing that there was trouble somewhere. + +"What is it?" he asked. No answer. Jimmy rose, locked the door and +closed the ventilator. Then he disposed himself on the lounge. + +"Tell your dad. Is it the girl?" + +Pellams's affirmative was put in language unrepeatable in a book for +young persons. + +"Something gone wrong?" + +"Yes," _etc._ + +Jimmy wished to offer consolation. "Can I do anything?" + +"Yes," growled the man in a dress suit. "You can give me a sweater and +take me to Mayfield!" + +Now Jimmy was a true friend. He would have gone anywhere for Pellams. + +When the dance music at Roble had ceased, and the quiet of the December +night was broken by only the patter of raindrops and the sound of +singing in the Mayfield distance, punctuated by sharp whoops, Jimmy had +got Pellams back to the Knockery pretty well consoled. It might not have +made much difference just then, even if the lover could have known that +over in darkened Roble, Katharine Graham, who did not approve of love +affairs, lay crying herself to sleep. + +Pellams rose late next day, and ate his lunch mournfully at the House. +He was in an exaggerated state of repentance and resolve. After +luncheon he made a sorrowful pilgrimage to the Quad. Here he learned +that he had lost five hours and that the Glee Club would tour the South +without him. + +Chastened in spirit, he asked for Katharine at Roble. She had gone to +Mrs. Stillwell's on the Row. He went again at night, calling late that +she might have her packing finished for the morning steamer. + +By diplomacy, arranged beforehand with the door-girl, he got her +downstairs. There was only a trace of reserve in her manner when she +told him that she had all her packing yet to do, and that she couldn't +walk about the Quad even once; there was more than a trace of +embarrassment about him when he pleaded something very important. + +"Perhaps I know what it is," said she. + +"More than likely you don't," he persisted; "anyhow, I deserve a chance +to explain." + +Katharine went down the steps with him. + +"Well?" she said, on the walk outside. + +"What do you think I want to say?" He was not so brave now. + +"The same thing that I have in my mind, that our little arrangement +would better end. I have got my very first condition through wasting +time on a foolish josh, and I don't believe you've been doing good work +lately." + +"They gave me two of 'em." + +"Indeed? Then Florence Meiggs was right, wasn't she?" + +"Dead right." + +Silence for awhile, then she said: "But you mustn't blame me. I did my +best, and if we both failed it's proof positive that it has to end." + +Another pause, with the whirr of distant machinery breaking the +stillness. No speech on either side until Pellams felt that he must say +something or the blood in his throat would choke him. + +"Do--don't you really know what I wanted you out here for?" + +"Perhaps to insult me further. Pellams!" impetuously, "why did you do +it?" + +"What? flunk?" + +"No. Cut those dances." + +"You ought to know!" + +"Yes; I _do_ know, and your wanting to go to Mayfield was a good, +gentlemanly excuse, and I ought to accept it, I suppose. Of course, it +shouldn't make any difference to me; you have humiliated me enough +already, but you might have considered the other girls." + +"Yes, and you are blaming me for cutting down there when you and Cap +Smith were floating around----" + +"You will please leave Mr. Smith out of the conversation;" she turned +toward the Hall. "I have to go in, the shades are down already." + +Pellams' courage came up with a flash. By blind instinct, he reached out +and caught her hand. She did not struggle, though the moment he released +his pressure she drew her hand away, and quickened her pace. He followed +close, and she turned upon him. + +"This is what I might have expected when I cheapened myself with you! +Will you let me go in?" + +"Not until I have said what I came to say; Katharine, can't you--can't +you guess it? Oh, I know--Kathie, you _must_ have seen it--you know why +I cut the dance--you know"--and again words failed him and he reached +for her hand. + +But she put him off this time. "I am sorry to spoil such a beautiful +piece of acting; but our arrangement is going to end, and this is a +worn-out joke." + +They had come by now to the corner of Roble, where it is indiscreet to +talk over private affairs, and neither said anything until they reached +and mounted the steps into the shadow of the porch. Then she said: + +"After all, since it is over, I won't be unkind. Good-bye. We've had a +pleasant semester, haven't we?" and this time she gave him her hand. + +A girl raised one of the hallway curtains just then. The sudden flash of +light came upon Katharine where she stood with her hand in Pellams'. +She had meant that look, that softening of the eyes, that little quiver +of the mouth, for darkness and concealment, and he caught it all before +she could blot it out with a smile. + +And, having argued to a conclusion, it mattered not to either that Miss +Meiggs stood looking out at them with supreme contempt. + + + + +AN ALUMNI DINNER. + + + + +An Alumni Dinner. + + "And it's we who have to rustle + In the cold, cold world!" + + +Dr. Williamson's landlady would not listen any further. She stood on the +threshold of her lodger's combination of bedroom and office and said, +with an offensively clear enunciation: + +"You haven't any patients, and no more have I any longer, and I want +that money to-morrow or I rent the room." + +The door closed. + +Williamson listened to her footsteps, as hard and uncompromising as her +voice, and when they had ceased he got up from his chair, a despairing +soul. After all, this was the rope's end. He would have to own up to a +failure. + +If Williamson had been a man of more force he would not have +acknowledged so much, perhaps; but he had been conscientious and +faithful to the limit of his understanding, patient to the verge of +philosophy, and the result discouraged him. + +He drew out his last clean collar and put it on, with the vague idea of +going somewhere and doing something--what, he could not have told. His +eyes fell on a framed document hanging near his mirror, a small but +ornate instrument, setting forth that the Faculty and Trustees of the +Leland Stanford Junior University, by virtue of the authority in them +vested, etc., conferred the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry on +Philip Howard Williamson. + +His thoughts turned back toward a morning over four years gone, when he +walked down the platform bearing that "last of his childhood's toys," +and in imagination P.H. Williamson, M. D., held conversation with Philip +Howard Williamson, A. B. + +Williamson, A. B., standing just the other side of the mirror, spoke and +said: + +"It looks as though you were up against it." + +Williamson, M. D., arranging his tie so as to hide his soiled shirt, +answered: + +"I am up against it. And it's your fault." + +Williamson, A. B., did not seem to see it. But he was a conceited +creature, anyway. + +"It's more than half your fault," went on the man on the real side of +the mirror. "You dug and worked, and you thought that if you only kept +ahead of your class in Physiology you had a clean card to success. How +many fellows did you know in college?" + +"Some. I never went in for being popular. There were Trueman, and +Miller, and Rodney--" + +"And how many of them were of the sort to help you? Trueman, without +family or brains, and Miller, who lived in the East, and little Rod--" + +"They were the best I could meet. They were the only ones who understood +that I really wanted people. No one understood how I loved the college +and wanted to be in things. I wasn't good at telling; and besides, I had +my work to do. They knew the way I used to look across the campus on +Spring nights--" + +Williamson, M. D., checked him at this point. That impractical creature +thought that they were talking of friendship, when it was only a +question of Pull. He conveyed that point to the Bachelor. + +"Why didn't you find some friends who would be of use to Me?" he asked, +savagely. "While you were following out sutures and involuntary +reactions, what was Marshall doing? Running for class president and +making the Mandolin Club and getting acquainted with people of some use +to him. He isn't one-two-six with me for ability and never was; but he +has patients to give away, and I--" + +Williamson, A. B., came to bat. + +"You do mightily well to reproach me with all this. How have _you_ done +in making friends? Did you work up any connections at Columbia those +three years? Have you tried to find anyone here in town? What friends +have you except Stanford men? What have you done for yourself, anyway?" + +The other weakly quoted what the Head Demonstrator had said of his +surgery. + +Williamson, A. B., held him to the point: "I also was called the keenest +student of my time," said he; "but it isn't bringing you patients." + +The M. D. broke sullenly away, leaving the A. B. frowning back of the +mirror. These dead selves are so crude! He ended the interview by +slamming out of the house. + +For the twentieth time that week he cast up accounts with himself, as +the electric car sped toward civilization. Assets, one dollar and five +cents, just reduced by a grinding monopoly from a dollar-ten; +liabilities, a laundry bill and six weeks' rent. Truly, a squalid +failure. If he could only hold out a little longer! There was in sight a +situation as consulting physician to a lodge in his father's Order, +which would mean a living at least. He had the promise of it in a +month's time. A loan of twenty-five dollars now would save him, but no +good angel occurred to him, think as he might, and he had nothing he +could afford to pawn. + +Troubled in spirit, he sauntered listlessly up Post street from Kearny. +The mid-day rain had not yet dried from the pavements, and the air was +clear and fresh. Against the last of a January sunset, the tops of the +city were growing indistinct. The personnel of the crowd on the streets +had changed; the promenaders and the cocktail-route procession had +dwindled to a few stragglers. There was less of a press now, and most of +the people were of the class that work until six, belated bookkeepers +and girls from shops and sewing rooms. He watched these toilers with a +vague feeling of envy; he dragged the feeling to the light and found +that he was coveting the day's work just passed. What would not he have +given to be tired at the end of a day of profitable toil? It was the +hour when comfortable people sit down to dinner. + +In front of an art store he saw Lincoln, the _Chronicle_ man, idly +studying the pictures. Williamson had known him as well as he had known +any man at Palo Alto, but he walked by without a word, feeling in no +mood for companionship. A few steps further he turned, and went back and +stood behind his friend. + +"Hello, Phil!" said Lincoln, in cheery surprise. "Well, you are a +stranger! Been keeping pretty close to your office, haven't you?" + +"Yes," answered Williamson, without going into particulars. + +"I haven't happened to get a detail out in your direction and my health +has been unfortunately good, so I haven't seen you for moons, not since +the night at the Zink, last Thanksgiving." + +"You newspaper men see more of the fellows than a man in my profession +can hope to do," said the physician. "It isn't ethics for me to hunt +them up, you know." + +"How is the practice, so far?" + +"Well," answered Williamson, hiding the bitterness of it with a laugh; +"the practice is about all I have got out of it." + +"Not so bad as that, I'll bet," protested Lincoln. "Are you going down +for Commencement, or the Ball, or anything?" + +"No, I shan't be able to get down," answered the other, turning in his +fingers the lonely dollar in his pocket. "That's the worst of the +medical profession," he added, equivocally. + +His thoughts came fast as they stood there in the fading daylight before +the picture-shop. It was entirely probable that Lincoln would lend him +the money he needed, and would lend it gladly. Their college friendship +had been sincere, and a few years do not change a thing like that. He +knew that the man had a good position on the _Chronicle_ and that he +saved a large portion of his money--he had been economical at the +University. Fortune could never smile upon Lincoln sufficiently to work +any material change in his dress; he had always looked like a pauper; +to-day, poverty showed in the journalist rather than in the +carefully-dressed physician. + +Williamson's heart grew lighter. This Stanford man, rising before him in +his hour of desperation, should tide him over his temporary trouble. Of +all the men at the University there had been none who had spoken so +often and so sincerely of the Stanford spirit as Lincoln. Here was a +chance to put it to a test. He knew his man. Williamson felt himself +filled with a faith in Divine Providence. + +But it was not easy to ask the loan. To suggest such a thing is less +difficult to some people than to others. To Williamson it was anything +but a simple thing. He could never broach the subject there on the +sidewalk. The matter must be led up to in some way; to brace in cold +blood was impossible. He moved his fingers in nervous irresolution, and +the dollar touched them significantly. + +"Say, Lew, let's not stand here all night; come to dinner with me, can't +you? We'll have a good Alumni chat; we don't bump into each other very +often." + +He felt horribly hypocritical, yet this was the only way. + +"You haven't had dinner, have you?" he went on, when Lincoln hesitated a +bit. + +"No. I'll be glad to, thank you, Phil. Where do you go?" + +"Let's try Sanguinetti's for the fun of the thing. We can talk down +there, and it won't break us, either." + +They found a corner table in the restaurant. The room wore the quiet +look of Monday evening, the calm that follows the storm of Sunday, when +the place rocks with post-picnic revelry. A squat negro, perched on the +edge of a serving-table by the wall, sang vociferously to a resonant +banjo. Now and then a party of swarthy Latins joined in mildly when the +selections incurred their favor. + +The two college men found it easy chatting. Williamson's dollar had +brought a very good dinner, particularly the chicken and the tortillas; +the claret was abundant and not half bad when jollied with seltzer. He +was trusting to Lincoln for tobacco. + +Still the physician could not bring himself to the point toward which +the dinner was intended to smooth the road. The "Dago red" had mellowed +them both and they talked merrily of the days at Palo Alto, bringing up +one good memory after another, drifting gradually to an exchange of +Alumni personals of which the newspaper man furnished the larger part. +They talked of the men their young University had sent into the distant +parts of the world, youngsters running mines in the Antipodes, with fat +salaries to keep up their courage; of the little Stanford colony in +Western Australia and the Pioneers in China. There were a good many for +so new a college. Then there were the commonplaces who were doing well +at home. The thought of bringing the serious side of his own case into +this chat gave Williamson a chill. It was a foolish bit of pride, but it +was getting harder every minute to down it. He deftly turned the subject +his way. + +"It isn't all prosperity, though. I've noticed that some of them seem to +be up against it lately--just hard luck stories, I suppose. There's +Rawdon, for example." + +Lincoln leaned back comfortably in his chair. + +"Let me tell you a case that has come under my notice lately and see +what you think of it," he said. "I won't mention names, but it's about a +man we both knew at College. He had a place on the paper, the +_Chronicle_, and during the political season did very well; after that +there came a slump and the city editor let him out; the other papers had +no room for him, of course--they were dropping men--and he couldn't get +a thing of any sort to do, though he rustled hard. You know Coles and +Harrison, the boys call them the Stanford Employment Bureau, they have +found quite a number of places for the fellows; but this particular man +was evidently up against it, and there wasn't the smallest symptom of a +job. He managed to get something in the Sunday supps, but barely enough +to keep him alive, and nothing certain. Meanwhile he pawned his things +gradually and grew pretty well discouraged. I remember I heard him say +once, and his laugh covered more than I guessed at the time, that Jewish +holidays ought to be prohibited by state law, since closed doors under +the three balls meant some Stanford man's going hungry. He got down to +bedrock and finally reached the point where he had gone without three +successive meals. Pretty rough, wasn't it?" + +"I should say so," answered Williamson. His own distress was trivial +beside a trouble like this. + +Lincoln fed the alcohol flame burning around the omelet just brought +them. + +"It seems to me," he went on, "that there is a case in which a man is +justified in asking help; he ought to ask it long before he gets to such +a pass as that; if he lets his pride prevent him it's his own fault. We +certainly have carried away from the University something of the spirit +we learned there. I know for my part that such a man has a claim on +whatever help I can give him, and as a Stanford man he has a right to +seek it. Don't you agree with me?" + +Williamson had been waiting through the course of the dinner for a +chance to advance an identical theory. He could not have hoped for a +better opening. + +"Indeed I do," he said. "You have the old Stanford spirit as strong as +ever, haven't you, Lew? Now I want to tell _you_ a story." + +At a table near them a woman who looked as though she had a history, one +that dated far back at that, began to sing--one of those ballads about +home and the wandering boy. The two men tipped back in their chairs and +listened to the song. Williamson was planning what he should say as soon +as it was ended. It would be better to tell the whole thing. + +During the applause that followed, Lincoln dropped his cigarette into +his coffee cup and started to speak. Williamson, unwilling that another +subject should follow the last words they had exchanged, interrupted +him. + +"I have a story, too, Lew, and it's about myself. I don't doubt this is +rather a surprise to you," he went on, noticing the look on the other's +face, "although you know the way of the young physician is hard. The +fact is, I have got to the point where I must get a little temporary +lift or give up the struggle for a while, and I can't bear the thought +of that." + +Then he went on swiftly, ignoring his friend's attempts at interruption, +until he had told the whole story of his uphill work and his defeat. + +"You asked me just now, Lew, if I didn't think one Stanford man should +help another who really needed help, if he could. I put up my last coin +for an opportunity to ask you the same question, but with a different +purpose." + +Lincoln's eyes were moist as he reached across the table and grasped +Williamson's hand. + +"I think you know me well enough, old man, to know my answer to that +question. But you did not let me finish my story. You see, I--er--I'm +the man I was telling you about." + + + + +BOGGS' ELECTION FEED. + + + + +Boggs' Election Feed. + + "Oh think what anxious moments pass between + The birth of plots and their last fatal periods!" + + ADDISON. + + +It would never have happened if Boggs hadn't dropped in on Jimmy Mason +and Pellams when they were cramming for an examination, for, although +Pellams had long "kept an axe" for Boggs, he needed the inspiration of +the moment to swing it like this. It was always so with Pellams' best +things. + +The inspiration in this case came one evening when he and Jimmy were +doing genuine work. People who have seen it declare that the spectacle +of Mason cramming for an examination was one of the show sights of the +University. He generally let things go until the last day of grace; then +with sundry fellow-victims and a motley collection of notes, syllabi, +books, reports--anything on the subject--gathered on the green cloth of +his table, he would start in. Raps might come from time to time on the +locked door; Jimmy would hold up a warning finger for silence, while the +outsider shot through the keyhole such remarks as "Jimmy Mason, loosen +up. You've mixed my clothes again;" or, "Hi, Jimmy! give me the +markings;" or, possibly, hurled a mass of unrepeatable terms at the +unresponsive door. Perhaps his roommate, Marion, would come in when the +lights went out; then Jimmy would call a breathing-spell, during which, +while "Nosey" went to bed behind the portieres, he drew his lamp from +its hiding-place and made strong coffee in the coffee-pot or +chafing-dish, whichever had been washed the more recently. Somewhere in +the small hours the seminary would adjourn with "international +complications," "tendencies of the age," "sub-head B," heating their +brains. Out of bed at seven for a final swift review of the subject, +Mason would sail over to class with a great unbreakfasted hollow beneath +his sweater, to pass freely and gloriously, and to forget the whole mess +by the time he had finished his afternoon nap. + +And to see Jimmy in the seminary itself! How masterfully he kept track +of headings, sub-headings and modifying circumstances! How he could +scent at a day's distance the things which the professor was going to +ask, as well as those he was going to skip! When he said, "Now, old +Morton is heavy on this," the seminary digested the subject in all its +bearings and ramifications; and when he said, "No use looking that up," +they skipped the heading, though pages of syllabi were slighted +thereby. When the wandering mind of Pellams slid off the work, it was +beautiful to see Jimmy lead it back with a word and a look; when he sent +some sleepy Senior to bed with the remark, "You're no more good. Sleep +it off and be fresh to-morrow," Jimmy touched the sublime. + +The glory of it all was that upper-classmen as well as Freshmen put +themselves absolutely under the Sophomore's rule when it was a question +of an examination. Thus does the elective system level all ranks and +give genius opportunity. + +On the night that Boggs dropped in on them, Jimmy and Pellams were +cramming alone. Two seniors who were usually in the group had gone +somewhere to mix up in a complication over Student-Body treasurer. A +Junior seldom out of line was a candidate for the Executive Committee; +he had put his head in at the door to say, "Dead sorry, fellows, but +can't get in it," and then gone down to Palo Alto to make himself +agreeable to a dig girl who had "influence." The popularity of some +people waxes strangely the latter part of April. A Freshman who was +taking the course when he shouldn't and who stood on the dizzy brink of +flunking it, had gone off with a Junior who wanted to stand well with +certain Freshmen of importance, and who had overjoyed the youngster +with an invitation to Mayfield, an event which made flunking clear out +of the University a thing of small moment to the Freshman's mind. + +Pellams alone showed up. He was not in politics; further, he knew the +value to himself of these evenings with Jimmy; not that the syllabi made +much impression on him, but he carried enough to class next day to +shadow forth an apparent knowledge of the subject. This he supplemented +with two or three original reflections that interested the instructor +and slipped him through. It was these flashes of intelligence that made +him worth the labor to Mason. Sometimes he could set the whole seminary +right on an obscure phrase; this made up for an hour of imperfect +attention. + +To-night the two men were hard at it. They sat at opposite sides of the +table, the electric drop-light illuminating the papers between them. + +"Say," said Pellams, "Bob Duncan's the luckiest baby in the bunch. He +doesn't know as much about this course as I do, and he's got +appendicitis, the doctor says--no fake." + +"Now, Pellams," said Mason seriously, "you have to remember Cromwell. He +did all this in sub-headings four to eleven. You've placed him, haven't +you?" + +"The guy that made them keep the powder dry?" + +"The _minister_ Cromwell; you remember _him_--the one who was bald." + +Jimmy had learned that Pellams needed a concrete peg on which to hang +his memories. + +"Oh, sure, I've got him; that throw-away-ambition boy. Hadn't a hair +between him and heaven." + +A knock came at the door. + +"That's it. Sh--sh!" + +"Let me in, Jimmy." The room was still. + +"I know you and Pellams are digging. I won't say a word to either of +you, only give me a smoke." + +"Haven't any," said Jimmy, rapidly transferring a sack of Durham and a +package of papers from the table. + +"Well, let me in, anyway. I want to read by your lamp. Oh, say, open +up!" + +"It's Boggs. If we don't let him in he'll stand and plead in outer +darkness all night." + +The door rattled. Jimmy howled "Ye-e-es!" in a tone of provoked +affirmative, and Boggs was opened unto. + +It would be hard to tell in what way Boggs did not block the seminary. +He found the tobacco by invading Jimmy's sacred drawer during an +absorbing discussion on land tenure; then he rolled and consumed exactly +fourteen cigarettes. Pellams kept count out of the corner of his eye. +Boggs was making smoke in the sunshine of free tobacco. He put his feet +on Mason's laundry packages, freshly stacked in the corner. He broke his +word by talking politics steadily, and finally, when he drew out of the +room just ahead of ten-thirty lights, a double sigh of relief went up +from the crammers. + +"That article needs fixing," said Pellams, meditatively, as Jimmy got +out the chafing-dish and prepared the black coffee that makes additional +pages of syllabi possible before sleep comes. + +"I wonder," said Jimmy, "if he ever bought an ounce of tobacco since he +came here. He's smoked mine every time he could find it since I've been +in college. I remember," here Jimmy stopped to laugh, "that when I was a +Freshmen--you'll bear witness I was a fresh one, too--I used to be +pleased clear to the red at getting all that attention from an +upper-classman. The satisfaction cost me a good many pounds of tobacco, +though." + +"His opinion of himself politically is what kills me. Lyman is his +ideal. He loafs in Frank's room until Frank has had to give up smoking. +It's fun to see him. I was in there the other night. 'How are you going +to stand on the election, Frank?' says Boggsie, as though it were a +conference of the powers. 'Oh, I think Higgins is pretty good,' says +Frank; 'what do you think?' Not that he gave a whoop; he was trying to +be polite. 'Well, I may use my influence for Castleton,' says Boggsie, +with his pet air of mystery. His influence consists of his roommate. +'The deuce you will!' says Frank, with sarcasm. All wasted though, for +Boggsie fairly chapped at the compliment of having surprised him. 'Yes,' +said Boggs, 'that's what I like to see, the office seeking the man; you +know, a fellow ought to wait and go about his business until people +recognize him. I don't like to see a man going around with his hand out, +raking the Freshmen in.' Then he looks around for applause and slopes +out, smoking the last of Lyman's Durham." + +"He rake in the Freshmen! It would cost too much! Boggs wants the office +to seek him, so as to save expense. When he was small I think he must +have been the sort of kid that won't play his marbles for fear that +he'll wear them out. He'd do anything mean to get office, but he won't +spend money for it; he has enough, too; he doesn't have to pinch as he +does, but he hates to spend a nickel when he can worm it out of other +people. I'd love to get a feed out of him in some way; oh, it would +taste good!" + +Pellams' ruddy face glowed fire-red with the dawn of an idea. His +inspiration had come. + +"James Russell Lowell Mason, I'll bet you the price of--anything you +name--that I can get a feed, a genuine, +Mayfield-with-all-accompaniments, a Mayfield +beer-beefsteak-Swiss-cheese-wine-and-song feed out of Boggsie!" + +The aroma of the coffee filled the room. Jimmy polished his stein and a +tumbler and poured for the two of them. + +"But for my principle never to bet on a sure thing, I'd take you," he +answered calmly. "You exclusive frat-men over on the Row" (Pellams was +always loafing around the Hall) "haven't lived long enough with Boggsie +to know him. He's a lobster, Pellams." + +But the fat Junior sat there with mirth shining from every line of his +face, and drank his coffee; then he rolled on the floor in joyous +delirium and beat Jimmy's rugs with an Indian club until the man +overhead jumped out of bed and shouted uncultured things down the +elevator. + +"Jimmy, darling!" cried he, waving a leg in the air for pure rapture, +"Boggsie will treat, sure. We'll get him on his one big weakness; we'll +play politics against pinching; you watch the office seek the man." + +"I don't--" + +"I do. Look here; to-morrow we nominate him. You have a mob on the back +seats applauding like fiends, and I'll be the power behind the throne to +such a campaign of blood, beer and boodle as you never saw, old +Laundry-bags. We'll make Boggsie think he's ahead all the time; we can +get him _some_ votes, you know; and then he's to go away election day +for the sake of the proprieties. I telegraph to him, 'Elected by one +vote. Feed!' We have the feed business all properly worked up by that +time, of course; just sizzling in his brain, and when he gets off the +train we'll meet him with a mob and a brass band, run him to Mayfield or +Menlo, and there'll be a sound of revelry by night at his expense." + +The ruin of this particular cramming seminary was accomplished. The +"coffee hours" were spent in a conference broken by smothered laughter, +and by "Nosey" Marion's sleepy protests from behind the curtains. + +Next day, after Higgins and Castleton had been duly placed in +nomination, Pellams rose from his seat in Chapel and nominated "Lorenzo +Boggs, gentleman and student; a man who has let college politics alone, +never having sought office from his fellow-students until now, when the +office seeks him--Lorenzo Boggs for Student-Body president," amidst a +storm of applause half ironical, half worked up by Jimmy Mason. + +Pellams flunked in the examination; his co-conspirator passed meagerly; +but Pellams' heart lost little of its wonted buoyancy. This was about +the last class of any kind he attended in the week between nomination +and election. From the Row to the Hall and from the Hall to Palo Alto he +moved with an energy rare to his rotund body. It was a new sensation, +politics with a josh behind. He revelled in it. + +"We have to put up some show of constituents, you know," he said to +Mason; "and, as Higgins and Castleton have no strings on me, I might as +well help Boggsie out. Too bad my personal magnetism isn't being +diffused for a more likely candidate." + +"Looks curious," said Jimmy, "the fight Boggs is putting up. Yesterday I +struck the Women's Debating League; they won't vote for Higgins because +they have been credibly informed--by the Castleton people, of +course--that he's bad, and--" + +"You and I should have been nominated, St. James," interrupted Pellams, +crossing his hands on his breast and looking at the gas fixture. + +"And they won't vote for Castleton because they have found out that when +he fixed up the open meeting between his society and theirs he was only +playing for votes." + +"Do you know that Boggs has a girl cousin in Palo Alto? He has worked +her to whoop it up for him down there." + +"His literary society will go for him all right. They are tired of the +way Castleton and Higgins have been waiting for the job to drop down +like a ripe plum. Those two marks have worked the thing too long." + +"Jimmy, you don't mean that Boggs has any chance?" + +"Not a ghost. But we don't have to work up the whole thing; there'll be +enough to make a decent showing and lend an air of truth to that +telegram of ours. What have you done?" + +"Got the Rhos, anyway. We won't vote for anyone as a frat; the fellows +hate Castleton on account of that Annual-board election last Christmas, +and Higgins has thrown mud at us that we know of. I've about signed them +all, except Duncan. Bob knew Higgins' wife's cousin in some dark corner +of the country. Say, it's funny how tired people in general are getting +of Higgins and Castleton and their gang politics. At Palo Alto yesterday +I heard a crowd talking about it. 'Down with organized politics,' they +said, and one of them who works in the laboratory with Boggsie said he +was going to vote for modest merit." + +"Keep it going, Pellams, it won't hurt. Soothe his feelings beautifully +after the banquet. I have it all fixed up to get him off the campus." + +Higgins' stock went down wonderfully in the next few days. Higgins, said +the Castleton men, had pulled wires and worked combinations ever since +he had been in the University. It hurts a College politician to have it +known that he has been in politics. They pointed to his rather doubtful +record as a member of the _Daily Palo Alto_ board. The sins of his +Freshman days rose up against him when they touched on the fact that he +had been elected class-president on a barb ticket, and had immediately +gone over to the enemy in a fraternity house. Finally, to fill his cup, +a Freshman, who had withstood fraternity blandishments for a year, +glided through the hands of the Gamma Chi Taus, who fully believed they +had him, and appeared on the very Sunday preceding election in all the +glory of Higgins' frat pin. It was a bad slip; right there it cost +fifteen Gamma Chi votes with a large girl following. + +"It isn't the swell girls that count for numbers, anyway," reflected the +Higgins' supporters, wisely, and they turned to the cultivation of the +dig girl who trails up the cinder paths mornings at eight, and who lives +in the library during football practice. But the girl cousin of Boggs +had been there to good purpose when they turned in that direction, and +Roble only showed Castleton still ahead. Then a not over-scrupulous +Junior in Higgins' trail started a story on Castleton, a tale calculated +to put him in the same category, so far as being "bad" was concerned. +Wednesday evening the anecdote reached Roble; a girl who had a brother +heard it spreading at dinner, and by noon next day half the girls in +Roble had their opinion of a crowd that would start such a malicious +libel on Mr. Castleton "just to get votes." The Encina politicians did +not know Roble girls for nothing. + +So it happened on Thursday that Pellams clumped breathlessly into +Jimmy's room with a still wet copy of the _Daily_ and tragically pointed +to the notice: "_WithdrawalI: I hereby withdraw from my candidacy for +Student-Body presidency in favor of Lorenzo Boggs. Andrew Higgins." + +"Ye gods," gasped the Sophomore, "he can't win, Pellams, he can't! +Castleton gets it sure. For heaven's sake, don't put the gang on to this +until after to-morrow, though. I wouldn't have the double-cross worked +on us for a cool ten credits." + +Fair dawned the day that was to float or to wreck so many little hopes. +There are two periods of the year when the professor who has been young +forgets the roll-call, and the one who never has been, remembers it. The +first period comes in late November; the other is the morning of the +Student-Body election. + +With consummate tact, Jimmy had come to an understanding with Boggs as +to the propriety of his leaving the campus during the election. + +"You see, you stand a splendid show of getting it," he explained, "and +the appropriate thing for you is to keep out of sight. When Pellams +nominated you he made a point out of the fact that the office was +seeking you; that has been a leading feature of the campaign, and it has +won you lots of votes. You must not spoil the impression you have made +for yourself and which we have emphasized all along. See?" + +Boggs saw, or thought he did, and went to town, ostensibly to carry out +a commission for Pellams, but not before he had rallied some of his +constituents and given them final instructions. It was wonderful to see +what a variety of tastes and interests were represented. An older +politician would have scented danger from the fact that so many of them +had never come out into the arena before; but Jimmy only looked with +smiling curiosity on the Ethics major or the Education "shark," dug up +somewhere from their abstruse speculations. + +It was on their way to the station that Jimmy touched on the remaining +issue of the campaign which he was managing. + +"You remember my speaking about a feed the other day? I ought to have +spoken more fully, but I've been busy with other details." + +"Oh,"--began Boggs. + +"You know the custom," cut in the conspirator; "it will be expected of +you if you get the office; it ought to come off to-night to be done +properly." + +"That will all be attended to," said Boggs calmly. + +"You've seen about it?" + +"It's all fixed." + +"There'll be a lot of them; they will meet you at the train and you'll +have to do it in shape. I can lend you a little." + +"Thanks, old man," said the victim, squeezing Mason's arm, "but just you +leave that to me. It's all arranged to do the square thing by the people +who have stood in with me. So long. Look out for me, won't you? I'll be +down on the Flyer." + +When Jimmy got back to the Quadrangle there was a shifting mass about +the polls. Encina politicians were there, Palo Alto politicians, +serious-looking fellows from the Camp, and spruce ones from the Row. +Castleton's followers stood in groups, looking smug and confident, while +sour-faced Higgins people were revengefully putting in all their work +for Boggs. + +Every election has its Mark Hanna; this time it was Jennie Brown, whom +Pellams knew as "Boggsie's dig girl cousin." She was the silent spirit +of the whole Boggs campaign. Mason, in telling the story of it +afterward, said: + +"Pellams and I were there when the polls opened. That girl was on hand, +too, with a gang of Palo Alto girls all ready to start things for +Boggsie. Well, you ought to have seen her. Heaven help us and our +masculine schemes if they get women suffrage and the Brown lives. At +ten-thirty in the first rush she steered a whole Education class, worked +them beautifully past Castleton's hungry heelers, right up to the +ballot-box. _She_ wasn't working combinations; it cut no ice with her +how they voted for managers, and treasurers and editors, so long as they +were solid for Lorenzo Boggs. + +[Illustration: ... THEN A LULL DURING CLASS.] + +"I numbered them off as they voted, and I could see that things were +going darkly and suspiciously for our friend the Lobster. 'What do you +think of it?' says Pellams. He was getting excited. 'We didn't know our +power, did we? Look at the votes he's rolling up. Say, we're corkers and +never knew it!' A few classes from the respectable part of the Quad, +where they do Political Science, came drifting along then with votes for +Castleton, and it went Castleton for awhile; then a lull during +class, followed by a scattering vote for Boggs. It was about an even +thing during eleven-thirty break, with Castleton still ahead. The frat +votes fell in bunches in the biggest rush at noon; I could catch old +Boggsie's name marked on most of them, but Castleton was full fifty to +the good then. I bolted lunch with Pellams at his house and came back to +the Quad. Things were beginning to happen. People I never heard of, the +kind of bird that floats in and out on the train and probably doesn't +know there is a Student-Body with troubles of its own; digs, crawling +out into the light, blinking away at the line; Laboratory fiends in +squads, actually losing twenty minutes of precious credit,--the darndest +crowd of resurrected stiffs the Quad ever saw, strung out from the +registrar's office to the polls, every last one of them squeezing a +ballot properly marked ahead, all looking as if it were a conferring of +degrees, serious as hell, you know, and the eye of the Brown girl or of +one of her crowd fastened on each of them. Poor Castleton, he was a +goner! His heelers got up against this line of sphinxes and fell back, +done up. It was two o'clock and after; still the vote rolled up. At +two-thirty they closed shop, and Pellams and I fell on each other's +chests behind a pillar, and busted at the josh on ourselves. + +"Then we went over to get the figures of our triumph. 'Boggs, 402; +Castleton, 375,' and the biggest vote in the history of the office. +Well, you bet we went down to the train! Couldn't freeze _us_ out! We +were going to pry open the Lobster's claws and use them for a corkscrew. +So we piled into a 'bus. But, honest, we were paralyzed. + +"Down at the station was the conquering Brown with her people, all +watching for the train. Say, when Boggsie saw the whole gang of us, he +was a balloon. He got up on a truck and made us a speech of thanks. +Pellams and I yelled 'Hear, Hear,' right along. Oh, it was awful! He +gave us the whole history of the Student-Body from the days of +'Ninety-one up. Finally Pellams couldn't stand it any longer and called +out, 'Good boy, Boggsie. How about that feed?' and Boggsie waved his +hand like a Tuesday evening spieler and said, 'I have provided for that, +ladies and gentlemen. Miss Brown, my cousin, invites you all down to her +home in Palo Alto for a little refreshment. Everyone is welcome.' + +"I had to pick my fat friend up. Boggsie's getting out of the whole +thing without spending a bean knocked him cold. But he got his wind +later. You ought to have heard his speech down there at the house, with +a plate of melted strawberry muck in one hand and a glass of sour in the +other, replying to Boggsie's vote of thanks to us two, and skinning his +face at the Brown girl. Oh, it was a peach!" + + + + +IN THE DARK DAYS. + + + + +In the Dark Days. + + + "Mrs. Leland Stanford has decided to sell her jewels to keep + open the doors of the University." + + ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS, 1896. + + +Bonita, mother of racers, stood just beyond the shadow of an oak tree, +leisurely cropping the new pasture grass. Occasionally, she lifted her +head toward the red roofs of the University buildings as though she +expected somebody. The chimney sent up a stripe of black against patches +of cloud and sky, and the even hum of the shops came across the pasture +with a distinctness born of the motionless Spring air. Bonita, putting +her pointed ears forward, could catch the upper notes of the chorus, +rehearsing in the Chapel. + +Such a day as this should bring Craig into the pastures. He could lean +on the fence and pull at his pipe to his heart's content. The brood-mare +did not fancy the smoke, but she liked to have him talk to her. There +were a number of interests they had in common; the smell of the new +grass, the tempting silver-green of willows budding along the lake +beyond the fence, delighted him, too, while Bonita herself was deeply +interested in his University. + +She could remember perfectly the days when the ranch spread undisturbed +from her paddock in the stockfarm yard to the deep shadows of the +Arboretum. Then she was only a colt, to be sure; but the world beyond +the paddock fence interested her. The grooms in the yard were not more +sorry than she herself that the last colt from a famous sire should be a +filly with an imperfect ankle-joint. When they took the other colts out +of the paddock to put them through their morning lessons around the +little ring in the kindergarten, she wished mightily to follow. She +turned about the corral at a good speed to show them that she had the +proper spirit of her blood, but they always shut the red gate too soon +and the others went on up the road impudently flicking their fuzzy tails +at her. + +A gray-bearded man with kindly eyes, whom they called the "Governor," +used to drive up under the blossoming eucalyptus trees every now and +then; he stopped one day by her paddock and came to look at her. Bonita +liked him at once, and she paid him the most delicate attention she knew +by trying to eat his clothes. The Governor laughed as he put her off, +and said that it was too bad about her ankle. Then he drove over to +watch the kindergarten learn the alphabet of race-winning. + +Later, she watched her fellows go lightly down the road to the stock car +and rumble away over the track to the main line and on to the great +world where men put trust in them and sent them back to the Farm with +newspaper clippings and horseshoe wreaths made of immortelles with the +figure 2-and-a-fraction in the middle. + +When she was grown and they had put her out in a side pasture, there +were some new stables there, with a lot of men thronging round them who +did not look like grooms. The knowledge that something of importance to +the world was about to happen the other side of the fence made her feel +more contented. If she could not travel in a box car to see such things, +it was good to have some of the excitement of it brought in to the +ranch. + +At first she did not notice much, being deeply interested just then in +the early education of Fenelon, 2.10-1/4, who was a fretful infant and +took up most of her time. When he had passed out of her immediate care +and was cropping sweet alfalfa with the rest, she watched curiously the +foundations sinking into the grass, the crowd of people who came one May +morning to hear things said round a block of yellow sandstone, the +fitting of the red tiling above the stone walls. By this time she knew +the reason of it all; the dead heir, the monument, the boys and girls +who were coming to be taught in this great kindergarten. Finally, when +these had poured into the place, some of them straggled out into the +pasture and made friends with her. From them she learned more definitely +the great things that had been done and were about to happen; they told +her of the wonderful endowment, of the strangers from corners of the +world never reached even by the lucky horses who had rolled away in the +box cars, of the numberless buildings that were to surround and dwarf +the structures she had seen grow up in the sun. + +"The Governor" had driven less often through the yard since the yellow +buildings were up, and the boys and girls playing among them. After +awhile he ceased to come altogether. Then Bonita, the brood-mare, +understood that something had happened. It was more quiet everywhere +after this. Most of the horses and mares, her colts among them, went off +in the cars, not to come back, they told her. She stood under the dark +oaks for hours at a time, fearing lest they would send her, too. Her +longing for the world was past now; she wished to be left in the quiet +pastures with the students to talk to. + +It was during these days that Craig, who taught something to the younger +people, used to lean on the fence and smoke during the afternoons. He +was not much older than many of the students she knew, and she liked +him particularly. He had lumps of something white and sweet, and he +rubbed her head in exactly the right spot. When she had won his +confidence, he told her many things about himself and the College. Once +he had been at another place, a college older than this by a long time +but not so famous. The Overseer of this one had written him to come and +teach there, at a better salary. He explained to her what this +meant--money for the support of his mother, and in a few years the study +in Europe of which he dreamed, and for which he worked and saved, and +beside this the growing up with a new university, from an instructorship +in the present to a full professorship in the wonderful future. He told +her what was promised him, and showed her a picture once of the plan of +the completed university, with its arch and chapel tower and the great +mechanical shops spreading back across her shady pasture to the borders +of the lake. + +Then she learned what the death of "the Governor" had brought upon them; +why the horses had been sold and why there were no more hammers nor +chisels ringing against the stone. The farm was losing a thousand +dollars a day, and the Government had seized upon the money they were +building the monument with and was trying to wrest it entirely from the +woman who had stopped once to pet the brood-mare when "the Governor" +was driving in the yard. These things were hard to understand. There +had never been any question of money here that Bonita could remember. + +One day she had nosed vainly for the sugar he used to bring; Craig told +her that for two months he had had no money to give his mother; that if +it wasn't for a grocer in Mayfield who was kind to people in trouble, +they would have had nothing to eat. Bonita, remembering the students she +had seen gathering mushrooms, suggested grass; but he told her, +laughing, that only one man to his knowledge had ever lived that way and +he was a king, long ago, in the holy times. He, Craig, would have to +have money. In an old vest he had worn in the East, his mother found a +few pennies and had walked to Palo Alto and spent them for stamps for +the sake of paying for something. After this explanation, Bonita did not +hunt for sugar. + +Although things grew easier after a time, Craig was gloomy enough during +the afternoons when they talked across the fence. Once "the Governor's +Wife" had been given five hundred dollars to pay her servants, and she +had given it to the Overseer for his teachers. But the Overseer had +begun at the houses where there were the most children, and he had not +got around to Craig, who had only a mother. When temptation came to +him, he told Bonita about it and asked her advice. A letter had come to +him with an offer from his old college; it meant a full salary and the +hope of Europe. It was everything to him, he said, but he couldn't bear +to go away. The brood-mare had put her nose affectionately against his +arm. She understood little about the salary, but she knew how dreadful +it would be to leave the pasture. The man must have understood, for +after being quiet a long time and smoking harder than ever, he said that +he was going to stay. But many times after that, when other offers came, +he told her how hard it was to decide and how black everything looked +for the University. The Government was pulling at the fund, and the lady +who was building the monument was going to sell her precious things to +get money. + +The last time Craig leaned on the fence and whistled to her, he had been +very unhappy. Since then Bonita had not seen him. She was afraid that +he, too, had gone, after all, as the horses and grooms had gone, without +even a good-bye. She felt that if he had finally decided to give it up, +the smoke must fade away above the top of the chimney and the voices +cease altogether. + +But to-day, when the clouds were breaking and the clear blue of +summer-time looked down between them, the chimney-smoke was blacker than +ever and across by the lake fence some young people were pulling +mushrooms and laughing. Bonita looked over toward the buildings. Then +she cropped grass again, for only a gurgling meadow-lark broke the line +of the fence-rail. + +Suddenly she heard Craig's low whistle. He had come out from the +Wood-shop and put his elbows on the fence, his pipe sending up clear, +white smoke. Stopping now and then for a blade of grass, to show that +she was not too eager, the brood-mare walked slowly up to him. He was +not happy, as she had expected to find him. His brow was puckered and +his lips shut tightly on the stem of his pipe. Bonita put her nose over +the fence. The instructor took his pipe from his mouth and rubbed her +cheek slowly with the back of his knuckles. + +"Well, old girl," he said, "I'm afraid you and I won't have many more +talks over this fence." + +The brood-mare looked at him with questioning eyes. + +"I plead guilty," he went on, "I oughtn't to have kept the secret from +you, I know. The minute I got the letter I should have come out to tell +you about it, but it was raining; honestly, it was." + +He gave her a lump of sugar by way of conciliation. + +"You see, I couldn't resist this one," he continued, while the sugar +crunched under her teeth; "it's a big honor and three thousand a year, +and I've got to do something; now, haven't I?" + +His tone was doubtful, as though he were hardly sure of her opinion. The +meadow-lark which he had disturbed was releasing the joy of its full +throat under a shaft of sunlight further down the fence. The air hung +over them, sweet with the fragrance of the freshened pasture, charged +with the mysterious power of a Santa Clara Spring. No man, or horse, who +has caught that smell, ever forgets the valley of the Saint. Bonita was +looking across the green to the mushroom gatherers. + +Craig spoke, a little petulantly. + +"You never agree with me about my going, anyway. You seem to think that +the beauty of this campus and the freedom of everything here is argument +enough. But it's all too uncertain. I've told you that my salary is cut +away down and I'm not any too sure of ever having it made up to me; as +it is, we assistants are here only because the heads decided to cut +their own pay and keep us for the sake of the departments. If the suit +is lost, it's good-bye, anyway. I can't believe you have much idea that +we're going to win it to-morrow. It went for us in the lower courts, +here in California, but do you think that the Supreme Court of these +selfish and United States is going to decide for us just because they +were gallant enough to Mrs. Stanford to hurry the case up in the +calendar and cut short her suspense? You don't understand things, if you +think so. Out here where you live, the rains may be late and the grass +seem never coming, but you know it'll rain sooner or later, and you're +getting hay right along and it doesn't take much water to bring up what +you want. But with me it's different. We're going to get a weather +prediction from Washington to-morrow that'll tell us definitely whether +it's to be winter for keeps around here or summer and a good crop." + +The instructor leaned on the fence and puffed on at his pipe. Bonita +endured the smoke that clung around them in the still air, for she felt +that they were at a crisis. She drew up closer to the rails and put her +head against the instructor's shoulder. Suddenly, the man let his pipe +fall into the grass and he laid his face against her soft, gray nose. + +"You're a good old girl," he said, "and you know more about it than +anyone. But you haven't any money question to worry you. You don't love +the place a bit more than I do; you don't love it as much, because you +only know the nature side of it, and I know the bigness of the rest of +it, too. But the hope's almost dead, old lady; I can't tie my ambitions +to a corpse, you wouldn't ask me to, and you know I'm not the only one +to be looked after. But, oh, it'll be hard to go, won't it! There's +something that grips you where you live--you understand it." + +The brood-mare did not pull away, although he was holding her head +tightly in his hot hands. + +"If it all goes smash to-morrow and I can ever raise the money, I'm +going to send back for you, my beauty. You're getting too old to bring +much now, and you'll have to go sure if the Government wins." + +Bonita lifted her head suddenly. A drop of cold rain had fallen against +her face. The clouds had drawn together sulkily above them. Across the +intervening turf hastened the mushroom gatherers, their baskets full of +the brown and white trophies. Craig picked up his pipe. + +"Good-bye," he said, with a caress. "I'll come over to-morrow and tell +you the final news." + +Bonita had never shown him how much she really cared, true to her +feminine reserve; but to-day, leaning her slender neck far over the +fence, she whinnied after him until he stopped at the corner of the +Power-house and waved back to her. Then she cropped grass slowly while +it began to sprinkle. + +Next morning, when the second hour was about half through, a feeling of +excitement filled the Quad and penetrated the classrooms. Craig's +students were not paying very creditable attention to his lecture. He +himself was keeping his mind on the syllabus with considerable +difficulty. When someone passed the window and the eyes of the entire +class, including even the enthusiastic dig on the front seat, were +turned that way, Craig let his own wander and hesitated the least bit in +his talk. + +All at once, like a thunderclap, a half-dozen voices somewhere in the +Quad gave the yell. Craig stopped speaking and looked at the class, who +gazed back at him. A man with his back to the windows stood up and +looked out. The seats creaked ominously. Then, like grass after a +breeze, the whole class rose and craned necks at the window. + +The instructor, coming to himself, began feebly: + +"If you please--" + +Again the yell, not the desperate cry that is wrung out to cheer a +losing team, but the voice of victory, of joy and of great relief. + +Professor Craig went out of his classroom like a shot, the class after +him. + +There was a triumphal parade to the station, with flags and the entire +population of Roble beating time with dust-pans and brooms, to meet the +President who had sent the happy telegram. There were songs and speeches +and demonstrations in front of Xasmin House, with fellows hugging each +other or swinging round in side-line fashion, girls crying, and the +President's parrot incidentally learning the yell. Then, at night, the +alumni poured in on the trains from north and south, stirring the tumult +anew. Gay lanterns jewelled the porches of the Row, the Gym blazed with +light for more speeches and football songs, with no thought of football +in the singing of them, and round and round the shadowy Quad, where the +yell flashed in electric letters, went a wild carnival procession of men +and women, with torches and noise-machines, and Instructor Craig at +their head. + +The gleam of the unusual lights, the happy shouts, and the clamor of +firecrackers, came in mingled confusion across to the dark pasture where +Bonita stood by the fence with her head raised and her pointed ears +forward. Craig had not come that afternoon to tell her the final truth; +but, listening and watching from the shadow, she did not feel that he +had gone away. + +When she did see him again, he wore a new suit and, what was more +important, its pockets bulged with sugar. She was very glad to see him, +of course, but her greeting was an indifferent one after all; for she +was preoccupied, just then, with the infant needs of Pronto 2:17-3/4, +and could not stop to interest herself in the fact that the youngest of +the universities had been saved for all time. + + + + +CROSSROADS. + + + + +Crossroads. + + "Oh see ye not yon narrow road + So thick beset wi' thorns and briers? + That is the Path of Righteousness, + Though after it but few inquires. + + "And see ye not yon braid, braid road, + That lies across the lily leven? + That is the Path of Wickedness, + Though some call that the road to Heaven." + + THOMAS THE RHYMER. + + +I. + +The regular after-dinner crowd was smoking in Frank Lyman's Encina +boudoir, lolling over his sofa, their feet on his table, their legs +tangled on his iron bedstead. The steam heat was coming "Clank! clank!" +into the radiators, for it was a cold, clear evening in the time between +rains. Outside the fog was thick upon the hills, sending gray +ghost-fingers over toward the valley. You could lean from the window and +smell its clean moisture, mingling with the scent of young plants in the +fresh-turned earth. Frank himself sat close to the window and looked out +toward the gymnasium, because he had discovered a new amusement. There +was a section of the board walk between Encina and the gym which was +flooded just to its top by a pool from the late rain, so that if you +stepped heavily thereon the plank gave a bit and dropped you into the +water. The diversion consisted in betting with "Pegasus" Langdon on the +style of crossing adopted by chance wayfarers. The stakes were five +cents a corner. Frank backed the class who took the thing at one bound; +"Peg" laid his coin on those who went over on their tiptoes, trying not +to spring the plank into the water. For every one who did neither, but +walked around the puddle, five cents a corner went into the tobacco +fund. It was just as good as matching nickels and involved less +exertion. + +There is a theory in the Hall that you can tell a man's habits by the +rooms he occupies there. The nearer he gets to the corner fronting on +the baseball field, the more sociable is his nature. Those who hold the +rooms at that corner or on the second or third floors, so as to be in +easy hail of anyone coming in at the back entrance, are Public +Characters. Their apartments are reception rooms in very truth. It has +never been explained why Encina does not sag at that end, like an +excursion steamer on the side toward a boat race. If, on the other hand, +you believe you have a Mission, or if you are a Dig, rooming in the Hall +because it is convenient to the Quad, then you dwell in "Faculty Row," +away off to the east, where the early sun pulls you out in time to put +the finishing touches to your Latin, and where there is no trafficking +to and from the Quad to disturb your evening study. + +It was said that Frank Lyman was the only man at the Quadrangle end of +the Hall who ever made much pretense of studying. By the same token the +keepers of the college tradition alleged that he alone of all the gang +stood high in the opinion of the Faculty. It was a way he had. He stood +well with everybody. + +If they had taken the trouble to investigate, those who wondered at his +ability both to loaf much and to study much, at his scholarship dwelling +alongside of his popularity, they might have found that he kept the two +things in harmony by a marvelous system. The gang dwelt in his room, +made it their hang-out, but only just so long; when the hour arrived for +Lyman's study-time, they vanished away mysteriously, took the hint +conveyed in some fashion, no one ever knew how, and were gone. + +To the under-classmen, Lyman was an object of healthy awe. Older than +the average senior, he had been already in the larger world. His opinion +of things had especial value even in his Junior year. After the football +season, when he had been acknowledged the keenest manager the college +had ever found, the under-classmen had a blind faith in his +infallibility. The older students relied on him in much the same way, +though there were some who said that self lay at the bottom of Lyman's +system of morals, that the watchword of his philosophy was "Does it +pay?" These men were sentimentalists who had ideals. Langdon, the +Sequoia editor, would have told you that he thought more of Lyman than +of any two men in the class; it is a question, though, whether he would +have recommended Lyman's advice in everything. Frank was a good man to +keep a Freshman's money for him, to listen to his class-room troubles or +to stand between the luckless youngster and Faculty wrath; but when it +was a case into which something deeper entered, perhaps the Senior's +worldly philosophy was not of the best sort. This was the idea of +dreamers like "Pegasus" Langdon, who said things about "sentiment" and +to whom Freshmen seldom came for advice. But Lyman continued to hold his +after-dinner receptions, and his admirers piled themselves comfortably +on his bed and believed in him implicitly. + +The psychological moment came for the regular withdrawal. Frank opened +his windows with care, donned the old bath-robe which was his armor for +the battle intellectual, put on his eye-shade over his straight brown +hair, and opened his Pollock. At this hint the others slipped out; only +Jimmie Mason lingered, his gaze on the shadowy hills with their faint +fringe of dark green, the dregs of his pipe purring in the stillness. +Lyman's room-mate was somewhere queening. Lyman himself, pretending to +study, looked up from time to time, waiting for the Sophomore to unbosom +himself. Frank knew the symptoms. + +"Well, Jimmie?" he said at length--one couldn't study with that going on +and Frank had his stint to finish. + +"It's about my father." + +"Drinking again?" + +Jimmie only nodded. The smoke went out in his pipe; he knocked the ashes +from it and put it away mechanically in the common pipe-rack over the +radiator. + +"Tell me about it." Frank had closed his book, and was leaning back in +his tilted chair, his feet braced in the shelf beneath, his hands +clasped over his knees. + +"Not much to tell, I guess, no more than you know already. I got a +letter from the old lady." + +"Your grandmother, eh?" + +"Yes. She says something must be done. 'In low saloons,' she says, and +I've been sizing it up--and Frank, don't you think I ought to go home?" + +A silence again, with Lyman's alarm clock ticking placidly on the table +between them. + +It had come, the moment to bring the boy around; Frank had waited for it +in the weeks since he had known the story. In this silence he mapped out +his argument, as he would have prepared a brief. + +"How much has your father ever helped you, Jimmie?" + +"Not much. We've always been poor, you know." + +"Because he drank?" + +"Yes, he never could keep a job but so long." + +"Not even when you were small?" + +"I wasn't with him then. When my mother got--when she left him, she took +me with her. Then she died, and I was with my grandmother awhile, then I +lived with him until I came here." + +"Are you very fond of him?" + +"No, Frank, I'm not; not a bit. He never did anything for my mother or +for me, to make me." + +"I don't see why you lived with him then." + +"He'd behave himself better. I had a sort of influence over him. He was +afraid of me, or ashamed, or something, and I stuck to him to keep him +straight. But, oh! I hated it, and when he got going all right, I cut +loose and came here." + +"What sort is the old lady? W. C. T. U. and all that kind of thing, I +suppose?" + +"Something on that order." + +The Oracle leaned forward until his chest came almost between his bent +knees, as was his wont when he clinched his arguments. + +"I suppose you've never figured it out that people of her way of +thinking would call what little drinking you do at Mayfield 'drinking in +low saloons?'" + +By his silence Jimmie admitted that there was something in the position. +Frank followed up his lead. + +"So it may be nothing very bad after all. But let's suppose it is; +suppose he has slid back into the worst of his old ways, is it going to +pay to go on and break things all up for yourself, for the purpose of +trying to bolster him up? It seems to me you would let your enthusiasm +get away with your common sense. But it's your business, Jimmie. Only +the thing that gets me is the blooming uselessness of it all. What can +you do?" + +"I can work." + +"You could do that before you came here. You see, it was all right +before, when your plans weren't formed. Now it means not only his +sliding back, but yours too. You know as well as I do that a half-baked +man isn't worth a whoop, not a solitary whoop. You've got to drop down +into mediocrity just when you are on the way up to something. And after +sacrificing yourself, perhaps, it will have been for nothing. You can't +cure that thing in a month, nor a year, nor two years. If he is +drinking, regular and hard, you've got to catch him and stay with him +just about as long as he lives. You can't leave him after you get him on +his feet, or he'll go right back. You know that from experience, don't +you?" + +"Yes," said Jimmie. The Senior's words came to him as a relief. He had +begun the conversation with the feeling that the thing for him to do was +to go home, and dreading lest Lyman should think so, too. Now Frank +showed him the folly of such a step, and Frank knew about things. + +"It means a knockout to your ambition," went on Lyman, "the spoiling of +yourself, and you propose to do this for a man you don't care for? I +don't understand." + +"He is my father," said the Sophomore. This reason had seemed ample, +when he was thinking it over alone; it did not sound so convincing now. + +"And suppose he is, do you have to pay for that? No, Jimmie, that's a +fine sentimental view of it that won't help either of you. Let him wait. +You have the right to do it. He can wait two years, till you've had your +chance. If it has been going on all this time, two years won't be long, +and then when you're through and ready to do something, there'll be +sense in it; there isn't now.--" + +Just then Freshman Halleck, who had a genius for poking in where he was +not wanted, knocked and entered with Encina abruptness, for Frank had +not locked the door. He made his stay so long that Lyman, with his +thoughts on his unfinished work, said: + +"Well, good-night, you fellows," as a gentle hint, and Jimmie withdrew. + +The fog had not yet come into the valley when the Sophomore opened the +window, down in his own room; it was reaching out, still driven before a +lazy wind. Indistinctly the singing of the Glee Club, rolling home from +practice in the Quad, came through the damp twilight. Jimmie had been +with them on the Christmas trip, tasting a social life he had known +nothing of till then. Now they were going to run him for leader next +year. He sat on his window ledge listening. The side of the Hall +stretched away from him, four tiers of light where the fellows were at +work or were bumming away the week-night. Through the opened windows +came the low tone of many conversations, stirred now and then by a +"rough-house" note. A coyote barked somewhere among the hills, a +reminder of the nearness of our higher life to the life universal. +Jimmie took a long, deep breath of the moist air, as though he would +draw it all, all unto himself. This was his life, he had made it for +himself, and he loved it, he loved it! He had no part any longer with +what had come before it. All these were in shadow, the people and things +of his bitter childhood. The fellows up there in the lighted rooms had +homes somewhere; there was a feed-box being opened even then, perhaps, +at some study table; they were thinking of vacation, most of them, and +of other places. But this was home to Mason, this wide, soft campus, +with the sandstone arching over it and bounded by shaggy hills, the only +place he could call his own. Most of the laughing people who lived here +with him were in a dream from which some Commencement Day would wake +them. To Mason it was reality. Yes, Frank Lyman was right. Jimmie was +glad he had asked him. The idea of going away had been a thoughtless +impulse, an immature judgment. He would stay--for the two years. + +He took off his coat and opened a book under the lamp; but a face came +and settled between him and the page, a bloated face with irresolute +lips that would not move from the black and white before him, but +flickered there and mocked him, until finally he closed the book, and, +without looking out again on the campus, turned into bed. + + +II. + +It was a quiet night outside. The last spring rain was over; the dry, +deadening California summer had begun its advance on the land. Already, +the green of the hills had faded into a lighter hue, a forerunner of a +yellow June and a brown July. The campus was astir with the movement of +a Friday night. Shadowy figures, in couples, came and passed down the +fairy-land vistas of the Quadrangle; the 'busses deposited the elite of +Palo Alto at the door of the Alpha Nus who had said that they would be +at home; noises of all kinds, from not unmusical singing to plainly +unmusical whoops, exhaled from every pore of the Hall. The piano on the +lobby was groaning out a waltz from its few attuned keys and the little +space between the big rug and the rail overlooking the dining-room was +packed with forms in various conditions of negligee, dancing earnestly +and painfully. + +Only one room, and that generally the center of disturbance, "sported +the oak." Jimmie Mason sat in the knockery, with a book cocked up in +front of him, and made a pretense of studying, but his thoughts +wandered. Finally he threw his work aside altogether, and looked at the +little patches of starlight visible between the branches of the tree +outside. It was so plain, the thing he ought to do, in justice to +himself, that he had thought the dream of the other thing a fancy that +had passed and had been put away with the notions of his prep-days. And +yet he had found no peace in his new decision. His plans for next year, +his work in class, his new success with certain ventures which after two +years of the hardest, closest pinching, had put within his reach the +means to gratify a few little whims, to indulge in a few things his +poverty had hitherto forbidden him--a few common things the men around +him enjoyed, and the lack of which he had ever concealed even from +himself--all these were made footless by the ache in the bottom of his +soul. And, as he sat and pondered on it, a hard, dull resentment which +he had hitherto kept down by sheer will power rose above his other +thoughts and claimed admission as a reality. His father had no right to +do this thing to him. He was an old man; his chance was past, given up +for a few barrels, more or less, of distilled spirits. It was for this +that the something inside was asking him to forfeit the chance he had +made for himself. The University was his home. His father had done +nothing toward this. The laundry agency had provided a living, and the +broad democracy of the college had done the rest for him. He was one of +the "prominent men" now, a somebody, as he had never been and never +could be in the travesty of home that had been his father's giving. Upon +his life here rested the possibilities of the future toward which he +looked dreamingly sometimes when his notes were written up, and the +laundry accounts checked. Assuredly, his father had no claim on this; to +admit it would be an injustice to himself, to his ambition, and to his +work. And yet this face which had come between him and his book the +first night the fight had been on must haunt him always in the hour when +his tide was turning. + +A thump on the window which opened on the front piazza recalled him from +his reverie. A dozen feet were shuffling on the stones outside, and a +ruddy face glowed over the sash. + +"Go away, Pellams. Got to plug," said Jimmie, hastily resuming his book. + +"Relate your predicaments to a constable," said Pellams. "There's going +to be a Thirsting Bee at the----" + +"Can't go. Got to work on my thesis." + +"Relate _that_ to your Uncle Adderclaws. Tumble out, now." + +Jimmie only shook his head. There was a conference outside in whispers; +then the gang withdrew with suspicious alacrity. Two minutes later, the +lock grated with the cautious insertion of a key, and the mob rushed in; +Jimmie had forgotten the passkey, for whose possession Pellams had held +up the Jap. + +"Ah, say, get out of here, you fellows. I'm digging." + +"I know it. And you're going to stop. Gentlemen adventurers"--here +Pellams mounted a chair--"James Mason, our small but thirsty friend, has +sourball. Now, I ask you, gentlemen, what is the universal cure for his +affliction?" + +"Beer!" The unanimity of the response would have done credit to a Roman +mob. + +"Quite right ye are, my merry retainers. And will ye, in loving kindness +to him, apply that remedy?" + +"We will! We will!" + +"Well said, me liegemen. Jimmie, move along!" and Pellams fell to +strolling around the room and criticizing its collection of stolen signs +with the air of one who has discharged his business and stands at ease. +The rest threw themselves on the man with sourball and were for tearing +off his outer garments and forcing on his sweater, but Lyman by some +occult means of his own got the boy aside. One never knew how Frank +managed the gang; it was always that way; his methods never obtruded +themselves, all one saw was results. + +"I wouldn't if I were you," said he; "they won't understand it, and it +doesn't do you any good--this sort of thing. Better jolly up." + +The Sophomore did not speak; he only shook his head. + +"I know what you're holding back for," went on the other; "but going +down there isn't the same sort of thing; really, it isn't." + +Jimmie started a little, inside, as he realized for the first time the +base of his aversion to dragging himself out on the trip. He turned, +half-mechanically, and began tugging at his collar. That Phantom should +never come between him and one single thing he wanted to do. It might +embitter it all, but it could never prevent him from the outward act. He +threw his tie over a chair and took off his coat with unnecessary +emphasis in the movement. Ten minutes later he was treading the primrose +path of dalliance with an arm around "Nosey" Marion. + +There was a cool breeze off the bay, bringing the scent of salt water +along with the odor of spruce-trees. A voice from the upper regions of +the Hall called out to the cavalcade, crawling through the half-darkness +along the road: + +"He-ea, you! Bring some back for me!" + +A dozen windows slammed open at that, and twenty throats took up the +noise. Pellams was for answering, but Lyman discreetly checked him. + +Presently they swung out into the traveled road, until the noises of the +Hall were only a composite buzz. The squad was lounging in twos and +three, talking athletics or humming under the breath march-songs from +the Orpheum. "Peg" Langdon stopped at the white gate, and took off his +hat to the cool air. + +"This road down is the best thing about Mayfield!" + +"Drop the Sequoia!" cried Pellams. "Here, you fellows, hold him! We'll +have that in a rondeau or something, next week, if you don't hobble the +muse!" + +The editor laughed. It is better to be joked about your own special +forte than not to have it mentioned, so he was not displeased. + +"That's what the bard gets," said he, "for secreting the noxious fluid +known as the 'Sequoia' verse. But you can't stop the secretion. Some +day, I am going to write a Ballad of the Road to Mayfield--just to be +original." + +"And you'll kill the traffic." + +"Chain the poet!" + +"If you don't choke him, he'll get reminiscent." + +These from half-a-dozen voices at once. + +"Certainly I shall!" declared Langdon. "A reminiscent mood is the proper +one for the road to Mayfield--just as you have to have an argumentative +one on the road back." + +"Did you ever notice," observed Dick, "that every Mayfield time has a +sort of motif? You have a central idea, and you expand on it, like +writing paragraphs for English Eight." + +"It's up to you, Mr. Langdon. Give us a motif and we'll do the +expanding," said Marion, shying a pebble at a gate where there was a dog +he knew. + +"How would Jimmie's sore-head do?" + +Pellams took it up at once. "Death to the sore-head! _A bas_ Mason!" And +then, being safely away from the Hall, he caught up the old nonsense air +that has split student throats this century long, + + "To drive dull care away!" + +And Jimmie, a chum beating him on either side to exorcise the demon, was +singing as lustily as the best of them when they swung through the town +of buried ambitions and into the shrine of Bacchus. + +"Gentlemen, remember the motif!" cried Pellams, when they had made their +way through the barroom loafers, playing with dingy cards at the dingier +tables. The expedition was safely stowed in the back room around the +rough table with its carved patch-work of initials, Greek letters, and +nicknames, significant or obsolete, according to a man's perspective. +Pellams assumed instant control. + +"We will now turn our attention to the serious business of the evening. +Get your places. Hands on your bottles! Open--_corks_! And away we go." +The party drank in silence. + +"Do you begin to improve, James? There is a trace of a smile in the +left-hand corner of the patient's mouth. Ruffle up his hair and give him +another while we have him going!" + +Someone started a song, and they had another drink to punctuate the +pause between verses. A ruddier shade was creeping towards the roots of +Pellams' hair; Lyman, who smiled but seldom, was grinning across the +table at a Sophomore trying to flip cracker crumbs into his mouth. + +"This is a tryout," said Pellams. "The first man that balks at his beer +will drink raspberry chasers for a month. Hey! look at 'Nosey' Marion +trying to shirk!" + +Sure enough, Marion, who tried to keep up a reputation for capacity with +a naturally slim endowment, was slyly pouring his last potion into an +empty beer-case behind him. They fell upon the offender forthwith, +whipped him into the ranks again, and resumed their seats, laughing and +panting. + +"And now that our erring brother is punished and forgiven--that's as +good a phrase as I ever saw--punished and forgiven--stick that in the +Sequoia, Pegasus"--Pellams rambled on, "we've got to have the motif. I +move from the chair that the guest of the evening gives us 'My Old +Kentucky Home!' Punish your glass and tune up, Jimmie!" + +The cry went on until Jimmie had to respond. He began with the intention +of singing it quite carelessly, because there was much in his soul that +night that he dared not show before them all; but Jimmie had the gift of +song in his heart as in his voice, and he threw himself into the music +before the first stanza was half done. Only once before had he sung the +song as he did to-night; it was at last Commencement, when he sang it +for the Seniors going out on their adventures, and when he was done they +had all been still and quiet like men who have seen ghosts--as perhaps +they had, that night, the phantoms of men and times haunting certain +low, arched buildings they were to see no more. + + "Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!" + +Jimmie's tender baritone floated up from the table wistfully sweet, and +shaken a little with feeling, for the trouble of the week just past was +sweeping into it. Lyman, listening, knew of what place the boy was +singing, and mentally noted that he had better be thoughtful of the +youngster during the rest of the term. + +The fellows were quiet for a moment after they had droned out the +chorus, each one putting his own meaning into that sweet old song of +farewell, and then, to break the charm, a small voice with a Spanish +roll in it, piped "Tamales!" at the crack in the door. + +"Hey!--Lupe!--make him sing!" + +They raided the stock first, and rendered happy with the jingle of +silver the quaint little remnant of the race who named their valley for +the blessed Santa Clara. Then, when he had counted it and put it safely +away with the officious assistance of Pellams Rex, they set him on the +table in his blue overalls and over-sized hat and made him sing for them +in his pathetic treble, "La Paloma," and for encore, "Two Leetle Girl +een Bloo." Pellams removed him after that, claiming that Langdon was +about to tell the story of his life, which could not be published in the +Sequoia. + +Jimmie Mason had sat there all this time, taking it in and drinking with +the others, but there was never a cloud on his brain nor a waver in his +movements. The rest of them wandered from the motif; each was composing +a fugue of his own, according to the mould of his nature. Scraps of +their conversation floated in on him between songs--"Got him just below +the knees--now!"--"and the difference between me and a tank is in the +inferior receptivity--ain't that a peach?--of the receptacle"--"Now, the +fallacy of the original proposition, as Herbert Spencer hath it, lies in +the expression of the component particulars"--this was Langdon--"that +proves that if I had a board Pellams would be summarily chastised"--"Put +it down and order up another, here's good drink going stale"--"Whoa, +Pegasus, old hoss, that's my tamale you have designs on"--"and cut his +name there"--"sing it down! This is to break training for the third +time"--"What's the matter with ----ty-eight?"--All this came in on him, +as he watched them grow from geniality to hilarity and then on toward +enthusiasm. They had forgotten him; only now and then someone shied a +cracker at his head and told him to "jolly up." + +Another drink, and the patriotic stage was upon them. The King ordered a +glass, standing, to the Team, and one with a foot on the table to the +Captain, and one with both feet on the table and glasses to the ceiling +to the Victory next fall. Someone started the yell; it went round the +table. Then they joined in on "Here's to Stanford College," with a verse +for every class and its yell at the end, and before they were done there +were three howling factions, each trying to cry the others down. + +Frank Lyman, he of the steady head, who was quiet or hilarious as he +willed, but was never beyond the point where he willed to be, sat +watching good-humoredly from his corner, and noted that Jimmie Mason's +voice had risen the loudest, and that he, too, had forgotten the motif. + +Pellams had wandered into the outer room "to bust the proprietor's +blamed old nickel-machine and get even," leaving the disturbance to +subside of its own weight. Coming back suddenly to the door, he cried: +"Hey, I've got 'em! The raw material and the finished product! Let's +have a temperance lecture from Lyman." + +It was a queer group at the door. The half-gone Pellams, with his face +flushed and his hair dishevelled, in one of his hands little Lupe, +hanging to an empty pail and between laughter and tears; the other hand +tight on the collar of as dirty, as unkempt, and as drunken an old +loafer as ever hung over a Mayfield bar. Pellams swung the ruin in. + +"Now, tell us how you got that fine, large tee!" said the tormentor. +"Orate to us, General Jackson!" + +The old man braced himself, with drunken dignity, against the door. + +"You young fellows c'n make fools o' yourselves," he said, "but you +can't make fool o' me." + +"That's all right, pardner--Nature saved us the trouble in your case," +said Pellams, the thoughtless. + +The clear head in the room--Lyman's always--took it all in; Frank made a +step to come between the Junior and his victim. Then he turned, +half-unconsciously, toward Mason. Jimmie was standing with his hands on +the table, looking straight before him, and in that look Frank read the +certainty that the case was out of his control. For the Face was rising +before Jimmie Mason once more; it had twisted itself in with the +relaxed, foolish features before him, until he saw his father there, a +mock and a shame. It was not his father, of course--he passed his hand +before his eyes as though to clear them--but suppose that somewhere else +a crowd had his father--and he not there to---- + +The Angel of Pity, or the Universal Conscience, or whatever it is that +you and I have learned from our books and our teachers to put as our +symbol of the belief in the higher things, wrote upon his records that +night that a prayer had gone up, for the first time, from the dingy back +room of the Hotel Mayfield. + +Pellams had the old man singing now, in a cracked, maudlin voice, and +his keeper was beating time with a billiard cue. Then the amateur +conductor had one of his inspirations. + +"Hey, a trio! The event of the evening! General Hardshell Jackson, +Senor Lupe de Tamale, and the renowned lyric barytone, James Russell +Lowell Mason, will combine in a grand farewell concert. Ascend the +platform, Senor!" he cried to the Mexican lad, who stood, wide-eyed, in +a corner. Then he gestured wildly toward the door. + +"Hey, Jimmie, come back here," he called; "don't let him out, boys!" + +Jimmie had reached the door when Lyman caught his sleeve. + +"Where are you going?" + +"Home." + +"You mean the Hall?" + +Jimmie pulled free of the Senior's hand. + +"No!" he said. "Home." + + + + +A SONG CYCLE AND A PUNCTURE. + + + + +A Song Cycle and a Puncture. + + "And I learned about women from 'er!" + + KIPLING. + + +Six Madonnas, from their places on the Chapel walls, gazed at the +spectacle of a student with long hair and energetic manner drilling a +chorus of young men and women from behind the preacher's desk. There was +no visible sign of agitation on the part of the six Madonnas, though an +operatic rehearsal in Chapel might be considered reason enough. To be +sure, one of them, with her feet upon a crescent moon, kept her eyes +fixed religiously on the ceiling, but this had become a habit. The +Madonnas were not surprised. + +The early years of the University, when there was no assembly hall and +the temporary chapel was used for everything that did not demand the +superior accommodations of the men's gymnasium, had prepared them for +anything. They had looked calmly down upon student farces and Wednesday +evening prayer meetings, professional impersonations and baccalaureate +sermons. Once, there had been a German farce under the protection of +the Germanic Language department, by a company from town, a boisterous +play with a gigantic comedienne in a short skirt. Beside this +performance, Lillian Arnold's singing a love duet with Jack Smith was +nothing very shocking. + +Connor, the man who was getting up the opera for the benefit of the +Junior Annual, waved his baton gracefully and looked pleased. The +rehearsal had gone well that afternoon, and now Cap Smith was singing +with creditable expression the love song in the last act. The experience +of Connor told him that this song would make even the bleachers at the +back of the gymnasium keep a respectful silence, which was saying a good +deal. Smith had a very pretty tenor, redeeming its lack of volume by a +sympathetic quality that was decidedly pleasant. In a song like this, +his voice came out well. There was a high note at the end to be taken +pianissimo with something else that signified "as though you meant it." +Smith could make it sound so, at any rate. One girl at the back of the +chorus always said, "Ah," under her breath when the song was ended at +rehearsal. + +Lillian Arnold, who played opposite Smith in the opera, did not conceal +from herself the pleasure she took in the part. Long before rehearsals +began, she had spent her smiles upon Connor with a view to that very +role. Miss Arnold was a young person who knew the things she wanted; +one of them was Smith. 'Varsity end, champion pole-vaulter, Glee Club +tenor and Sophomore president, which means principally leading the +cotillion, he was well worth a girl's trouble. There was the more glory +in the winning of this capital prize because he was not very +enthusiastic about Roble. There was somebody up in town who took a great +deal of his blue fraternity-paper. Lillian Arnold knew about the girl in +town, so she accepted gracefully what the gods gave and was outwardly +content. + +The gift of the gods was Ted Perkins, whose vest was decorated like +Cap's and who had no entanglements. When the approach of the Sophomore +cotillion set Roble agog with a pleasant but hardly strong-minded +excitement, he "asked her." Peace of mind comes naturally after such an +invitation is given and accepted; on rare occasions this does not last. + +The first thing that occurred to ruffle Miss Arnold's complacency was a +chance remark dropped one noon by Perkins as they were strolling home +obliquely from the Quad. + +"Cap isn't going to lead with Miss Martin, after all," said he. + +"Indeed!" exclaimed Lillian. For some remote feminine reason the +announcement was interesting. + +"Her family has gone South suddenly, a death or something. Cap is all +broken up about it. He was going to show her off in style that night." + +"I wonder whom he will ask, now," she said, as though it didn't matter +the least bit in the world. + +Down somewhere in a girl's heart lies the gambler's instinct. Lillian +would have thrown away then and there the certainty of Ned Perkins' +timely invitation for the torturing suspense, the alluring chance, that +attended the Sophomore president's second choice. Perkins, in his simple +masculine dullness, never guessed this. + +"I don't believe he knows yet; he wouldn't tell over at the house if he +did. Another plum for unengaged Roble." + +Perkins would have been less at ease over the condition of engaged Roble +could he have looked into the little east music-room where Lillian +played accompaniments, and Cap Smith, leaning over a wicker chair, went +through the music of his part. These cozy rehearsals in the quiet +afternoons had resulted in Smith's asking himself, during a cut home +through the Quad, why he had never noticed Lillian Arnold in particular. +Connor, the director, had a keener eye, evidently. She was pretty, +dashing and real good fun. Perkins was entitled to respect for his +selection. Lillian was "all right;" this is a masculine term which may +mean anything from mild approval to the rapture of "just one girl." The +mild interpretation, of course, is to be put upon Smith's use of the +term, even after he had been to Roble two evenings. Their talk was about +the opera, nothing further, and when he had taken his high note with +just the proper emotional slur, they both laughed. To be honest, there +had been one chat on the moonlit steps of the Museum, but all of this +went down on the blue fraternity-paper among other confidences. + +One afternoon, in the middle of a Spring-time walk, Smith gave utterance +to a decision concerning which he had already written, dutifully, to an +interested party in the South. They had passed the willow-fringed bank +of Lagunita, the red boathouse, the double avenue of young pines, and, +crossing into the back road, strolled down to the low gate opposite the +Farm; this they climbed and came into a little hollow where knowing +people find yellow violets. He had just given her a frank compliment. + +"You are the best fence-taker I ever saw for a girl." + +"That's one practical result of an hour's credit in gym-work," she +laughed. "Sometimes, on lovely days like this, I feel almost as though I +could pole-vault the way you do. It must be glorious to go sailing over +the bar." + +"And hear it come clattering down after you?" + +They sat on the soft, new grass, and Lillian caught, one after another, +the shy yellow faces peering at her through the long leaves. She looked +so spring-like, so much a part of the fresh, young landscape in its +robes of early February, as she half reclined to reach out for a blossom +larger and yellower than the rest--a pose that she knew was good--that +the Sophomore president put an end to suspense. + +"I had expected to lead the cotillion with Miss Martin," he began, "but +she has gone South, so I'm badly left. I'm afraid you are engaged for +it, aren't you?" + +Lillian gazed fixedly at the white cupola on a stockfarm building. Her +heart was somewhere deep in hill-grass. She was the most luckless girl +in the whole college! The opportunity of her Sophomore year had come too +late. It was bitter enough for tears. + +"I had promised it to Mr. Perkins," she said, irresolutely. + +"I was afraid so. Of course, it was awfully late to ask you; but I would +rather go with you than with any of the others, so I ventured." + +It was a desperate moment for Lillian. + +"I would rather go with you, too," she said, gazing up at him. + +"I'm sure I wish you could," he said, with sincerity. She was at her +prettiest that day. + +"I will anyway," she declared. + +"But Ted----" + +"I don't care," she went on, "it was only that he asked me first. +Couldn't I cut it and go with you? He ought to understand that I have a +right to change my mind." + +Smith watched the antics of a gopher for a full minute before he +replied. Although Perkins had said nothing to him of his intentions +regarding the dance--the two had few confidences--Cap had held his +theories. Still, he deemed he had a chance. Being a Sophomore, he +believed that he was thoroughly acquainted with the co-educated sex and +all their wiles and guiles; but a feeling of repulsion toward this frank +readiness to throw down another man, one of his own, too, drowned his +sense of self-satisfaction at finding himself preferred. + +"Of course, you and Ted must arrange all that," he said, and turned the +conversation. + +Cap's lack of confidential relations with Perkins did not stand in the +way of his mentioning the affair to him that night after dinner. + +"I thought you ought to know it, Ted," he concluded. "Of course, you +will do as you please about the matter, only I shall not take her." + +"You don't think for a moment that _I_ still intend to, do you?" asked +Perkins, fiercely. + +"I don't believe I'd blame you exactly if you backed out," said the +complacent Sophomore; "but, of course, it's none of my funeral now; I'm +only sorry I happened to ask her myself, and start the trouble." + +"I think I'll walk home with her after rehearsal," said Perkins. + +"Well, I shan't say anything about it one way or the other," said Smith, +and he started toward the Gym with a pleasant sense of having galled +somebody a bit. + +Meanwhile, Lillian had eaten her dinner with relish. The prospect of +trouble with Perkins did not worry her in the least. Perkins had been +rather a convenience, and to lead the cotillion with Jack Smith was a +delight that entirely divested the other man of all importance. The +rehearsal went through with a dash; Lillian was all animation and +witchery, and the love-scene was perfectly acted, though Ted Perkins sat +glowering in the privileged audience. Cap Smith took his high note with +a tenderness of voice and gesture that moved Connor, the leader (he was +also stage-manager and chief electrician), to call out, "Good boy, Cap," +and to shake his carefully untrimmed hair in approval. + +After rehearsal, the tenor slipped away just as Perkins, with an +artificial smile, approached Lillian. + +The Sophomore was in bed when Perkins came into his room. + +"What did you do about it?" Cap asked, to start things. + +"I simply said I wanted to be excused from taking her to the cotillion." + +"What reason did you give?" + +"None." + +"But you had to give some explanation." + +"She didn't ask for any. She guessed it, probably." + +"What did she say? Try to smooth it over?" + +"No, nothing, except that she was sorry, and that she would have liked +to go with me." + +"Humph," sniffed Cap. "I'll bet she was afraid I hadn't said anything to +you about it, and she wouldn't give herself away as long as you didn't +kick up a row. Now I suppose she expects me to take her." + +"That's where she was keen, all right; she never breathed a word about +you; only made me feel like two-bits in a fog for having turned her +down." + +"If I had been you I would have roasted her right there, fired the whole +string at her." + +This was the point for which the jilted man had come into Cap's room. + +"No," said he, "you said you wouldn't take her either, and I thought +that would punish her better than having any scene with me. She'll know +I have had my innings." + +This took Smith where he lived, but he put on a cheerful front, +perforce: + +"Well, I'll crawl gracefully out of it, to-morrow," said he. "I suppose +she'll be hopping when she thinks it over." + +Perkins went up to his room satisfied. + +When Cap Smith caught Miss Arnold at the post-office, he began to find +that it was easier to plan a graceful crawling out than to execute the +movement. + +"I shall have to take back what I said yesterday about the cotillion," +he began, cleverly, guiding her toward Roble, "because, you see, it +wouldn't be just square to Ted, would it? He might feel hurt, and I +wouldn't have that. We must have six dances, though, anyway." + +This, assuredly, would show her. Unfortunately, Lillian was either dull +or desperate. + +"But he released me last night." + +"Did he?" said Jack. He had started all wrong. + +"Yes, we settled it all very well; he didn't seem to care in the least, +he is so good-natured." She looked as serene as the sky above her, +although she was beginning to have biting suspicions. "So it's all +right." + +Cap Smith's feet had become tangled in crawling; he kicked out +recklessly. + +"No, it's not all right. I don't believe in a girl's treating a fellow +like that, and I won't be a party to it." + +"Why did you ask me, then?" she challenged. "To tempt me because you +happened to be president and a girl loves to lead?" + +"I'm not so mean as that. How could I know Perkins had asked you. He +hadn't told me." + +"I suppose you told him about it?" + +"Yes, I thought that I ought to." + +"After telling me that I might arrange it. It was my business." + +"I knew how you would do it, and I wasn't willing that Ted should be cut +that way." + +"What a lovely friendship!" said Lillian. She was much vexed. + +Smith did not reply at once. The beauty of his friendship with Perkins +did not strike him very heavily at the moment. + +"At any rate, under the circumstances I don't feel that I can take you +to the cotillion." + +"Don't flatter your--" Lillian was too angry to speak without crying, so +she went into the Hall abruptly. + +With the approach of Washington's Birthday, the rage of Miss Arnold +grew. Inasmuch as everyone took it for granted that she was going with +Perkins, it was not likely that she would be asked again, instead, late +beginners, running cards for themselves and other people, asked her for +dances, and rather than admit her predicament she let them fill her +card. + +The afternoon of the cotillion she went to bed and was ill for a day; +then she appeared at the final rehearsal with a smiling face and a soul +full of wrath. She had very little to say to Smith, but otherwise she +showed no resentment, and her acting was as good as ever. One wiser than +Cap Smith would have augured ill from her fair seeming, a less confident +man would have been on his guard; but he had forgotten all that he had +ever read about the fury of women scorned, and he went to his doom +unconscious. + +The Gym had never held a bigger audience, and the opera, as usual, was +proving itself the greatest success in the annals of Stanford +theatricals; the show was so inoffensively proper, Connor declared with +a sigh, that it was disgusting. No hitch or jar marred the perfect +running of the performance, and the conductor, directing the +scene-shifting between acts, stopped now and then to shake hands with +himself. The borrowed scenery almost fitted; there was no wait of more +than half an hour; very few of the chorus got out of tune; the costumes +had been expunged by a board of lady managers and declared officially to +have no _Said Pasha_ tendencies; the leading ladies were actually +keeping their tempers; things moved on as smoothly as though the Fates +were deadening suspicion in order to make the coming catastrophe the +more overwhelming. + +The third act drew on. The low comedian had just finished joshing back +and forth with the bleachers, whose chorus work had equalled, in some +respects, that on the stage. A soft light began to illumine the painted +heavens, and a three-hundred-candle-power Luna, the pride and joy of +Connor's heart, rose in wavering majesty. The house was quiet now, +listening to Smith's solo to Lillian in the moonlit garden. The music +swept softly on to the close of the song. As Jack took a deep breath for +his tender love-note, the note that was to make men sigh and women +quiver, Lillian leaned closer to him, as if drawn by the caressing +sweetness in his voice, and one round, white arm stole about his neck in +the prettiest gesture imaginable. No one knew that with the other hand +she had quickly drawn out the big black pin that held the flowers on her +breast. One wicked jab, and the precious high note broke in a wild +"ouch" of pain. + +The bleachers laughed uproariously. + + + + +ONE COMMENCEMENT. + + + + +One Commencement.[A] + + "Within the camp they lie, the young, the brave; + Half knight, half schoolboy, acolytes of fame; + Pledged to one altar, and perchance one grave." + + BRET HARTE. + + +There is one Wednesday morning, the last in May, when the sun, peeping +over the observatory dome on Mount Hamilton and flooding the wide valley +of Santa Clara, wakes unfeelingly a reluctant set of mortals to the +realization that this is the last of their mornings. + +The girl in Roble who has lived four happy, independent years where the +winds of freedom blow, and who is going back this afternoon to the +household duties and narrow sympathies of a not over-interesting home, +leans thoughtfully on the foot-rail of her iron bed; the dear, familiar +view blurs as she gazes out beyond the dormitory room and its +reminiscent treasures of program and photograph, out where the warm +light brightens the concrete pillars of the museum and the arboretum +with its waving tops, and makes the whole fair landscape one Field of +the Cloth of Gold. + +The Encina student who has slaved his uneasy way, with no resources save +his willingness to do anything that may help him from one semester to +the next, springs exultantly from his alcove, for to-day he has finished +the struggle, and there is a good job waiting for him. + +Over in the fraternity house, the man who has sung his grasshopper songs +in careless disregard of changing seasons, and who has found some +impossible examinations barring his primrose path, blinks painfully at +the merciless sun of Commencement Day, laughing at him above the roofs +of siren Mayfield, and holds his foolish head in his hands; for last +night, while the other Seniors, full of honors and regrets, were trying +to choke down a little of the good-bye supper after the Promenade, he +went a bit too far in celebrating his mixed emotions of grief at +flunking and joy at coming back again. + +Upon all alike--upon him who has watched for it, dreading it through +four enchanted years, as upon him who has forgotten until the list of +candidates for graduation glared at him from the registrar's +bulletin-board with a vacancy in that section where his name ought to +be; upon him who has hoped for this as a commencement in very truth of +things great and new, as upon him who cares not--shines this early +sunlight of the last Wednesday in May. + +There is never a cloud in the sky this morning; the meadow lark sings +more joyously than on any other day; the campus is more radiantly +beautiful, because some hundred and fifty people are looking at it +through tears for the last time. + + * * * * * + +On his own Commencement Day, Tom Ashley lay sleeping, hidden away from +the splendor of the morning, two-score miles from the smiling campus. + +The man lying next him in the upper tier but one rolled over and shook +him by the shoulder: + +"Wake up, Tom; it's Commencement Day! Don't you want your degree?" + +The Senior struggled back from sleep; a dream influence lingered with +him, a vision of a cloistered enclosure, a dream in which all his +senses, now assailed by the sights and smells and sounds of a +troop-ship, drew in again the familiar things; he beheld the red tiles +a-shimmer above the yellow stone; the aromatic scent of budding +eucalyptus was in his nostrils, the sound of the young laughter of women +in his ears. He sat up, gazing uncertainly at the dark, crowded space, +the narrow stairway, the great iron racks covered with gray-blanketed +shapes; then he crawled into his uniform and out on the ship's deck. The +early dawn had set the towers of the city glittering; already the low +wharf-sheds along the water-front were astir with life. Back of the town +the twin peaks, named by the early Franciscans for a woman's breasts, +rose veiled with a filmy scarf of fog. Everywhere below them spangled +flags in myriads flapped from the tops of the city and among the crowded +shipping. + +Ashley leaned over the rail of the _Peking_ and watched the yellow tide +slide by with its burden of debris. Not far away in the stream lay the +other two transports, unattended; it was too early for the fussy craft +that curtseyed about them during the day. At three o'clock that +afternoon these vessels were to sail for the distant Philippines, +bearing arms against the ancient country of the Spanish Fathers--the +pioneers who had shown the Saxon the way to this golden coast and had +made vine and rose flourish for him on the barren sandhills, that he +might now strip from the land of their forefathers the last possession +of a dying empire. By the strange turnings of history, from the very +city of their patron saint the New World was sending forth its first +hostile expedition against the Old, and the great community that had +grown from their nestling mission of Dolores would shriek Godspeed to +these enemies of Old Spain. + +Nothing of this was in Ashley's mind as he watched the water lapping at +the beach-side of the transports. He kept saying over in his mind the +words of his bunk-mate, "It's Commencement Day! Don't you want your +degree?" + +In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Tom, looking at his coarse +blue uniform, smiled as he thought on his plans for Graduation Week. +Those feet, now clad in new government gunboats, were to have waltzed +but two nights before in shining patent-leather at the head of the +Senior Ball. Only yesterday he should have been galloping around the +bases in fantastic costume at the Senior-Faculty game. Monday afternoon, +when he should have been before the Chapel site with Her, listening to +the glories of the Class as told over its freshly-mortared plate, he was +tramping on the wrenching cobble-stones of Market Street with a bunch of +roses in his campaign hat and another in his gun barrel, and the city +going mad on the curbing. Lord High Ruler of the Senior dance and +counsellor in all the affairs of the Class, he was cooped up with a +thousand others on the troopship _City of Peking_, a sergeant at +eighteen a month and lucky to get so much, with a chain of superiors +ordering his comings and goings. + +All this because of the destruction of an American battleship in the +harbor of Havana. + +The notes of a bugle-call drifted across the water from the nearest +transport, and Tom's mind went back to the time when the unfamiliar +sound was first heard on the Stanford campus. It seemed like a very old +memory, although it was but three weeks past. He remembered how, when +the recruiting sergeant came down from the city, the after-dinner crowd +used to sit on the Hall steps watching him drill the men in the +moonlight. After drill, they would loaf in his Hall room, talking it +over, and when the civilians had drifted off to bed or to the inglorious +studies of a routine now ended for Tom, he would sit with "Nosey" Marion +and blow smoke. Neither spoke much, only a word now and then, but they +were thinking of the same thing. + +The days passed; the college used to drop out between recitations to +watch them drilling on the football field; the uniforms arrived, and +then the orders. There was a baseball rally that night, but when the +enlisted men came into the Hall and word was passed that they were going +on the morrow, the occasion was all theirs. Marion, who had been twice +on the debating team, stood up, looking slimmer than ever in his plain +blue, and spoke for them. He said only simple things; it was not like +his speech of a year before, when his impassioned arguments turned +defeat into victory at the Inter-Collegiate; but the crowd listened with +their eyes on the floor and applauded with their hands only when he had +done, because they couldn't trust their voices. They sang the terrible +"Battle Hymn of the Republic" after that; Langdon led it. "Peg" could +hardly carry a tune with that awful voice of his, but he sang the verses +so that the chills ran down your back and you had to join in the chorus, +"Our God is marching on." + +Next day they themselves were marching on, forty of them, with hardly a +thought of what they were leaving behind, their minds fixed on the +distant Isles of Philip. Tom had never expected to leave the campus in +that spirit. He loved it all, from the quiet slopes by Frenchman's Lake +to that lofty redwood treetop, first rampart of the smiling city to the +eager Freshman, last long-watched glimpse of the land of his memories to +the reluctant Senior. + +He had always felt that it would be a tug to say good-bye, yet he, too, +his mind over-seas, had gone away to town with hardly a thought. He had +time to reflect in that dreary fortnight at the Presidio when the +unseasonable rains drenched his tent, and the wretched routine of beans +and coffee hurt the romance of enlistment. + +The life had its compensating features. Every city girl he had ever met +in College or town society came out to camp and asked for him at K +Street--K Street with its saucy cardinal flag waving above the first +tent to the left. Most of them brought candy; a vary few, with +super-feminine understanding, made it beer; one, she was a genius, sent +over on a drizzling evening a piping-hot steak. Then, too, he had three +white angles on his sleeve and "Sergeant Ashley" sounded well. Cap Smith +was not even a corporal; the emphasis with which Cap mentioned the fact +showed anything but college spirit. + +These things made it easier not to think about the campus and what the +rest of the fellows were doing, but the old life came drifting in after +all. Sometimes, after the long, hard morning drill on the green slope +beyond the car-track, between drill and the welcome mess-call, Marion +would come into the Sergeant's tent and they would sit apart to talk +about the Faculty game or the Senior ball and the dances they had +expected to put on their cards. Each Saturday some of the boys came up +and brought the campus news. One time, all enlisted Stanford tumbled +out of their tents, every last one of them, to welcome a big, +slow-moving, slow-speaking man, who plays first-base at the Commencement +Game. A corporal who had never been to college and who had a newspaper +idea of students, asked if that was the football captain whom they were +crowding around and almost trying to hug, and Marion answered no; that +he was a bigger man than even the head coach. The boys held their +visitor until the officer of the day ordered civilians out of camp, and, +when the unfeeling guard drove him out, they gave the yell in good old +style. The colonel sent his orderly to find what was the matter, for it +was a high offence against martial law, and when the messenger reported +that it was those Stanford kids in K, yelling for their President, his +superior said that he guessed it was all right; this was the first +California regiment, and the old man was a part of the state. This was +before the final dispatches came, before the men learned that they were +going on the first expedition. + +Monday morning and marching orders. On this, the morning of Wednesday, +as he looked across the water and watched the city growing brighter, he +thrilled again with the remembrance of that feeling, that purely +physical tingling of the nerves, which came over him at the barracks +when he lifted his gun to start. The load on his back was snug and +light as he stood there in marching rig; how much heavier and harder it +was to grow before he should stand on American soil again, he could not +know. Then, the shuffling of many feet and the flutter of a flag outside +the stone gates, so strangely like the gates which stand at the entrance +of the Land of his Memories--and his Commencement week had begun. + +Class Day, from that time, on, lay in his memory a mass of unassimilated +matter to be thought out in the long weeks of idleness on the _Peking's_ +blistering deck. The crowd, huge, wild, packed from building to curb, +the merry, merry flags waving them on, the little kaleidoscopic flashes +of expressions which he caught, when he stopped to look at them, on the +grim faces to right and left,--all these impressions and many more were +jumbled in his brain. He remembered the excitement and sympathy mingled +in the countenances of the people. One or two little things were caught +along with the larger recollections--a woman's face that looked like +Hers and almost made him forget for the moment that She was then +doubtless listening to the Class history; a baby holding a flag in its +little hand, and staring with awed, uncomprehending eyes at the +sober-faced soldiers tramping on and on; a man mounted on a truck crying +above the cheering, "Give 'em hell for us!" A remembrance that stood +out above the others was that of someone calling a good-bye to the +Major, of the choke in the officer's voice as he answered. He was an +older man, and his expression of feeling nearly upset Tom. He trudged +on, file-closer for the front rank and six-feet-one of target, and +wondered if he had been a fool after all. It was well enough for those +people yelling acclaim from street and housetop; but they were going +back home, or down to the University, and he--to the troopship, and the +high seas, and after that no telling. The strap of his knapsack hurt +him. They said that Manila was a furnace. He wished that the women would +stop loading them with flowers; he wished that Pellams and the other +fellows wouldn't keep running out to march beside him; didn't they know +how hard he was trying to hold it back? And what did this going amount +to, anyway? If he had staid out, there would have been only one gap in +the company. Then, in a rest, Pellams got to his side with a bottle of +ice-cold Pilsener and Tom pointed its base to the sky and gained +courage. + +There was a falling apart to his right, and he felt rather than saw that +his mother had slipped through the crowd and taken his hand in her slim, +white one, was marching beside him over the cruel cobble-stones; +Pellams, too, closed up on the other side, for the officers were not +trying to keep the alignment as they drew near the end. These three went +on together, she trying to be brave now that the last had come, Pellams +clumping along over the rough pavement and joking in ecstatic disregard +of the discomfort of his fat body. It was over at last, the mounted +police were pushing back the crowd; it was to be all alone now. The +Stanford men gave their yell together, the volunteer held his mother +close for a moment. Then,--"Company, attention!"--the dock faded into +mist, so that he stumbled on the gangway. + +Not until that night, when a group of them paced along the wharf, had +anyone spoken of Class Day. Cap Smith had started it. + +"They are going to the Ball now," said he. + +"I wonder if Lyman came out ahead on the Show," said Marion, his eye on +the dollar, even at that solemn moment. + +"I wonder if the programs got down in time," said Tom, and then he +laughed to think of himself, the chairman of the Ball committee, +plodding along the splintered dock in a dusty uniform and buff leggings +and with the rudiments of a scraggly beard on his face. It was a queer +ending. + +Down there, the others were floating round, now, to high-priced music +from town. In a little note which Pellams had brought him from Her that +morning, she had said that she was to wear a small silk flag instead of +flowers this time. He would have liked to peep in, as he used to from +the gym roof when he was a Freshie, to see if she had really done it. + +During these wharf-edge musings, taps had blown, bringing the men on +board again. On the way up the plank, he remembered, they passed one of +the fellows with his face in his hands, and Tom had to put his arm +around the boy and lead him, so that he might be in quarters in time. +Neither of them could know that this was to be the one who did not +return. + +He had his first sight of the hold, after that, and the truth knocked +out some of the poetry. Ashley, and K Company in general, were quartered +just over the screw; but a man gets used to anything, even to bullets +that sing past your ears and clip off little bamboo leaves about two +feet from your hair. There were twelve hundred men below decks; when +most of the landsmen should be seasick--ugh! + +The second night, Tuesday, he had sat with Cap among the coiled ropes on +deck. Beyond the shipping, the city of hills twinkled at them, striped +with long, sloping lines of dotted light; out of the blackness above, +the crown of the Spreckels building made a circlet like a halo over St. +Francis and his city; across the bay slid the mysterious, luminous +honeycombs of the silent ferry-boats. Far aft, the band was trying to +cheer things up with a Sousa march. That very tune was being played, +probably, down there where the Quadrangle, softly glowing with the faint +edging of lanterns, shimmered in the fairy-land mystery of long +palm-studded vistas, a-flutter with white dresses. + +"They are saying good-bye to each other, now," said Tom, by way of a +feeler. + +"Humph!" said Cap. He was flat on his back, looking up at the stars. "It +doesn't mean anything. When you're going to pull out across the Pacific +for God knows what, then it's different." + +"I didn't expect to spend this evening lying on a ship's deck," murmured +Tom. He was thinking of what the Promenade Concert usually means to +people who have been taught something by co-education. That good-bye, +said in the Quadrangle when the music and the thoughtless people have +gone and the lanterns blaze up and drop, one after another, and lie +smoldering on the moonlit asphalt; those last words with people from +whom you have concealed yourself these four years and to whom you can +now afford to lay open your heart, as can the happy dead, because your +ways after to-night may lie apart,--Tom knew that this good-bye does +mean something, in spite of the superior announcement of Sophomore +Smith. Only it meant more to a fellow lying thinking about it among the +ropes of a transport's deck, with the Spaniards in prospect. + +Cap's cigarette shone like a glowworm in the shadow of the stack. + +"Our good-bye supper will be sloppy weather, all right;" said he. "Six +going out." + +"No," answered Tom, "it won't be a drunk to-night, Cap. You haven't been +in long enough. I'll bet they don't get through the first case; I'll bet +it's a cry. You didn't see '95 go out." + +"Well, perhaps," assented the Sophomore. "The fellows are pretty well +worked up." + +Tom went back to his Freshman days. + +"I remember our '95 feed in the Hall. Stanton cried that night, and +Gray. I never saw them do it before." Then, more slowly, "It must be +tough on a girl." + +After which he was not talkative. + +There was little enough, this last morning, to suggest Commencement, as +he leaned on the damp rail of the ship and dreamed over the last few +days. A voice at his elbow said: + +"Captain wants you, Sergeant." + +Tom started out of his reverie, and the military tilt came into his +back. He was not a student bidding the College farewell; he was a +sergeant at eighteen a month and lucky to get so much. + +The city had awakened when he came to the rail again. There was a tense +feeling abroad, a gathering excitement that grew through the morning. +All manner of water-craft fussed and fumed and dodged around the +transports,--tugs, rowboats, launches and clumsy river steamers strung +with flags and black with civilians. One tug that hung close by shone +with more color than the others by reason of the women crowding it; Tom +could discern the face of his mother looking, looking with yearning eyes +that would have called him back. He drew a quick breath of surprise and +his hands tightened on the black rigging. There on the tug, standing +beside his mother instead of among those who were saying good-bye to the +Campus, he saw the Other One. + + * * * * * + +Soon after three, the screw throbbed, moved, the craft wheeled into +lines flanking the huge vessel; the noises of the city awoke: + + "For the large birds of prey + They'll carry you away, + And you'll never see your soldiers any more." + +The grey town lay back among her hills, shrieking with every manner of +mechanical voice her farewell to the troops. Above this uproar rose and +fell the weird sobbing of a siren and a cannon from the top of a +sky-scraper boomed in at solemn intervals. On the roofs were knots of +people flashing white signals of Godspeed; when the wind was right, one +could catch, very faintly, the sound of their cheering. + +The flotilla drew around the curving water-front and toward the Gate. To +the left, the remains of the camp dotted the plain below the Presidio +hills; every last man of them was on the bulkhead in front of the fort, +waving his brown hat and cheering the lucky devils who went first. The +great hill guns bellowed good-bye as the transports slipped through the +gleaming strait. Gradually the convoy wheeled 'round again, the bigger +vessels keeping up until outside the Heads. Then the first expedition +went on alone. + +Tom Ashley, Senior and 'Varsity fullback, with his eyes wet in spite of +himself, set his face to the west. The round sun hung red above the +horizon; a few seconds earlier, it had looked over the Palo Alto hills +at the deserted University campus. Beyond the ship, a path of gold lay +out toward Manila and its future. Marion, leaning beside him, looked +back at the fading line of surf below the Cliff House. + +"Well, Tom," he said, a bit huskily, "Commencement Day's over." + +"Yes," answered the Sergeant, without turning, "we're up against it, all +right!" + +FOOTNOTES: + + [Footnote A: On May 25, 1898, Commencement Day at the + University, the First California Volunteers sailed for the + Philippine Islands. With Company K of that regiment went + thirty-five Stanford students, a part of the hundred who + volunteered, in various regiments, for the Spanish War.] + + + * * * * * + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: + +Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvious +typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes and the like) have +been fixed. Corrections in the text are noted below, with corrections +inside the brackets: + +Table of Contents: typos fixed + + The Substituted Full-back[Fullback] + + A Song-cycle[Song Cycle] and a Puncture + +page 21: typo fixed + + "Ill[I'll] be hanged if I will!" shouted the + patient, preparing to rise. + +page 106: typo fixed + + special runs up on the University track and stops + betwen[between] the Library and Encina, the flaming bunting + +page 141: typo fixed + + Your theory might work all right at a city college or even at + Berkeley, but on this campus, nit[not] so!" + +page 270: typo fixed + + talking it over, and when the civilians had drifted off to + ed[bed] or to the inglorious studies of a routine now ended for + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stanford Stories, by +Charles K. Field and Will H. 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