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diff --git a/43587-0.txt b/43587-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7f22e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/43587-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7089 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43587 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal + signs=. + + + + + Princeton Stories + + By + Jesse Lynch Williams + + _FOURTH EDITION_ + + Charles Scribner's Sons + New York 1895 + + + + + _Copyright, 1895, by + Charles Scribner's Sons_ + + TROW DIRECTORY + PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY + NEW YORK + + + + +To '92 + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + THE WINNING OF THE CANE, 1 + + THE MADNESS OF POLER STACY, 37 + + THE HAZING OF VALLIANT, 67 + + HERO WORSHIP, 89 + + THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LAWRENCE, 105 + + FIXING THAT FRESHMAN, 139 + + THE SCRUB QUARTER-BACK, 177 + + WHEN GIRLS COME TO PRINCETON, 193 + + THE LITTLE TUTOR, 209 + + COLLEGE MEN, 241 + + THE MAN THAT LED THE CLASS, 277 + + +_Acknowledgements are due Messrs. Harper & Brothers for permission +to republish "The Scrub Quarter-Back" and "When Girls Come to +Princeton."_ + + + + +THE WINNING OF THE CANE + + +The modern Cane Spree is held in broad daylight on University Field. +It is a vastly different affair from the Spree we used to watch with +chattering teeth at midnight, kneeling on the wet grass in front of +Witherspoon, with a full moon watching over West College and Mat. +Goldie and two assistants waiting by the lamp-post to join in the +fierce rush which followed each bout. + +Nowadays it is one of the regular events of the Annual Fall Handicap +Games, and is advertised in large special feature letters on the +posters hanging in the shop windows and on the bulletin elm. It is a +perfectly proper and legitimate proceeding, and is watched like any +other field event from the bleachers and Grand Stand, with girls there +to catch their breath and say "Oh!" The class that wins is glad. They +cheer awhile and then watch the final heat of the 2.20. + +In our day you could seldom see much of anything, and there was +nothing proper about it. But it was one of the things a fellow lived +for, like Thanksgiving games and Spring Term. To win a cane for one's +class was an honor of a lifetime, like playing on the 'Varsity, or +winning the Lynde debate. Men are still pointed out when back at +Commencement as the light or middle weight spreers of their class, and +a member of the faculty is famous for having "described a parabola +with his opponent." This trick and a book called "Basal Concepts in +Philosophy" bear his name, though it is maintained by some that he is +more proud of the book. + +This is to be a story of "How we used to do when we were in college." +It would not do to revive the ancient cane spree. Things have changed +since then. We are a university now. We mustn't behave like a college +any longer. Besides, it was bad for the football men and training +hours. But all the same, those old times were fun while they lasted. +Weren't they? + + * * * * * + +High up over Clio Hall hung a moon, which a night or two before had +been full. Over there, on the balconies of Witherspoon, blue and red +and green lights were flaring. On the grass-plot in front was a huge +black circle. This was made up of the College of New Jersey. + +Their hats were off, and the red and the green and the blue mingled +with the moonlight and glared upon the bare heads and the white of +the faces with an effect as ghastly as it sounds. + +The elms over toward Reunion and West cast long ugly-looking shadows. +Beyond these everything seemed far away and dark and silent. Yet only +a few hours before this same spot had served the innocent purpose of +batting up flies and kicking footballs for points, with fellows +shouting in loud, careless voices, "Aw! Come off! That was over the +line!" + +The circle was not yet perfectly formed. The crowd shivered and +fidgeted, and borrowed lights of one another. Those behind called +"Down in front!" And everyone wished it would begin. Some fellows kept +edging in and were shoved back again by those appointed for that +purpose. A few were moving about inside the circle displaying rolls of +bills with which they made bets, and a great impression on +under-classmen of a certain sort. The night was to be clear and +frosty, and the strain on the nerves tremendous. So all those who +believed in artificial warmth had it in their pockets, and some who +did not. + +For a month it had been, next to football, the most discussed topic at +dinner-tables. Almost as soon as the rush was over--the annual cannon +rush of the second night of the term without which the freshmen would +not have considered themselves a class, while the underclassmen were +still occupied in hazing and being hazed, and putting up and pulling +down each other's proclamations throughout the state, and painting and +repainting water-towers, and losing sleep in other good causes; in +short, early in the term the candidates for the spreeing positions +went into training, and they had been spreeing vigorously every night +since--the freshmen back of the chapel and the sophs on the South +Campus, about where Brown Hall now stands. + +All sorts of rumors and counter-rumors had floated about the campus. +The sophomores were frightened about a hinted-at dark horse of the +freshmen, only they did not show it; and the freshmen were scared to +death at the confident air of the well-known champion of the +sophomores, and tried not to show it. And each was awed at the +mysterious air of the other, and both had betted more than they had +any business to on the result, and were now lined up in front of +Witherspoon. All were as excited as they cared to be, and they had +been cheering for themselves since nine o'clock. The cheers echoed in +the frosty air from dark West and bright Witherspoon, and from far +away first Church. + +The sophomores were closely massed in the segment of the circle on the +higher ground toward Reunion. Their cheering sounded blatant, and to +the freshmen sickeningly confident. And the freshmen--they were +opposite, with their sweet scared faces still more closely huddled +together. Each freshman had his little cap safely tucked away in his +innermost pocket, and none of them was saying a word, except when he +opened his mouth to cheer with all his heart for his dear class. It +was all new to them. They only waited and waited with the same aching +suspense that you had on Thanksgiving-day, when you saw the referee +toss the coin and one team take the ball while the other crouched, and +then waited and waited, and you felt certain that something awful was +the matter, but you did not know what. + +Presently, though no official sign was given, every one felt that the +important moment was at hand. The cheering sounded as if +reinforcements had arrived. A compact circle was now formed by +composite consent. Those in the front row sat down on the grass and +caught cold. The next row kneeled. Those behind leaned on them, and so +on back to those who stood on tip-toe and craned their necks for an +occasional glimpse. Outside the circle, over by the Witherspoon +lamp-post, leaned Proctor Matthew Goldie, Esquire, in a careless +attitude. + +Everyone's heart jumped up a little when a voice cried, "Here they +come!" as though it were he who had to spree. + +Led by their coachers, the two light weights scudded out mysteriously +from different wings of Witherspoon with overcoats wrapped about them. +As they crossed the light, the crowd, which had hushed for a moment, +broke out in wild prolonged cheering; the two upper classes, who were +not immediately interested, joined in. So did the sporting gentlemen +of the town, and even the little muckers cheered shrilly for their +favorite class. + +A path was forced through the crowd, and the two nimble light weights +began peeling their sweaters. The sophomore was dressed in black, the +freshman in pure white. They resined their hands. Everyone felt +things. + +The referee held out the stout piece of hickory called cane by +courtesy. He put the freshman's hands outside. The cheering ceased. +Mat. Goldie stretched and changed his position. + +There was a hurting stillness as they stood there with their feet +braced, frozen in the ghastly glare, the one in white and the one in +black, while the referee said, in earnest tones, "Are you ready, +freshman?" + +You could see his chest filling up from the bottom as he answered, +"Um." + +"Are you ready, sophomore?" + +"Yes." + +"Spree!" + +One of them dropped as if shot, the other followed him down, both +turned over, each began struggling and straining; the coachers began +coaching, the referee dropped down on his knees to see fair play, and +then someone in the rear said, "Down in front!" in healthy, human +tones, and you came to yourself and remembered that this was only a +struggle for class honor, after all, and that whichever way it came +out it was not going to kill you. Then you breathed. + +Meanwhile, locked up in a room in East Middle Witherspoon, wrapped in +sweaters and blankets, were five other freshmen, and to them the +strain was worst of all. These were the other freshmen spreers, the +light weight, the middle weight, and the three substitutes. They could +only wait and listen and try to guess from the sound of the cheers +which side had the advantage. It was too far off to distinguish +anything but a ring with something undefined inside. The juniors said +they must not go out on the balcony or get excited. This was easy to +say. + +While the crowd was in the room and fellows were clattering up and +down the stairs and everyone was talking and the crowd outside was +making a noise, it was not so bad. But now it was so silent they could +almost hear the two contestants straining and wrenching below. Now and +then the shrill, earnest voice of a coacher would cut through the +silence. "Now! Now!" with an echo from the Presbyterian Church. "Right +over with him. Remember what I told you." Once the middle weight arose +from the divan; then he sat down again. A little later one of the subs +whistled two bars of a tune and stopped as if he had forgotten +something. Once in a while someone glanced at one of the others and +then looked away again. They did not say much. + +The only one who did not seem to mind it was Hill, the substitute +heavy weight, and that was only because he had not sense enough. He +was a big, thick-headed, sleepy-looking farmer, and the only reason he +was up here with these nimble athletes was that he was such a +tremendous buck and so stupid that when once he put his big hands on +the stick he would not let go. But he would be used only in case the +regular heavy weight died or had a fit or something before time was +called, and that was improbable. + +But Hill was enjoying everything. He thought the colored lights were +"pretty," and he considered it good fun, loafing in this large, +luxurious room. He glanced approvingly at the water-colors and +examined the photographs and knocked down a few of them, and looked +over the mugs and the foils and the antlers and the usual dust +collectors of a well-furnished room. Then, because he approved of what +he saw, he grinned. + +He had grinned at the staring crowd when, half an hour before, it had +stood to one side for him and the other spreers to pass by on the way +back from weighing at the gymnasium. He thought lots of things were +funny. He grinned broadly when, before the spree began, an excitable +junior approached him in the corner where he was sitting alone and +said, in jerky, tremulous tones, "Say, which do you think will win?" +This was before the crowd was put out. That was the funniest thing of +all--the way Cunningham put the crowd out. "Dash it! I wish to dash +you fellows would dash quickly get to dash out of here. This is my +room and, dash it all, I loaned it to the dash freshmen spreers and +not to the whole dash college, dash it!" That was so funny that Hill +let loose his huge laugh and filled up the room with it. This caused +the other freshmen to look at one another and smile pityingly. But +Hill did not notice it. + +The other freshmen had little in common with Hill. It was not so much +because he was uncouth as that he had no class spirit. He had entered +college two days late, and those two days are like two years in some +respects. He had missed the class meeting, where freshmen get a first +sight of one another which lasts always, and he had missed the class +rush about the cannon, where freshmen are so closely pressed together +that they never after get quite apart. But the farmer should have +wakened up by this time. Lack of class spirit is never pardonable. +This is the way Hill happened to be here this evening. + +One day early in the term, as he was pushing his big chest across the +campus to recitation, he heard someone call: "Hold up, there, you big +freshman!" So he smiled and took off his ugly derby hat. + +"No, I'm not a sophomore; I'm a junior," said the stranger, who then +explained that he wanted to talk to him. "You come to my room at one +o'clock, and don't forget about it," said the junior. "Run along, now; +the bell is stopping." + +Hill came, and found several other freshmen there. "Take hold of this +stick," said the junior. + +He put his big fists about it and found himself flying across the +room. He landed against the door and beside him lay a table, which +never arose. + +"Now, that is cane-spreeing," said the junior casually, as one would +say, "Down there is the new Art building," "and I want all you fellows +to meet me at eight o'clock back of chapel." + +That night they gave Hill a cane and said, "Take hold of this and +don't let go." He held it for an hour against every one except the +junior that was sophomore heavy weight the previous year. But he had +never yet been quick enough to take it away from anyone, even the +light weights. And that was the reason he was a substitute waiting in +Montie Cunningham's room wrapped in two sweaters and a blanket. His +eyes were closed and he was thinking about what a bully time his +younger brother Ike must be having among the chestnuts this month. + +The big leather chair was soft and he might have fallen asleep had not +at that moment a tremendous yell burst into existence down below--a +loud, shrill, fiendish yell which lasted nearly a minute before it +was shaken down to an organized cheer. Hill stretched. + +The others were out on the balcony. "Tell us which has it! For +heaven's sake, tell us!" they cried to every one below; and no one +below answered. So all they could do was to bite their lips and wait +until the yelling became cheering, and then they knew from the +exultant tones of the sophomores what they did not want to know. + +Just then they caught a glimpse of the victor waving the cane in his +hand as he was borne high on the shoulders of his class-mates to West +Witherspoon. + +Then they had a confused view of the rush. The upper classes fell to +one side and the other two fell upon one another. This was the +fiercest sort of rushing known to the proctors. The two sides were +not, as in the cannon rush, evenly lined up four abreast. Not a bit of +it. There were two thickly massed bodies of men, one running up a +grade, the other charging down, and the roll of their footsteps was as +the sound of much cattle, running. For a moment each tried to keep in +solid form. But only long enough for some one to be knocked down and +run over by the rest. After the first crash it was mixed fighting. In +the moonlight one could not invariably distinguish friend from foe. +So each man doubled up both fists and let drive at everyone he saw. It +was glorious. + +As soon as they became hopelessly mixed and each class had cheered +itself hoarse and the proctors had carried off an armful of sophomores +to appear before the Discipline Committee the next day, and to be +cheered off at the depot by lamenting classmates later on, everyone +turned up his coat-collar and helped form the ring again. + +Those on the balcony, who had been panting and chafing like tied +deer-hounds, now heard the feet of them bearing bad tidings and the +defeated freshman up the entry stairs. The door was kicked open and +three winded juniors laid their burden gently on the bed, which had +been dragged in from the other room for this purpose. With them many +others pushed in who did not belong there, and the room was full of +people once more. Many voices were explaining how it all happened. + +Ramsay, the little freshman, was completely done. He had fainted as +they brought him upstairs. His face was set and white, and he lay +there with his tough little resiny hands hanging limp at his side +while his classmates poured brandy down his throat and told each other +what to do. Through the window came a sharp freshman cheer with "Runt +Ramsay" on the end. + +Meanwhile the middle weight had stripped to the waist. He was bending +forward with his forearms upon the mantel-piece and his forehead +resting on them, as one bows during prayers in chapel. Two men were +vigorously rubbing his long strong back with whiskey. The coach was +standing beside him, giving final admonitions in a quick, tense +manner. "Now, if he does this, you do this. See? He can't get you on +that shoulder-throw of his. And if he tries this trick you know how to +meet it. Why, you can do him dead easy. I won from him last year, and +you can take it away from me," and so on. As they started from the +room, he added, "Now remember your whole class is watching you +and----" But the door closed and they hurried down the stairs, and in +a moment the wild cheering announced their entrance in the ring. Hill +was sorry, because he thought it right funny. + +He went out on the balcony and looked down on the crowd. The noise and +the moonlight and the specks of cigarlight had a grotesque effect. He +had never seen anything like it before. + +"Oh, cork up that laugh, Farmer Hill," said Bushforth, the heavy +weight, who was also centre of the freshman team and had a right to +patronize. "It's bad enough as it is, without that bark of yours." + +Hill stopped laughing. He grinned instead. His feelings were not hurt. +He had none. + +Again the cheering was hushed. It was so still that those on the +balcony might have heard the hard breathing or the whimpering of the +freshman on the bed. The farmer heard it and went inside. + +The liquor and exercise had made Ramsay warm. He had thrown off the +blankets and lay half naked with his hands clasped across his eyes. +Drops of sweat were running off his palpitating chest. Hill looked at +his prettily developed arms and at the slender, well-turned wrist and +at the tough little hands, which, Hill decided, had never done much +farm work. Then because he liked what he saw, he laughed. + +The light weight uncovered one eye and then covered it again. + +"There, there," said the farmer, patting the black curly hair, which +looked "pretty" against the white pillow. "I wouldn't take on so, +little one, we'll get some of those canes yet." + +Brandy and defeat had made Ramsay cross. He said: "Oh, go to the +devil, won't you please?" + +"All right," replied the big fellow. "Only you'll catch cold that way. +Let me fix them." He carefully tucked the blankets around his +classmate, who said, "That's so. Much obliged." Hill smiled at his +uncomfortable tone. + +When, after seven hard-fought rounds, Murray, the middle weight, was +brought up breathless and caneless, there was great discouragement in +the freshman camp. The middle weight was the one above all others upon +whom they had relied to defend the honor of the class. Murray, the +long-winded, himself had felt confident of winning; and probably he +would have by sheer endurance had not the sophomore taken him unawares +by a very easy finger trick as they lay together on the ground +resting. + +But it was all over now, and the middle weight was stretched out on +the bed beside Ramsay. He had not, however, fainted, and he was +sullenly chewing a piece of gum he had had in his mouth during the +struggle. He looked unconcerned. He made no excuses to those who told +what a nervy fight he had made. + +All the week previous the betting on the heavy weight had been two to +one on the sophomore. But now three seniors from the enemy's camp +swaggered into the room shouting, "Here's four to one on Parker. Who +wants it? Why don't you back your man?" They smiled at the junior +coachers. "Drake don't want any of it," said another, in a dry tone; +"he knows Parker too well." + +Drake was the man who met Parker, unsuccessfully, the year before. +"Wait a moment," he said. His sporting blood was stirred. "I'll take +all you have, at four to one. Charlie, will you hold it, please?" + +All of this must have been soothing to the nerves of the freshman +heavy weight who was taking off his clothes for a final rub and trying +not to hear the class cheers outside. + +"Now then," said Montie Cunningham, slamming the door as the seniors +hurried down the stairs, "this thing's got to stop right _here_." He +brought a baseball bat down on the table so hard that every one +stopped talking and looked up. "You've simply got to win that cane. If +those dash sophomores win all three they'll crow over you for the rest +of their course. They are arrogant enough already, dash them. And you +fellows will be disgraced forever, and your class will be handed down +in history as no good. People will refer to you as a class who lost +all three canes. This is a crisis in your history. You made a good +showing in the rush, but you were badly defeated in the baseball +series. This is the third test. This decides it. Win this cane and you +are all right. One out of three is a defeat, but not a disgrace, +because you are only freshmen. But _none_ out of three _is_. _You've +got to win this cane!_" + +No one uttered a sound for a moment. Farmer Hill did not laugh. + +"Come here, Bushforth," said Drake, in a low, solemn voice; "I'll rub +you myself." + +The heavy weight was beautifully built and exceedingly quick for his +size. He came to college with a good prep-school record of centre +rush. But there was something disappointing about him, and you felt it +every time you saw him move. You know the kind. One of those fellows +who are splendid to look at in a football suit, and who will always +put up a fair game on the scrub, but who are never going to make the +'Varsity. + +Just now he was biting his lip and looking down at his own good legs. +When he raised his glance he found Hill standing with arms akimbo, +gazing at him with an earnest expression. + +Bushforth smiled good-humoredly to show how cool he was. + +"Think you can take that cane?" Hill asked with a grin. + +"I really don't know, Hill," answered the beautifully built man. + +"Do you think you can take it?" repeated the other. + +"Well, Hill, Parker will have to work for it," said the heavy weight, +indulgently. "Why? Would you like to take my place? I'd be glad to +resign in your favor." + +"All right," said Hill, simply. He began pulling up his sweater. + +"Go on and sit down and stop your nonsense." It was hard to stand +horse-play at such a moment, when your whole class was cheering for +you outside. + +"I ain't fooling," said the big farmer, with his arms still in the +sweater, his head and body out. + +"Hurry, Bush," said one of the juniors at the window. "The sophs have +yelled across at me that they are ready." + +"All right," said Bushforth, lacing his Jersey as he started for the +door. He forgot to answer the other freshman. + +"Wait a minute," said the big, cheerful voice of the farmer, "I think +I'll go down this time." + +"Oh, cork up, you big cow!" said Drake. + +Hill corked up and then pushed Bushforth out of the way and started +for the door. + +"Will you please go back where you belong and sit down?" said Drake, +impressively. + +It failed to impress Hill. "Well, you see, it's this way," he began +pleasantly, "he can't take that cane, I'm afraid. I can, though. I've +got my blood up." He began contracting his biceps playfully. "Isn't it +time to----" + +"Freshman," interrupted Drake, with irony, "we have chosen the heavy +weight representative of your class, and we are of the opinion that we +know about as much of this business as you do. I never heard of such +foolishness. Go sit down, and shut your big face. Your services will +not be required unless Billy is laid off before he reaches the foot of +the entry stairs. Come on, Billy." + +"Then," Hill answered, smilingly, "I'll have to lay him off." He +suddenly grabbed his big classmate by the shoulders, jerked him back +into his arms, grasped him like a bag of flour, and hoisted him on his +shoulders as if he had been one. "Now you lie down there, and be a +good boy." He dropped Bushforth, but not roughly, in the corner +behind the door, and then looked beamingly about at the others as +though he had performed quite a feat. And so he had. Bushforth weighed +one hundred and eighty-nine, stripped. + +Outside the crowd was yelling concertedly in quick, jerky notes, +"Shake it up! Shake it up! Shake it up!" and the sophomores were +singing "Where, oh, where are the verdant freshmen?" etc., "Lost now +in the green, green soup." But upstairs everyone was so tense and so +excited that nothing was heard but the angry words of the coachers +addressed to Hill, who was grinning. + +Bushforth arose from the floor slowly. + +"Shake it up, Billy," cried Drake, exasperated; "do you want to lose +your cane by default?" + +"Say," replied Bushforth, soberly, "do you suppose there's anything +the matter with this hand?--Ugh! Great Scott! don't squeeze it." + +Hill had not thrown him violently, but Bushforth, in throwing out his +arms to stop himself, had struck his left hand against the wooden +door-guard a few inches above the floor behind the door, and all his +weight was upon it. The junior coach shut his eyes, dropped into +Hill's big chair, and let his arms fall down to his sides. Everyone +looked at him. "That settles it," he gasped. "Billy's hand is +sprained. Let's give up the cane by default and----" + +"Is it sprained?" interrupted Hill, removing his smile suddenly. "I'm +sorry I hurt his hand. I did not intend that--Mr. Bushforth, I beg +your pardon. I just wanted to show these fellows how strong I was. I +didn't think I had a fair trial at spreeing. And now, Drake, don't you +think we had better go down? They are clamoring down there. Are you +coming?" + +His tones were very deliberate and his manner so calm in contrast to +the boiling condition of the others, that everyone seemed stunned for +a moment. They only looked at one another. + +"Shake it up! Shake it up! Shake it up!" came from the crowd below, +and just then two representatives from the sophomores came running up +the stairs, shouting, "Say, if you fellows don't wish to lose this by +default come right now. Everyone's tired of waiting." + +"Don't get excited," Drake shouted back. "Bushforth met with an +accident and the sub is going to take his place. Come on, Hill." It +was the only thing to do. + +Hill saw the eyes of the two seniors brighten at the news, and heard +his own classmates in the room cursing him. He said to himself, "Now +then, I guess I've got to do something this evening," and followed +Drake down the stairs. + +"You're stronger than he is. He's all bluff. You'll do him dead +easily," the two coachers were saying as heartily as they could. Hill +did not reply. They crossed the light from the entry door. A strong +cheer went up for Bushforth. Hill laughed. The coachers shivered. + +Before they had pushed their way through the crowd to the ring, word +went around that at the last moment Bushforth was laid off, and that a +big sub named Hill had taken his place. Few had ever heard the name. +The freshmen groaned; Hill heard it. + +As they emerged into the ring, he heard a strange voice saying, "Why, +he's that great big awkward chap the sophs guy so much, don't you +remember?" Again Hill laughed. + +"That's all right," whispered one of the juniors as he helped him off +with his sweater. "You go in and win this cane, and your class will +give you anything you want. Keep cool now, and remember what you have +learned." + +The farmer's big deformity-like shoulders looked more huge than ever +in the thin, white jersey as he now straightened up in the moonlight. + +"'Ray! 'Ray! 'Ray! Tiger, Siss, Boom, Ah! Hill." It rang out sharply +on the frosty air. Then came a long cheer and then more short ones, +with "Hill" on the end of them. + +There is a peculiar thrill at the sound of one's own name shouted by a +hundred voices on the end of a cheer. Hill felt it. He liked the +feeling. "Now that means me," he said to himself, and he recalled what +Drake had said to the middle weight: "Now remember, your whole class +is watching you." It was in that moment that Hill caught class spirit. + +The heavy weight spree was usually the shortest and most exciting +contest of the evening. Everyone eagerly pressed forward on the wet +grass. + +The sophomores were barking and guying and quacking exultingly. The +freshmen were cheering hard. + +"Get ready, boys," said Jim, the athletic trainer, acting as referee. +He held out the stick. + +The sophomore ran out briskly. Hill spat on his hands and took his +time about it. They grasped the cane. "Down in front, _please_!" a +voice pleaded. The cheering had ceased as suddenly as you turn off the +gas. + +Hill was cool. He looked about at the theatre of faces on all sides. +Just over the sophomore's shoulder, down on the ground with moonlight +on his face, he spied an important-looking senior, with glasses, who +on the campus had always seemed oblivious to the existence of +freshmen. He was rocking back and forth and chewing a cold cigar to +bits. + +"Are you ready, Hill?" + +The freshman spread his legs apart and said, "Yep." + +"Ready, Parker?" + +"Yes." + +A ghastly silent second. "Spree!" + +As the referee spoke the word, Hill felt the sophomore drop. He knew +what was coming. Over his opponent's head he went sprawling on the +grass, as he expected. But just then, in some manner, quick as a +flash, Parker doubled and threw both legs in between Hill's body and +the cane, and began, with all his strength, to strain, and push, and +wrench. + +Hill had expected something, and thought he was guarding against it. +But this was a new trick--a variation on the old one--which the +sophomore had invented himself. + +Now, if it had been an ordinary man, with ordinary Christian +shoulders, the strain would have been too great, and the sophomore +would have won the cane in ten seconds, as he counted on doing. + +But you see Hill was somewhat deformed as to his shoulders. He grunted +and clung on, and the sophomore's coachers were yelling fiendishly: +"You've got him, Park! you've got him!" + +The next instant, while the sophomore was trying to better his +advantage, Hill quietly turned, slipped out of the perilous position, +and drew himself up close to the sophomore's body. He lay there +panting, while his coachers cried, joyfully: "Good one, Hill! good +one!" and his classmates left off feeling sick at their stomachs, and +began to cheer him by name. This he did not hear. + +He had been taken by surprise at the fall, but now he was entirely +alive to what he was about. Every nerve was at tension, each muscle +set at hair-trigger. There was just one thing in all the world to him +now, and that was the cane. And when, a moment later, Parker began a +quick series of furious jerks, back and forth and sidewise, Hill said, +half aloud: "No, you don't, old man," and smiled confidently to +himself as he felt how firm the cane was in his hand. + +The sophomore, on top, now tried working Hill's hands off with his +fingers. But the freshman had lived on a farm all his life. Then he +tried something with his legs. But Hill's big supports were as hard as +the columns of Whig Hall, though not as symmetrical. Then, waiting +awhile, he tried to surprise Hill with more quick, sharp wrenches. It +was unsuccessful. He waited, and tried it again. Then time was called. +The two class-cheers burst forth simultaneously. + +The contestants were dragged to their respective corners, wrapped with +blankets, and sponged with water. + +During the interval, a buzz of voices began suddenly, as in a racing +grand-stand after the winner has been announced. The college had +expected an easy thing for Parker, the champion, and when they heard +of Bushforth's absence, they were sure of it. Everyone was saying: +"Who is this Hill? Hasn't he shoulders! Wasn't that a narrow hole he +crawled out of?" + +The coachers were whispering, "You're doing well, Hill. Stick to him, +and you'll get him yet. You'll tire him out." + +Two or three freshmen came into the ring and shook Hill's hand, +saying, nervously, "Good boy, Hill, good one." He was already a +distinguished man, having held the cane for a round against Parker. +But Hill only grinned and had his own opinion. The honor of the class +depended upon him. He thought he was going to win the cane. + +When the referee called them up, one of the sophomore's coaches called +out, in an easy tone, "Remember, now," and Parker replied, in a cool +way, "Very well." The silence was worse than ever. People felt that +this would be the last round. + +The two spreers were the coolest on the campus. But they also felt +that this would settle it, and as they grasped the cane each looked +the other over and then gazed straight into his enemy's eye. Very +much, no doubt, as knights of old used to size each other up before +they fell to cutting each other to bits, of a quiet afternoon by the +sea-side. + +Hill did not like Parker, nor would he have fancied him even if the +sophomore had not been a brutal and unreasonable hazer. However, he +appreciated his athletic abilities, and even in the tense moment of +waiting for the referee's word, he could not help admiring the way his +opponent's neck fitted his body, and the clean cut of his limbs, which +Hill himself so lacked. + +The sophomore looked him back in the eyes, and said, sneeringly, "You +damned freshman!" which was entirely uncalled for. + +When the word was given both kept their feet for a few minutes. They +held their arms down stiff, keeping the cane close to their bodies in +order to prevent the other from jumping in between. Neither seemed +inclined to begin the attack, and they danced cautiously about the +circle with their faces close together. There was something impressive +in the sight of these two, pounding about in the moonlight. They were +so ponderous, and it all seemed to mean so much. Parker tried the +right hip throw. + +He was partially successful. They were both on the ground now, and the +timer snapped his stop watch. Time is not counted when the men are +erect. + +The sophomore was on top again. Again he tried his jerking +manoeuvres, and again Hill smiled to himself and thought, "I guess +not." + +He lay perfectly still on the wet grass, as if comfortable and quite +content to remain there. He heard a voice from the crowd say, "Spread +out, you coachers. Give us a show." He could feel the sophomore's +breath on his neck and the beating of the heart against his back. He +felt the cool wet grass on his cheek flattened against it, and he +became aware that his nose was bleeding, and then said to himself, +"Oh, yes; I must have bumped that on Parker's elbow when we came +down." + +Now, up to this point, the freshman had been on the defensive +entirely, and he had been so successful that one of the coachers began +giving the signals to begin a little offensive work. "No, no, Hammie," +cried Drake. "Let good enough alone." + +Hill had regained his wind by this time. "Please don't bother me," he +said, in a muffled tone. "I'm doing this thing. I'll get this cane in +a minute." This was loud enough for some of those in the crowd to +hear. Somehow it sounded horrible. + +And it seemed to enrage Parker. He began a furious onslaught, as if he +were tired of playing with a freshman so long and meant to end the +thing right there. + +He wrenched and jerked this way, he tugged and pulled that way, he +turned over and then back, he tried all the manoeuvres he knew, and +took desperate chances, which the freshman was too slow to take +advantage of. Twice the sophomore seemed to have the cane, and the +freshman still held on. It was a battle of giants, and those that were +there will never forget it. + +And while they struggled, now one on top and now the other, they +rolled over to the extreme lower part of the circle toward the path +leading to the railway station. That part of the audience fell back. +The ring broke. Some closed in around them. + +Then, while the referee was shouting, "Get back! Get back!" the +freshman was suddenly seen to rise on his knees yelling shrilly, like +a wild beast in pain. "You would bite me, would you, you----." He +sprang to his feet. The blood from his nose was smeared all over his +face. A furious wrench jerked Parker from the ground. With what was +extraordinary power Hill whirled him; part of the way the feet +dragged, though some like to tell that the whole of Parker was clean +in the air all the way round; he whirled him about, as you would whirl +a pillow with both arms; then, suddenly reversing all his big weight +and simultaneously twisting the hickory, he snapped the sophomore off +in the air and lifted the cane high and dry above his head. "The +freshman has it," shrieked a shrill voice. + +He felt himself grabbed, he heard many noises, he went up, up in the +air, and then he forgot. + + * * * * * + +The big leather chair was the first thing he saw, and he knew he was +in the Witherspoon room again. Then he heard many voices talking at +once. He remembered now that he had been hearing them for ages. They +echoed inside his head some place. + +"Are you all right now?" + +He raised his lids a little higher and there was Drake bending over +him as tenderly as a mother. + +"I think you ought to know, you great big awkward old farmer, that you +saved the day for us." Drake looked as delighted as if he had done it +himself. + +"I've seen a good many sprees," said another voice near his head, +which Hill had never heard before, "but that was the finest thing I +ever saw; and I'm blame glad you did him, though I _am_ a senior and +lost twenty-five bats on it." Hill moved his head and saw the +important-looking senior with glasses. + +The farmer now laughed his hideous laugh. That showed he was all +right. + +One of the sophomore coachers approached the bed, and after looking up +and down Hill's bulk a moment, said: "The trouble with you, you big +freshman, is that you don't know when you're beaten. My man had that +cane twice, but you wouldn't let go." + +"Well, that's Princeton spirit, isn't it?" remarked the 'Varsity +Captain, who had something to say to Hill later on. + +Ramsay, the light weight, came running up the entry three steps at a +time. He had been leading cheers for Hill out-doors and now he began +hugging him. "Oh, farmer, you're a dandy. Give me your hand." + +But when the farmer raised his hand he found the cane was still in it. +"Here, little one, you can have this. I've had my fun out of it." This +showed how green he was. + +"No," said Ramsay; "you're to keep that forever. What did you win it +for, anyway?" + +As a matter of fact winning the spree meant much more to the big +placid farmer than a hickory cane to hang with ribbons over his +mantelpiece, and more than a bit of fame in another kind of athletics, +too. Much more. As we all know now. + + + + +THE MADNESS OF POLER STACY + + +In freshman year they say, "Are you ready to feed your face?" instead +of "Are you going to dinner?" and at the eating clubs they call the +milk-pitcher the "cow," and shout "Butter me, please," when they wish +the butter handed to them. All their desires and opinions they express +in variously bold and vulgar metaphors, which are witty. This is +because there is no one to tell them they must not. The boy is a +college man now. He is free from the restraint of home or school or +both, and he doesn't know quite what to do with his liberty. + +Like a young town horse turned loose for the first time in the open +green of the country, he sometimes loses his head and frisks and +snorts and kicks up his heels to an unbecoming degree. This is a way +of saying that every once in a while some little boy (the strictly +reared kind, usually), in his eagerness to show his fellows how +reckless and devilish he is, goes so far that he never comes quite +back. Others dissipate merely to the extent of cutting chapel twice +in succession or pretending that they have not poled all night for an +examination. In still others it breaks out in a different form, and +they persuade themselves that they are naughty cynics or bold, bad +agnostics. But that will do for that. + +The point is this: Sooner or later, in some form or another, this +spirit is bound to get hold of every young man who is worthy of the +name, and, like measles or calf-love, it is better to have it sooner. +In the very young it is interesting. After that it is not. And the +older one is when it comes, the more he reminds the onlookers of the +frolicksome antics of some ancient, misguided cow, or of a kittenish +summer girl, aged twenty-eight. When seen in a poler it is pathetic. + + * * * * * + +At his first eating club in freshman year, H. Stacy felt himself +snubbed from the start; and when the crowd, which was not slow, became +well enough acquainted with one another and with the glorious freedom +of college life to pour syrup down their neighbors' backs and to hurl +fried eggs and coarse jokes about the table, little Stacy, although he +always said, "That was a pretty good shot," and wiped the potato from +his ear with a noisy laugh, saw that he was not in his own element, +which he should have seen a month before, and got out. + +He joined a club of a very different sort of freshmen, who were too +busy speculating upon their chances at the approaching Divisional +Examinations to invent names for tough beefsteak, or learn what was +going on in Trenton at the theatres and other places. + +This was his element. He drew in long, full breaths of freedom and +sunshine, and told himself that now he knew what was meant by the Joy +of College Life. + +Here he settled down to the methodical poler habits he was intended +for, and when the next catalogue was issued his mother and sister +pointed out to the minister's wife the name of "Horatio B. Stacy, New +Jersey," in the small group of names called "First Group," and said, +"We knew he would do it." In his sophomore year he did it again and +won a prize or two besides and became a minor light in the Cliosophic +Society, and by this time he held in that Hall an office, the name of +which was a secret, and could not be divulged even to his sister +Fannie. He studied for high marks and was called a "greasy poler." But +he got the high marks. + +You must not think he had no friends. He made some firm ones. About +these he could write home to his sister Fannie, telling what +magnificent characters some of them were. Often of a Saturday night, +if he had no essays to write or debates to prepare, he slipped off his +eye-shades and pattered across the campus to his friends' rooms and +knocked gently and said, "How do?" and conversed for an hour on the +difficulty of taking notes when your neighbor is borrowing your knife, +or about the elective courses for the next term. And down at the club +they had great horse calling each other "Blamed Neo-Platonists" and +"Doggoned Transcendentalists." Nor was it all shop. One of them +thought himself in love. It was Stacy that used to wink at the others +and bob his head and say, "I know some one who got a letter to-day." +They had great fun at the club. + +By reason of his freshman year's disgust he remained innocent, which +was right, and ignorant, which was wrong, of much that he might have +experienced, and he bade fair to graduate a typical poler with a bad +breath and an eye on Commencement stage and special honors. Sometimes, +to be sure, dark questions arose in his mind, strange, shameful +yearnings that caused him to read whole pages without taking in a word +of it. But then, all polers have wild moments when they feel that they +would rather play on the team than win the Stinnecke Scholarship, so +Stacy should not have been distressed. + +But sometimes it seemed to him that even those classmates whom he knew +only slightly and did not understand at all, those fellows who seemed +to do nothing but loaf about the campus all day and sing and shout at +night, while he was running his hands through his hair and his eyes +through Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason," they, it seemed to him, were +getting a poetry out of college life that he was missing. "But never +mind," he would say to himself. "They will regret it some day. They +will wish they had done as I am doing, instead of wasting golden +opportunities which come but once and which glide by like ships upon +the sea of life." Then he would pull his hair and start at the top of +the page again. It is better to have First Group than the Glee Club. + +But there were some fellows who could do both. Some fellows stood high +in the class and were in with everybody besides. Why could not he be +like that? This question came to him quite suddenly in junior year, +and he tipped his head to one side and began to think about it. He +kept on thinking. + +He was still thinking about it one Sunday afternoon in chapel when big +Jack Stehman, the tackle, came stalking down the aisles and threw +himself down beside Stacy, and the oak creaked. He was fresh and clean +and rosy from a long 'cross country tramp, and he said, "Hello, +Stace," in a hearty whisper. It was not from policy like the smiling +hello of a man a few pews in front, but because he felt like it. Stacy +enjoyed being saluted in that way, and if the big fellow grabbed and +pinched his thin leg he would beam for the rest of the hour, even +though he found a blue spot there at night when he undressed in +Edwards Hall. + +It was because of his way of saying hello, as much as his great +football record, that Stehman was one of the most popular men in +college, and nobody worshipped him more than did Stacy, not even the +freshman who gazed across the pews and wondered what it would be like +to be on familiar terms with a man of that sort. Stacy had at one time +feared that there was something sinful in his own admiration; Stehman +was a fourth-group man. + +He was thinking that his big class-mate looked just as strong and +clean and good as during the season. Just then Timberly, in the pew +behind, lay hold of Stehman's hair, drew his head back against the +rail, and then rubbed his own vigorously against Stehman's. "Little +Jackie's had his long locks cut, hasn't he?" he said. His teeth were +gritted and there was a sweet caress in his Southern voice, for he +loved his good pal Jack Stehman, though he would have called you +profane things if you had accused him of it. Stehman smiled, and said, +"Let go, Timber, you ass, the organ has stopped." + +Little Stacy, watching this out of the corner of his glasses, said, +solemnly, "I'd give my first group for that," and then bowed his head +in prayer. He thought about it all through the service instead of +listening as he should have done to a returned missionary who told how +many widows there were in India under thirteen years of age, and other +interesting things. + +The next day, when he walked with Stehman from a lecture by the Dean +on Robert Southey, he tried to catch his friend's tone of hello. Jack +said it to about fifty men between Dickinson Hall and Reunion, and it +sounded as though he were glad to see everyone of them, and he was. +Stacy liked to be seen with the big fellow. But he did not blush and +keep silent as in sophomore year when he was first permitted to walk +with him. He tried to show everyone that he was used to it. + +This time something happened. When they reached the place where the +stone walks meet, in front of South Reunion, Stehman put a big hand +on his shoulder, and said, "Stace, will you dine with me this +evening?--Oh, yes, you can. I have an engagement in Dougal's room now. +I'll yell for you on the way to the club. So long." Stacy opened his +mouth and gazed after him until out of sight. Then he shut it and +started for his room. This was unexpected. + +He had often thought about these large swell clubs with their elective +membership, and he had walked by the houses when the members were +lounging out in front. He had heard snatches of songs and the click of +billiard-balls from within, and he wondered what they did and said and +how it looked inside. And now he was going to see one of them, the one +he admired the most of all. + +At his own little eating club, he and the others said that many of the +club men were snobs, and declared that they would have nothing to do +with them. He wondered if his friends envied them in secret, as he +did. At any rate he would not dread answering them the next morning +when they asked, "Where were you for dinner?" + +When he reached his room he changed his necktie for a more becoming +one. At least he thought it was. And he put on his new, heavy, tan +shoes, like those Stehman and so many fellows wore. He would show them +that he knew things. Then he sat down and wrote to his sister Fannie +about it, as he did once before with a trembling hand, when he won +that essay prize in Hall and came late to dinner in consequence, and +all the fellows cried, "Yea-a, Stacy, Sophomore essay prize!" He had +pointed out that club to Fannie when she and his mother came over at +Commencement, and he had told her that Stehman was in that one. She +knew who Stehman was. + +Stacy little imagined that he was of so much consequence, but Stehman, +the tackle, had been talking about him on Sunday evening by the club +fireplace. Two of the fellows who were younger than juniors ought to +be had smiled at what he said. + +To them Jack turned with some heat, and observed, "You fellows make me +tired. You aren't under-class men now; you're old enough to know +better than to size up people by under-class man standards. Just +because Stacy has not learned to swear or smoke, and because he +worries and fusses and gets pale over what he came to college for, you +think you have a right to laugh at him. I respect him, and I wish to +the deuce I was more like him. Little Stacy is all right. And he'll +be in it all right some of these days, and he'll do a great deal more +good in the world than most of us." + +This was the longest speech Jack Stehman had ever made, and he was +duly applauded and guyed for it. But he was serious. He had a Sunday +night sour on. It was junior year for Stehman also, and he too had +been coming to some conclusions about his college course. But of a +different kind. + +It was nearly half after six when Stacy heard his friend's big voice +echo across the campus. As he pattered down the stairs in his stiff, +new Bluchers, he could not help wishing that Stehman had come a little +earlier. Not that he was hungry, but the campus would then have been +more crowded, while Stehman called, "Hello, Ray Stace." + +As they passed under the lamp-post and Jack said "Hello" to somebody +going in the other direction, Stacy remembered how that once he would +not have believed that he should ever be walking as he was now with +Stehman's big, strong arm upon his shoulder, the same arm that had +brought down many a canvas jacket. But that was long ago. + +When they reached the club, Stehman kicked the mud from his big, heavy +shoes on the porch steps, and Stacy did the same for his bright new +little ones. The door flew open and the brightly lighted interior of +the club was before them. Stacy caught a glimpse of an open fire and +deep, comfortable places to lounge in beside it, and some etchings on +the wall. He heard knives and forks and many voices, all going at +once, and laughter and exclamations. He spied a waiter hurrying in +with a tray full of dishes. A little nigger boy, with innumerable +buttons on his jacket, began to help him off with his overcoat, and +just then he heard one voice exclaim emphatically, "Doc., I say they +can't do it," and he wondered what it was and who could not do it. + +Stehman said, "Come over here a moment--no, this way." + +"Oh, this way?" said Stacy. He was led to a large open book with names +written on it. + +"Will you give us your distinguished signature?" said Stehman, dipping +the pen in ink and handing it to him. + +"Where shall I write--oh, yes, of course." Stacy wondered how many +people would read Horatio B. Stacy, introduced by John Carter Stehman. + +Though he had made up his mind to have confidence he felt a little +flustered. Perhaps the voices of many diners and the sight of many +rooms and various passage-ways and the negro buttons were a little too +much for him. Besides his glasses were blurred at coming in from the +cold and that always rattled him. + +Possibly his host noticed this, for he said, "Boo, I'm cold. Let's +warm up before grubbing," and led him to the fire and pushed him into +a chair big enough to hold two Horatio B. Stacys. + +He was perspiring now, but he held out his hand to the cheerful blaze +as if to get all he could of it. He looked at the andirons and the +crackling wood and glanced up at the etchings. He thought, "It must be +very fine to have all this every day." + +"Well, do you feel as though you could eat something?" Stehman lifted +him by the coat-collar. + +Stacy made answer, in a familiar tone, "I'm ready any time you are, +Jack," and then to himself, "Keep cool now." + +Stehman, with his hands in his pockets, led the way with his slouching +football walk which the freshmen studied on the way to recitations. +Stacy followed. He slouched pretty well, but his pockets were at the +very top of his trousers, so that his little coat turned up behind. + +They entered the bright, noisy dining-room. "Jack, why so late?" some +one was calling out, when suddenly there came, "Hello, Stace." "Hello, +Kay." "Hello there, Stace." "How do do, Stace." Most all of them +seemed glad to see him, and he was quite overcome with answering them +all. Jack showed him where to sit. + +After the waiter had pushed the chair under him and he had unfolded +the napkin there came in a solemn voice from the end of the table, +"Horatio, how do you do this evening?" + +"Why, Lint, old man, how are you?" he returned quickly in a strong +tone. Then he smiled a little because Linton might be guying him. But +he was not. + +It seemed that many eyes were upon him and he felt embarrassed and +strangely lonely because his host had turned to speak about something +to someone on the other side. So he gave his glasses an unnecessary +rub and took three sips of water in quick succession. + +The waiter placed the soup before him, and while he was occupied with +it he had time to gather himself together. Some of the fellows, he +noticed over his glasses, leaned over or else slipped way down in +their chairs in the same purposely reckless manner of under-classmen +days. But he held his little shoulders back and used his spoon very +daintily. He would show them that he had good table manners. + +Stehman now began to chat with him in his easy familiar way. But the +big fellow's manner always seemed to indicate that he was mindful of +how much higher was Stacy's class rank than his own. + +He was more at ease now, only whenever the conversation flagged he +could never think up anything to renew it with. He suspected that he +was blushing, and there really was no reason for blushing. These were +all his own dear classmates, some of whom he knew quite well, and they +all seemed kindly disposed toward him and included him in their +general remarks and even addressed him sometimes in particular. He +made up his mind that he must say something to Dougal Davis across the +table. + +He took a drink of water and wiped his lips and cleared his throat and +spoke. "Dougal, have you poled up Billy's history for the written +recitation?" Which was the very sort of thing he meant to avoid. But +it was too late now. + +"No, but I expect to put a wet towel around my head and hit it up +until three o'clock to-night," Dougal answered, sincerely. + +And Stacy thought he was joking. He therefore laughed, saying, "Like +fun you are." + +He never could tell when some of these fellows were in earnest, and +Dougal Davis was something awful to him anyway because he stood higher +in the class than Stacy himself, and yet had time to be mixed up with +half a dozen outside interests of college life and did a comfortable +amount of loafing besides. + +"I suppose you have it all down fine, Stace?" asked Timberly, +agreeably, "and will pound out a first group as usual." + +"Naw," boldly replied Stacy, "I've barely looked at it. Don't intend +to bother with it." That was the way to talk. + +But it was all wasted, for just then Lamason came in with a suit-case +in his hand and his town clothes on, and everybody was crying "Yea-a" +in loud, shrill tones, and some one began singing "Oh, to-day is the +day that he comes from the city," and all joined in, even little +Stacy, though he did not know the words and blushed and closed his +mouth again when any one looked in his direction. + +Meanwhile Lamason, without smiling, or seeming to be aware of the +noise, said, "Bring me some dinner, Henry, please," and taking a +_Princetonian_ from his pocket began to read an editorial on the lack +of lamp-posts on the south campus, and paid no more attention to the +remarks about his good-looking clothes than to Timberly, who was +painstakingly mussing up his nicely brushed hair. It impressed Stacy. +Except that they no longer considered it funny to throw things or to +be profane without necessity, the fellows seemed to be as free and +jolly as in under-classmen days. He had supposed that there would be +some dignity about a great fine elective club with white curtains at +the window and a board of governors. + +While beginning upon his roast beef the waiter placed a small, narrow +glass by his plate. He heard the "pop" of a drawn cork behind him. He +had understood that the club constitution forbade alcoholic beverages. +The waiter was filling his glass. He heard something hiss and sizzle, +but he did not like to look because it would be so obvious. This would +be a good opportunity to show these fellows that he was not such a +shark as they supposed. Still, after keeping out of temptation so many +years, he did not like the idea of running the risk of becoming a +drunkard now. But, perhaps, it would not be wrong to taste a little of +it. + +"Are you fond of Apollinaris, Ray?" asked Stehman, emptying his glass +at a gulp. "I'm a disgusting guzzler of it." + +"Oh, yes, I'm--I like it very much," said Stacy. Stehman asked him to +have another piece of roast just to keep him company, and without +giving time for answer, Stacy heard him say, "Two second, +Henry--rare." Jack made him drink another bottle of Apollinaris, too, +though it pricked his tongue, and he said he did not want it, and he +felt that he was imposing upon his friend when he saw him write out +another voucher for the amount. + +Most of the table had finished by this time. They were smoking with +their coffee. Those who could afford it were smoking cigars and those +who had used up their credit with the Cigar Committee were solacing +themselves with pipes. Some there were who did not smoke at all. + +"Our crowd," Jack explained, "makes it a matter of principle never to +leave the table for a half hour or so. It's good for the digestion." + +Three or four of the fellows were leaning back with their heads on the +backs of chairs or on one another's shoulders. One was slouching with +his elbow on the table and with his other hand he played with the +salt-cellars. And some looked perfectly contented and happy, and some +looked grave or sour, and all were beautifully and completely +indolent, and everything seemed comfortable and happy and Bohemian to +Stacy, and he thought it fine to eat his dessert with the smoke +floating about it. + +Dougal Davis opposite was blowing fat, well-formed rings aimed at the +top of Stacy's Apollinaris bottle, while Linton, without looking up, +was informing him, in picturesque, though hardly complimentary +language, that he had a mouth splendidly adapted to ring-blowing. +Davis kept on sending rings across the table, and paid no attention. +Stacy wondered whether they were on bad terms with one another. +Perhaps it was rude in him to listen. They seemed so much in earnest. + +It was difficult to understand these fellows. Some of them he knew to +be as hard students as himself, and yet they seemed to be as much in +with the crowd as the others. Someone would say something in a most +impressive, sober way, and nobody seemed to notice it, or else +everyone laughed. Of course he knew that what they were saying during +dinner about their extreme poverty was meant humorously, even by those +of the fellows who tutored or wrote for the papers to help themselves +along. But what troubled him was that he could not catch the drift and +join in and be like the rest of them. Once, when everybody laughed +heartily, and Pope bowed his head and said, "I acknowledge that I am +sat upon," Stacy laughed, too, and said "Pretty good," though he did +not know what it was, and hoped that no one knew he was bluffing. + +From another part of the house came the pounding of billiard-cues and +a few emphatic remarks, varied at intervals with a yell or a loud +laugh. In another room three or four voices were singing, perhaps +unconsciously, and the strong final notes reached the dining-room. +Upstairs someone was exclaiming, "I had next on that!" From the +lounging room came the notes of a piano, and Stacy said, "That +'Pilgrim's Chorus' is a beautiful thing, isn't it, Jack?" for Stacy +knew. + +He had enjoyed his dinner, and was perfectly self-possessed. He could +look about the room at everyone without flinching. Henry brought the +coffee in very pretty cups, with the club design on them. The buttons +came in at Stehman's ringing. "Jackson, get me a ---- Ray, you don't +smoke, do you?" + +"Oh, yes, I do," Stacy replied. + +"Oh, I beg your pardon--bring some Perfectos, Jackson--please pardon +me, I forgot entirely that you smoked. I must have mixed you up with +someone else. I thought sure you did not smoke." + +He seemed so cut up about it and his voice so pathetically apologetic +that Stacy felt sorry for him, and had to say, "That's all right, +Jack. You see I have just begun. That is, I haven't been smoking very +long, you know, on account of my eyes." But he hoped the others did +not hear. + +"Will you have a cigarette first?" Stehman asked. + +"No, I prefer a cigar," said Stacy, in a fine, deep voice. Stehman +lighted a cigarette. + +Horatio had never smoked but one cigar before, and he was not certain +about how much of the end to bite off. But it seemed to draw all right +when the buttons held a match for him. It did not make him feel the +least bit sick. He thought he held it between his first and second +fingers rather well. + +His host began to talk about the Dean's English again, and Stacy +changed the subject. Of course Jack meant it out of consideration for +him, but Stacy could talk about other things than his studies. +Presently Jack began again. "What collateral reading are you doing in +the Public Law course, Ray---- What's that you're saying, Timber?" + +"Oh, nothing," said Timberly, smiling satirically. "We are just amused +a little bit at your posing as a heavy poler. That's all." + +But Jack only frowned, and turned again to Stacy, who knew the others +were paying attention, and so made answer, "Don't intend to read +anything. I've quit taking notes on the lectures, too. A syllabus at +the end of the term will have to do me." That ought to show them. + +Nobody said anything for a moment, and when he looked up he could not +tell from their faces what they thought of his remark, though Linton +seemed to wear a quizzical smile. But then that fellow always seemed +to be sneering or else looking oblivious. + +Then Smith, who was a track athlete, went on with his conversation +with Pope. He was venturing the opinion that Princeton's prospects for +the spring were poor. He was a young man who thought he had a dignity, +and he liked to have people pay attention to what he said. He had +reason to suppose that his opinions on athletics amounted to +something. So he was rather astonished, as were Stehman and the rest +of the table, when Stacy's high voice burst in with, "No, now, you +don't mean it, Smithie. You are joking, aren't you?" There was no +reason why he should not be familiar and play horse like the rest. + +At first there was such a pause that he felt himself blush, and he +feared he had offended Smith, who had stopped talking and was blushing +a little, too. Then suddenly Timberly burst out with a snorting laugh, +and then Davis and then the whole crowd, even Linton, and Stacy +himself, because he had made such a hit, laughed modestly, though +still blushing, at which they all laughed still more. He did not know +it was so funny as all that. That was not half as witty as he could +be, as he would show them. + +But just then Stehman interrupted and claimed attention. "Timber," he +called down the table, "I heard a new one to-day on Jimmie McCosh." +Stehman then told a story about the Doctor's falling on the slippery +stones on McCosh walk, and what he said when he could not get up. Like +most imitations of dear old Jimmie's Scotch, Stehman's sounded like a +poor Irish brogue. It was not a very good story, but the fellows +imagined how it would sound if told well, and then laughed because it +was good old Jack Stehman. Stacy thought he could do better than that. + +Everything was quiet. Now was the time. He cleared his throat. "Say, +fellows, this is the way the president talks in chapel." His voice was +high and unnecessarily loud. He arose and took hold of the lapels of +his little coat and raised his brows and compressed his lips and +looked side wise through his glasses and repeated very quickly in a +strange voice, "The seven Arabic numerals do not form a sufficient +basis for crystallization about which the cardinal virtues may +cluster." Then he promptly sat down and began to puff vigorously upon +his big cigar. + +The fellows smiled surprisedly and looked at each other. Then they +laughed. They stopped a moment; then one by one they began to laugh +again, as if the thing were growing on them. Finally they roared and +kept on roaring. + +At home they always applauded when he got that off, although his +mother thought it wrong in him, but they did not pound on the table +and scream and slap each other on the back, as these fellows were +doing now. It must have been because this audience was more familiar +with the original. But he hardly heard them. + +"Say, fellows, I'll tell you the story of the little boy who stole the +jam!" he exclaimed, excitedly. Before Stehman and one or two others of +this same crowd he had tried once in freshman year to tell this same +story, and failed for lack of courage. He was not the least bit +frightened this time. + +He leaned back in his chair and imitated the boy's voice and blew +smoke between sentences and gesticulated with the cigar in his hand; +and when he had finished everyone pounded and screamed and applauded +as before, while he only shut his lips tight and tried to look +serious, as all good _raconteurs_ should. Would not this be fine to +write to Fannie about? + +"Good! Good!" they were shouting to him. "Give us another, Stace. +You're a good one. Do the Dr. Patton act again. These fellows haven't +seen it." + +"No, we haven't seen it. Let her go." + +Stacy raised his eyes from the table-cloth. Those of the juniors that +had left and some of the seniors, hearing the racket, had come in to +see what was up. The piano had ceased. Fellows were pushing into the +room with cues in their hands and their coats off. Some of them were +sitting on the table. Some had their arms about one another's +shoulders. Leaning against the door-post, with a pipe in his mouth and +a merry twinkle in his eye, stood a senior named Bangs, whom Stacy, in +freshman year, feared more than anything on earth. He had never, until +this moment, forgiven him. + +Before Bangs and over half the active membership of the club did +little Stacy, who used to cross the street to avoid being looked at, +jump up on a chair and with greater gusto than ever, with his funny +little mouth twisted up, with his voice strained to produce a peculiar +resonance, repeat part of a sermon once preached by the president of +the college. And when he had finished, his hearers were doubled up on +the floor with laughter. + +Throughout all this Stehman alone seemed unappreciative. He laughed in +a nervous way. Once he said, "Let's go sit by the fire." Could it be +possible that his good friend Jack, who was accustomed to being the +most popular, was--no, he would not think that of him. + +"Do something else," they were crying. "Go on. Go on. Please!" + +If he wanted to he could double them up once more, this time with an +imitation of Jimmie Johnson's stuttering, but he absolutely declined. +He knew that brevity was the soul of wit. "Stacy, you ought to go on +the stage!" one of the seniors exclaimed. + +But he only answered, "Naw. That don't amount to anything. Shoot." And +then they all began laughing once more at the mere remembrance of it. + +Jack arose to go. Stacy picked up the huge cigar, which had gone out, +and jamming it firmly between his teeth, strode after his host. He +walked past the fellows, who were still laughing, as modestly and with +as unconscious an expression as Jack Stehman himself wore on the +football field when running back to his place after making a +touch-down and the crowd was cheering. + +In the hall he said, "I think I'll have to go now, Jack." His voice +was joyously nervous. He could not hold in much longer. + +"Must you go, Ray?" + +"Yes. I must finish a letter. Good-night, Jack, old man. I've had a +bully time." + +The buttons was helping him on with his coat, and he repeated, +"Good-night, Jack, old man. I've had a bully time." His voice nearly +broke. + +Then the door closed, and Stehman, who was angry, turned toward the +convulsing crowd by the fire and said, in a calm voice, "I greatly +admire what you fellows have done this evening. You are indeed typical +Princeton men. Oh, you have the true spirit." + +"Fine poler, your quiet, inoffensive, young friend," some one rejoined +with a chuckle. + +"Not ashamed--as you were reminding us the other night--not ashamed of +being a poler either," said the fellow Stehman had jumped on for being +a kid. + +"Wow!" cried Bangs, with a groan of laughter. "I haven't had so much +horse since sophomore year." + +Then Linton spoke. "Jackie, dear, don't look that way. It's not nice. +And do not chew a rag because your little poler did not develop as you +wanted him to. You must learn to part with your ideals----" + +"And, Jack, you must admit," interrupted Davis, "that it was absurdly +comical. It was mean to laugh, but how could we help it? His standing +up there and kicking up his poler antics, like an old cow, and +thinking all the time that he was----" + +The rest was cut short by Stehman's bringing his big fist down upon a +table by the window. "But, Dougal," he thundered, "that doesn't make +any difference. He was my guest. Because he tried to bring himself +down to our tone you fellows let him make a fool of himself, and sat +there and laughed at him, like a set of snobs. Jackson, get my coat." + +"You needn't talk so loud," growled a sarcastic-faced post-graduate. +"The people across the street don't care to hear about it." + +"Don't go away with your back up, Jack," Linton shouted after him +good-naturedly. "And you need not worry about little Stacy. The best +time he ever had in college was with us snobs here to-night, and he's +probably chuckling to himself now on his way across the campus about +the big tear he made." + +But little Stacy was not doing anything of the sort. One of his new +Blucher shoes had come untied when he had jumped up on the chair to do +the president act, and he stopped to tie it by the light of the club +window. And it was wide open. + + + + +THE HAZING OF VALLIANT + + +This story begins with a girl. She was small and had a nose that +turned up and a quiet appreciation of the ridiculous. All summer long +she sat on the sand without a veil and was nice to two little boys in +clean duck trousers and buzz-saw hats which blew off sometimes. + +One of these was eighteen years old and had a complexion that women +envied and felt like kissing. He was small and dainty and smelt like +good soap. His name was Valliant. The other was a little older, +considerably bigger, and much more self-assertive. Except for his duck +trousers he wore orange and black with his class numerals on +everything. That might have made but little difference. But the girl +decided that she would like it more if they would become angry for her +sake, which they one day did. + +After that whenever the little one was alone with her his voice was +soft and his manner thoroughly abject. She liked this. She liked his +sweet-and-cleanness also. The other, whose name was Buckley, had an +untamed, defiant way of tossing his shoulders, like an unbroken +stallion. She liked that still more. When she sat out dances with him, +she put him where the arc-light on the veranda would play upon his +eyes, which were good, and talked about the other boy's nice manners. + +Best of all she liked to have both about her at once. The sophomore +breathed lungfuls of cigarette smoke and told her how hard his class +would haze the freshman in the fall, and how cold the canal was on a +frosty night, while the sub-freshman only gazed out over the legs and +arms splashing and gleaming in the surf, and tried to smile in a way +to show Buckley that he was not taking offence. For what could a +sub-freshman do? + +Then the girl would poke the end of her red parasol in the sand and +say: "I think it would be just too mean of you to haze Mr. Valliant. +He is such a good friend of mine." This was because it is woman's +nature to take the part of the weak and oppressed. + +But one day the sophomore made a remark about "pretty pink-cheeked +boys," which had been better left unsaid. Then arose the younger one +and shaking impressively a slender, pink-nailed finger, he spoke. +"You had better not try to haze me, Will Buckley. Do you hear what I +say?" Which was the very worst thing he could have said. Besides it +was decidedly fresh. + +But he was very much in earnest and quite angry and his young voice +broke in the middle. The sophomore laughed mirthfully and the girl +became genuinely sorry for a moment, despite the humor of the +situation; and as she watched his dainty legs retreating over the +dunes toward the cottages it repented her of having stirred up enmity +between the two, and she resolved from that day to make up for it. +This she did by being always good to the little one in the presence of +the big one, which seems short-sighted in her. + +Thus did one small girl amuse herself throughout the week, and then, +when Saturday evening came and the children were left to burn +cigarettes by themselves, she entertained the men with it, who came +down to spend Sunday. For her nose turned up and she was good at +mimicry. She won't be mentioned again. + + * * * * * + +In the glorious old days of untrammelled class activity when everyone +recognized that there were certain duties owed the freshman by the +sophomore class, as Hall talk was due them from the upper-classmen +(another good old custom now defunct), you had only casually to drop +word to a freshman on the way to recitation to wait for you when night +came, back of Witherspoon--as you would bid a classmate come to a +spread in your room--and he would turn up promptly and smilingly, take +his little dose meekly and cheerfully, and go to bed a better boy for +it and brag about it every time he dined out in Christmas holidays. +But all that is changed now. + +Even in the days of which this is written, which were only +comparatively modern times, one had to play a very careful game to do +any hazing. The freshman was beginning to hesitate about putting out +his light when you yelled up at him from the street. People were +putting strange notions in his head. He was beginning to think he had +a personality. They were telling him he had rights. The old glory had +departed along with Rushes and Midnight Cane Sprees and Horn Sprees +and Fresh Fires to make room for a University spirit and linen shirts. +At the present rate of retrogression--mark the prediction--it will not +be many years before the freshman will be allowed to wear the orange +and black and the sophomore a silk hat! When that day comes, may it +be that a certain Old Grad. will have attended his last reunion. + +Twice had Buckley waited near the house where Valliant ate his dinner. +But it's quite light after dinner in September. He had gone to the +house where he roomed, and asked the landlady if any of the gentlemen +wanted to join the Y. M. C. A. But that, like the _Nassau Lit._ and +_Princetonian_ subscription-list-game, had been played out; the door +was closed in his face. Then for three successive nights he waited in +an alley near by, and on the third night the freshman came. But with +him an upper-classman friend. + +Buckley said things and kept in the shadow. But the freshman had good +eyes and said as he took out his keys, "Oh, is that you, Mr. Buckley? +Why, how do you do? Aren't you coming up to see me?" That was horribly +fresh. + +"Not now," Buckley growled. "Which is your room?" Excusing himself +from the upper-classman, who was enjoying all this, the freshman led +Buckley into the alley-way, and pointed up at the wing of the house. +It was a large one and many people lived in it. "That room up there +next to the one with a light in it. See?" he said in polite, friendly +tones. This was decidedly fresh. + +Buckley said he would come up later on in the evening, which, of +course, he had no intention of doing, and saying "Good-night" +good-mannerly enough, he slinked off, and the freshman took his friend +up the stairs, which smelled of damp carpets. + +The next night Buckley got his gang together. They blew smoke in one +another's faces and decided that a little exhibition of oarsmanship in +a basin of water with toothpicks would do to warm up with. Then a +cross-country jaunt would be appropriate, running, walking, and +crawling to the canal. Here, as the freshman was proud of his shape, +he would be given an opportunity of displaying it while the moon +reflected in the water. And, if he felt cold after that, he could +climb a telephone pole for exercise--they didn't want to be +inconsiderate of his comfort--and sing "Nearer my home to-day, to-day, +than I have been before," at the top of it. Then with a few +recitations and solos on the way back he could be put to bed. This +would be a good night's work. + +It was nearly two o'clock when they carried the ladder into the +alley-way. They laid it down in silence. + +For several reasons this was to be a right nervy go. A young professor +and his young wife had a suite of rooms in the house. But it wasn't +that which troubled them. This was. The moon shone full and strong +upon the clear, blank wall of the house, and it was in plain view from +a certain spot a distance of about two blocks away. Across this spot a +certain owl-eyed proctor was pretty sure to pass and repass off and on +all night. + +That was the reason they were sitting on the ladder waiting for a +signal from Colston, who was over by the certain spot watching for the +certain proctor. + +"Buck, which is the freshman's room?" + +"It was the one next to the light and the light was in the room over +the side-door." + +"Second or third story?" + +"Sist! not so loud. Why, let's see, the third." + +"Yes," said Haines, "don't you see the window's open up there. None of +the family would do that. Town people would never air----" + +"Listen!" + +A whistle came from the silent distance, the first bar from "Rumski +Ho," then a silence, then the same bar repeated. And by this they knew +that the proctor had walked into the open space and out of it again, +and that if they hurried they could put the ladder against the house, +send a man up it and take it away again before the proctor crossed +the open space once more. + +Buckley started up. The others leaned against the bottom round to +steady it. Then he came back for a moment. "Don't take it away until I +get all the way in--until I wave my hand. There's plenty of time. Keep +cool," he whispered, as he nimbly began his ascent. For his descent he +was to rely upon the stairs, the freshman, and his own persuasive +powers, for what are freshmen and stairs made for? + +Buckley was a right devilish young man, and typically a sophomore. The +year before he had climbed the belfry of old North and stolen the +bell-clapper and gained class-wide renown. Already this term he had +mounted the water-tower and painted the freshman numerals green. The +very night before this he had run around the eaves of Reunion, which +is no easy trick, with "Bill," the night proctor, behind him, and when +he dropped off the bottom round of the fire-escape into the arms of +another proctor, he had wriggled out again. Still there are sensations +peculiar to scaling a ladder stretching toward the black of an open +window, with a moon throwing shadows of yourself and the rounds of the +ladder against the dull bricks of an old-fashioned house, while old +North strikes two in the distance. Buckley felt them. + +The ladder did not quite reach, and he had to stand on the top round +and stretch for the sill. Then he pulled himself up, got one foot +over, took a longer grip on the inside of the window, dragged the +other foot up, as you would climb a high board fence, and was in the +room with both feet. He leaned out and waved his hand. The top of the +ladder silently swung out from the wall and swooped down in silence. +Buckley turned and started across the room. + +He could feel the heavier atmosphere of indoors. A small clock was +ticking somewhere. He detected a faint scent of mouchoir powder, and +was just remarking to himself half consciously that it was just like +that pretty-faced freshman, when from somewhere there came a soft +voice, saying, "Is that you, dear?" + +Then, before all the blood near his backbone had time to freeze into +little splinters of ice, he said, "Shsss," and stepped out of the +moonlight and into the shadow, which is the best thing to do in case +you are ever in a similar situation. Buckley's instinct made him do +it. + +Across the silence the soft voice floated again and mingled with the +moonlight, "Oh, I'm not asleep. But why did you stay so long, Guy, +dear?" There was another sound. It was the squeaking of a bed-spring. + +Then, as Buckley's knees stiffened tight against each other, he spied +coming toward him something white, with two black streaks hanging half +way down, which as the thing came into the moonlight, he saw to be +long braids of dark hair. Also, the light showed a tall, slender +figure clothed in but one garment, which was white, and a face which +was young and beautiful. Buckley had never seen a woman dressed that +way before, and he closed his eyes. + +But he felt it coming nearer and nearer. He stood up perfectly +straight and rigid in the darkness as two arms reached up and met +about his neck. The arms were soft, and they smelt good. + +Buckley did not budge, and the soft voice began, in a sort of whisper, +"You have not forgiven me yet?" It began to sob, and he felt the +sobbing against his orange and black sweater. "You know I did not mean +it. Won't you--forgive her? Won't you forgive--her?" And Buckley fully +realized that he was in the thick of some romantically ghastly +mistake, and that the only thing he could do to make it worse would be +to speak or show his face. + +For fully half a minute he stood thus motionless, with his arms at +his sides, gathering himself together, and trying to think what to do. +And when he had made up his mind what to do he gritted his teeth and +put both arms about the Clingy Thing. + +And when he had done that the Clingy Thing began to purr in soft, +plaintive tones, which undoubtedly were sweet, and would probably have +been appreciated by Buckley if he had not been so rattled. "Tell me +that you _do_ forgive me. Say it with your own lips." + +Buckley said nothing with his lips. He was biting them. + +"Guy, speak to me!" + +Buckley didn't. + +"Speak to me, my husband!" A soft, fragrant hand came gently up along +his cheek, which tingled, and over his eyes, which quivered, and +pushed back the hair from his brow, which was wet. Suddenly she raised +her head, gave one look at his face with large, startled eyes, then, +with a shuddering gasp, she recoiled. + +But Buckley was not letting go. This is what he had been preparing +for. Keeping one arm about her waist he threw the other around the +neck in such a way that he could draw it tight if necessary, and said +in one breath, "For heaven's sake, don't scream--I can explain!" + +"Ugh! Oh, let go! Who--let me go or I'll screa-ch-ch-ch." + +But Buckley didn't let her do either. He pressed on the windpipe, +feeling like three or four kinds of murderers as he did so. Then, as +she struggled with feeble, womanly might, Buckley did the fastest +thinking he had ever done in all his nineteen years. The door of the +room--was it locked? The stairs--where were they? The front door--was +the night-latch above the knob? Was it below? Would it stick? All this +time she would be screaming, and the house was full of men. He would +be caught. He was in for something. But was he hurting her? He began +to talk. + +"Oh, please, if you scream it'll only make things awfully awkward. I +got in here by mistake. I can explain. I'm not going to hurt you. Oh, +please, keep quiet." + +She tried again to wrench away from his grasp, and Buckley drew her +back with ease, feeling half sorry for her poor little strength. +"Promise me you'll not cry out and I'll let go." + +"Yes, yes, I promise," said the scared voice. "Anything. Only let me +go." + +Buckley released his grasp. She fled across the room. He thought she +was making for the door. He sprang toward it to keep her from running +downstairs and arousing the house. But she only snatched up an afghan +or something from the sofa, and holding it about her retreated to the +dark part of the room. + +Buckley couldn't see her now, but he heard her moan, "Oh dear, oh +dear!" in a muffled tone, and he felt that she must be cowering in the +corner farthest away from him, and it made him have all sorts of +contempt for himself. Then he talked again, standing with his back +against the door and looking toward the dark. "I don't know who you +are," he began in a loud, nervous whisper, "but whoever you are, I +wish you wouldn't cry. Please be calm. I want to talk to you." + +"I don't want to hear you--I don't want to hear you." + +"Not so loud, or we'll be heard." + +"Oh, oh, how can you trade upon my necessity? Haven't you a grain of +manhood, a spark of kindness in you----" + +"Yes, yes, lots," said Buckley. "Listen to me. Please listen. It's all +a big mistake. I thought I was coming to my own room----" + +"Your own room!" + +"I mean my classmate's room--I mean I thought a freshman roomed here. +I wouldn't have made the mistake for anything in the world. You +aren't half as sorry I got in your room as I am--Oh, yes, you are!--I +mean I'm awfully sorry and wish to apologize, and I hope you'll +forgive me. I didn't mean anything----" + +"Mean anything!" + +"Really I didn't. If you'll only let me go down and promise not to +wake the house before I get out, why, no one will ever know anything +about it, and I'll promise not to do it again. I'm awfully sorry it +happened." Buckley started for the door. + +"Mrs. Brown--Mr. Brown, help! murder!" + +"Oh, for heaven's sake don't!" cried Buckley. + +"I will. Just as soon as I get breath and strength enough I mean to +wake the house, the neighbors, the whole town if I can." + +"No, you won't!" Buckley started across the room. + +"Stop!" she cried. + +He stopped. The voice was commanding. It seemed already quite strong +enough to scream. He said: "You promised not to scream." + +"But you forced me to promise." + +"Are you going to scream?" + +"I am." She was getting her breath. + +"Oh, don't; please don't. If I wanted to, I could hurt you. I don't +want to hurt you. Ah, have pity on me!" + +The bold, bad sophomore was down on his knees, with his hands clasped +toward the dark, where the voice came from. He was very sorry for +himself. + +"You stay right there in the moonlight." + +"Right here?" + +"Right there. And if you dare to move, I'll scream with all my might." + +Buckley first shivered and then froze as stiff as if a hair-trigger +rifle were pointing at him. "How long must I stay here?" he asked, +without moving his head. + +"Until my hus-- Until daylight," returned the voice. + +"Until daylight!" repeated Buckley. There was something impressive in +the deep, rich voice of this tall young woman, and whoever she was, +Buckley could tell, from the refined tones, that she was a lady. He +could just make out the gleam of her face and of one arm in the dark +corner. + +Outside, the crickets were scratching in the warm, still night. It was +after two o'clock. A moon was shining in his left eye. And he, William +Buckley, was kneeling, with his hands stretched imploringly toward a +girl whom he had never seen before, in the third story of an +old-fashioned Princeton house, which he had entered for the first +time by a ladder which, by this time, was resting serenely against a +freshly painted house in Mercer Street, whither it had been borne by +four classmates, who were now at the corner of Canal and Dickinson +Streets, as per agreement, and cursing him for taking such a long time +to pull one small freshman out of bed. Meanwhile, the moon was +approaching the window-post. + +"Please, oh, please, whoever you are," he began, in earnest, pleading +tones, "won't you forgive me, and let me go?" + +There was no answer. + +"I am a gentleman. Indeed I am! I wouldn't harm a girl for the world. +Please let me go. I'll be fired--I mean expelled from college for +this. I'll be disgraced for life. I'll----" + +"Stop!" The voice seemed to be calm now. "While it may be true that +you did not break into my room with intent to rob or injure a +defenceless woman, yet, by your own confession, you came to torment a +weaker person. You wanted to haze one of the freshmen in this house; +that was it. And when my husband----" + +"Oh, have mercy on me. Won't you have mercy?" Then he began to tell +her what a good boy he had always been, and how he had always gone to +church, and how fond his mother was of him, and that he was the pride +and ambition of the family, and similar rot, showing how completely +scared to death he was. "Just think what this means to me," he +concluded. "If I'm fired from college, I'll never come back. I'll be +disgraced for life. All my prospects will be blighted, my life ruined, +and my mother's heart broken." + +She gave a little hysterical sob, as if the strain were too great for +her. "Yes, for your poor mother's sake; yes, go!" she exclaimed. + +"Oh, thank you with all my heart. My mother would, too, if she could +know. I don't deserve to be treated so well. I shall always think of +you as my merciful benefactress. I can never forgive myself for +causing you pain. Oh, thank you." + +Buckley, the sophomore, who had strode into that room so manfully, in +the full pride of his sophomorish strength and orange and black, +grovelled across the room and out of the door, then tip-toed his way +down the hall stairs, silently pulled back the latch of the front +door, and sneaked off, with his tail between his legs. + +The outside air did him good, and by the time he reached his impatient +class-mates he had thought up a fairly good lie about the freshman's +being ill, quite seriously ill, and about his stopping to look after +him a bit, which they admitted was the only thing to do under the +circumstances, though it was blamed hard lines, after all the trouble +they had taken. "Better luck next time, Buck," they said, and went to +bed. + +By the ten o'clock mail next morning Buckley received a letter in +strange handwriting. It said: "Just as a tall woman looks short in a +man's make-up, so does a short man look tall in a woman's make-up, and +you should know that blondes are hard to recognize in brunette wigs. I +could have done more artistic acting if you had come up earlier, when +I had on my full costume. You ought to know that a real girl wouldn't +have behaved quite that way. You see you still have a number of things +to learn, even though you are a soph. Sort of hard luck, all this, +isn't it, old man? Hoping that the rouge will wash off your lips and +that you will learn to forgive yourself, I am your merciful +benefactress, H. G. Valliant." + +This is the freshest thing I ever heard of. + +There was a P. S. which said: "Whether or not this thing gets out +rests entirely with you and your hazing friends." + +Of course it did get out, as all such things do; but Valliant was not +bothered again by sophomores, though he ought to have been hazed up +and down and inside-out and cross-wise by the whole college. + +You can see him if you attend the next production of the Dramatic +Association. + + + + +HERO WORSHIP + + +Near Old Chapel he used to linger on the way from recitations, buying +things from old black Jimmie and pretending to be amused by his +stuttering conversation while he watched the passers-by. And when The +One came along for whom he waited, he said to himself, "Oh, he's +wearing his brown shooting-coat to-day," and turned and gazed after +him until out of sight, wondering what lecture he had at that hour and +how he would get along at it. Then passing on slowly across the campus +he turned out upon the street. + +When he reached his room, Darnell said to another freshman that lived +in the house, "I saw Lawrence to-day. He was walking with his arm +around Nolan. He passed right by me." And he could also have told just +how he nodded to the fellows along the walk and how he swung his legs. +Darnell thought that Lawrence's gait was just right. So was his manner +of dressing. Somehow Darnell could not make his corduroy coat hang in +that way. It lay back all right, but it would not stay snugly up on +his shoulders as Lawrence's did. + +He used to see him quite often now, for by this time he had learned at +what hours Lawrence's lectures came. Which was more than the senior +himself knew, for he had always to look at the schedule tacked up on +the back of the door over the faculty and absence committee summonses. + +Darnell remembered the first time he saw Lawrence. It was on the +morning of the first day of the term, while he was sitting in the +office of the old Nassau Hotel, quietly waiting for his mother and +trying not to appear green and thinking that everyone who came in was +a sophomore and wanted him. It was raining, he remembered, and people +came scurrying in with their trousers turned up and mackintoshes on. +Lawrence came in alone. + +He came with his impressive stride and a very long paddock coat and a +new kind of shooting-cap which he brought back with him from +Piccadilly the first of the month. He frowned and glanced about the +room. And when he found the two faces he was looking for and strode +across to where a worried-faced gentleman in a silk hat was reading +the paper beside a freshman with a grinning face, he said, holding +out his hand, "So you have arrived." It was just the patrician tone +of voice that Darnell had expected when he saw the face. + +When Lawrence stretched out his hand his long coat fell open and +disclosed an orange monogram of many closely intertwined letters +shining against the black of his undercoat. It was worked upon the +breast-pocket, and the freshman wondered what that mysterious insignia +might mean. + +He watched him as he jerked his head and blew smoke in the damp air. +The way he tossed the ashes away was perfect. And when Lawrence +suddenly turned and, looking frankly in the freshman's father's eyes, +said with a reserved smile, "You need not worry about that, Mr. +Jansen," and stretched an arm about the freshman's shoulder, Darnell +thought he would rather be that freshman than anyone in the +world--except the owner of the arm. + +Then he began to speak again, and Darnell found himself leaning +forward a little. He remembered thinking, "I don't care if it is +impolite to listen." + +Lawrence said in a rapid manner, without opening his teeth very wide, +"The team? We brought them down from the island last evening. Sea air +is a good tonic to begin a season's training with, and they are all +in excellent shape. Billy, you must bring your father down to the +field to see my big brown babies." Darnell remembered every word, +though he did not understand quite what it meant at the time. + +Soon after getting settled he took pains to pick up an acquaintance +with this freshman. That was the time he first found out that the +senior was one of the Lawrences. The freshman said, "Yes, he's a +mighty fine fellow. He played on his class eleven in his freshman +year." But that was all Jansen said. He did not enthuse as he should +have. He had no more than the ordinary fear and reverence of a +freshman for a senior. There was a man on the team named Stehman. He +was the one this freshman turned and gazed after on the campus. + +But now Darnell knew more about him than Jansen did. From the last +year's "Bric-a-brac" he had learned the senior's club and what +committees he was on, and the book opened up now, of its own accord, +to the picture of the Glee Club. He could have told you Lawrence's +middle name and his street and number at home, and his campus address +as well. Whenever the freshman went to night session of Hall he looked +up as he went by to see if the room in West were lighted, and he +wondered what he was doing up there behind those curtains. Once, +while passing by, some one was calling "Hello-o-o, Harry Lawrence!" +and in Lawrence's own voice came a muffled "Hello! Come up." It did +not seem quite right for them to be noisy and familiar with Lawrence +as with ordinary fellows. He did not understand how Lawrence allowed +it. + + * * * * * + +In Jansen's room it was, and Old North was ringing curfew, when +Lawrence shook his hand and said in his peculiar throaty voice, "Glad +to know you," or else "Glad to meet you." He never could be certain +which it was. It was on a Tuesday evening, and he had made a poor +recitation in algebra that day. He noticed that Lawrence was only +about an inch taller than himself. + +Darnell looked straight back at him and said, "I think I have heard my +sister speak of you, Mr. Lawrence. She met you down here at the +sophomore reception last June." His voice was perfectly firm and +strong, but his mouth persisted in drooping a little at the corners. +He could not help that. + +Lawrence said, "Yes, I remember very well," which delighted the +freshman's sister Louise, when Darnell wrote to her about it, just as +much as if it had been true. "Is your sister coming down to any of +the dances this year?" added the senior. + +"No, I don't believe she is. My aunt brought a whole crowd down that +time. Mamma was on the other side, or she would not have allowed it. +Louise is not out yet." Then he dropped his big brown eyes and blushed +because he felt that he was talking too much and because he had said +"mamma" before the senior. + +But Lawrence was only looking grave and interested and well-bred, and +he replied, "I see. That's too bad. I wish she could come." + +"Yes," said Darnell, "I wish she could come," and then, although he +did not want to, he arose to go, because he thought that Lawrence +wished to talk confidentially with his freshman, Jansen. + +Lawrence, who did not care about his going, because he found it as +easy to talk to two freshmen as to one, said, "I hope I'm not driving +you out, Bonnell. Good-night. If your sister should decide to come +down this year, don't forget to let me have a chance at her card +before it's filled. Good-night, Bonnell." + +"Oh, I won't," said the freshman. "Good-night." + +As if he could forget. As if he would be allowed to forget, indeed! +She, dear little thing, in her own becoming little way, worshipped +him, too. And at Mrs. Somebody's School in Somethingtieth Street, she +used to slip an arm about the waist of her latest everlasting friend, +and whisper something about it on the way upstairs after prayers. + +During her evening's acquaintance with him in June she had told the +great, dark, wonderful man that had "a whole tragedy in his face," "a +certain indefinable something" in his manner, and many other things, +too, no doubt, that she had a brother who was coming to college the +next fall, and she asked Lawrence in a very timid, pretty, natural +manner if he would please look out for her brother, who would be a +freshman and only sixteen years old. And Lawrence, who was watching +the way she held her head and approving of it, said, "Of course I +will," and forgot about it during the next dance, which was with a +Newark girl, who asked him how the Sunday night hot-liquor club was +prospering. That was last June. + +To be sure Lawrence did not get his name just right, but then many +people did not come that near when they first heard it. Besides, what +of that? Had he not looked at him and addressed him twice? That was +more than most freshmen could say. + +But it hurt a little the next day, when Darnell changed his mind +about going to the library because he saw that if he kept on up the +walk he would meet Lawrence coming toward Dickinson's with three other +seniors. For he received only an absent-minded glance without the +movement of an eyelash. But you could not expect Lawrence to remember +all the people he met. And, perhaps, he was worshipped all the more +for it. + +On Sunday he used to gaze with his big brown eyes from his seat in the +freshman section way over through the juniors and past some of the +seniors, back to Lawrence's place. Sometimes a big head of football +hair was in the way, so that he could not tell whether he was there. +He was absent so frequently. But when they all arose to sing the first +hymn, then he could see, and then he would recall what the football +column in the paper he had been reading before chapel reported that +"President Lawrence" had done or said, and he wondered whether he +himself had read it and how it felt to see one's own words in type. + +He seldom joined in the singing, Darnell noticed, unless it was "Ein +Feste Burg" or "Lead, Kindly Light," and though he could not tell why, +Darnell admired him all the more for his not singing every time. At +any rate, it was just like him to stand there with his hands in his +pockets and his aristocratic head thrown back and look dark and grave +and mysterious. He always looked especially so, Darnell thought, in +chapel. His mien seemed to be haughty and kingly, not merely dignified +and exclusive like that of many upper-classmen. Lawrence when a +freshman could never have been hazed or guyed. He could not imagine +him stooping to haze anyone either. + +Lawrence could do anything. Anyone could see that from his eyes and +chin and the straight, firm mouth with the thin lips. Darnell knew +very well that Lawrence could stand high in his class if he wanted to. +Probably he could play football. He was built well enough. Darnell +thought it would not be quite Lawrence's style to play football. He +would hate to see him tackled or rolling in the mud. That would never +do for him. Lawrence, he thought, would not have played on the team if +he were asked. Darnell had been a Princeton man less than a month. + +But he had what was far better than playing on the team--the +management of it. And he was just right as he was. He was a dignified, +weighty senior, respected by all and feared by many, no doubt, and a +man, not a boy, who had travelled much and lived much and had had all +sorts of experiences in his younger days. He was old now, nearly +twenty-two. + +But the most wonderful thing about him was his composure and his +commanding reserve. He had the look of the gentleman. His manner +seemed altogether impervious to excitement. He was master of every +situation. To have such a man in their classes must have been rather +embarrassing to the professors. Darnell supposed that the other +Lawrences were rather afraid of him when he came home. + +His perfect command of himself and of everyone and of everything about +him was what most impressed the freshman. That was the reason that +when his idol fell, it jarred him. + + * * * * * + +On Thanksgiving evening his head was throbbing and his ears ringing +with the echo of horns and cheers, and before his eyes were flashing +little kodak recollections of how the line looked when the ball was +put in play, and how the crowd waved and yelled when the full-back +tried for a goal. But there was a lot of aunts and cousins and +things-in-law for dinner, whom he had to kiss and smile at when they +said, "How you have grown!" He wanted to get near some class-mate and +put his arm about him and talk it all over, like any other healthy +young man after the game. And, as early as he decently could, he +slipped on his big new coat and stole out by the basement door. + +He walked down the avenue to Madison Square, getting jostled and +excited once more. Noisy gangs of fours and eights and dozens were +marching and dancing along the street. Some wore orange, others blue. +Some were students at various colleges, most of them had never seen +one. + +He went into the Hoffman. Closely packed streams of men were crowding +in and out. The air was hot and there was a confused din of many +voices. He worked his way to the end of the glaring room, but saw none +of his intimates and but few fellows that he had ever seen before. +Most of the crowd were of the sort he had seen on the street, young +men of the town with college ribbons all over them, and such +boisterous noises grated on him, so he started out again. Some hoarse +cheering and husky laughter made him turn and look toward the corner +where the throng was thickest. Then he hurriedly pushed his way +through the crowd to gain a nearer view of what he saw upon the table. + +He tried to persuade himself that it was someone else. He did not +understand how he could be among people of this sort. + +But there was no mistaking that mouth, though he had never seen the +hair hanging down that way, nor the eyes as they were now. About the +neck was the rim of a hat. + +Suddenly two other fellows brushed past Darnell. He looked up and +thought he remembered having seen their faces on the campus. They +seemed to be excited, and they wedged their way roughly through the +crowd to the table. "Leave him alone," one of them was calling out +above the din. Brushing aside some slight interference, they picked up +the heap from the table, half carried it through the crowd, saying, as +they went along, "You're all right, Harry. Brace up, Harry, you're all +right," and paying no attention to the crowd, they hurried across the +room to the Twenty-fourth Street entrance and disappeared. + +For a moment the freshman only stared at a long, tall clock and +wondered. Then he suddenly turned and hurried out into the street. + +It was no affair of his. The others were there. They were the ones to +take care of him. But the electric light had given him one glimpse, +and for the moment it was very revolting. He turned and walked slowly +home. + +He tried to reason himself out of it. It was nothing to feel so queer +over. It was not such a terrible thing, after all, especially after +having the game turn out as it did. Most every young man was +indiscreet at some time or other. Lawrence was a young man like many +others, only he happened to have been indiscreet under unfortunate +circumstances. That was all. It seemed worse than it really was. + +But he did not want Lawrence to be like others. That was just the +point. If it had been someone else he would not have cared. But for +Harry Lawrence, Lawrence the superb, his Lawrence, there in that +glaring place--jeered at and made a fool of--by that mob of muckers. +It was all wrong. + +"Well," he said to himself, as he went upstairs to his room, "I +suppose I'm too much of a kid, and I'll have to get over my kid ways +of looking at things. The sooner the better." + +But all the same, it hurt, and when he was dropping off to sleep, he +was startled into wakefulness again by one of those queer, sudden +pangs which make one ask, "What is it I've lost?" + + + + +THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LAWRENCE + + +I + +Many fellows seem to think that all an athletic officer has to do is +to look important and travel about the United States with his team and +make out a bill for expenses. + +It's easy enough to carry a japanned tin box, and sell tickets through +a hole where the wind blows, as treasurer. As president it is a fine +thing to make frequent trips to New York, and attend conclaves that +are secret, and make speeches in conventions and read your opinions +next morning in the paper in fine long sentences prefixed with +"President So-and-so said last night," and to be lunched by famous +authorities and interviewed by rapacious reporters who think that +because the public supports football they have a right to see all the +inside workings of intercollegiate diplomacy. All this is the pretty +part of it. + +But like all greatness there is a deal of hard hustling and +perspiration and discouragement and annoyance underneath. So much so, +that one seldom has time to tell himself how fine a thing it is to +wear a 'varsity blazer with the orange monogram on the breast-pocket. +And this is usually heavy with bills to pay and memoranda of things to +see to. Besides, the responsibility is tremendous. + + * * * * * + +H. Lawrence, Ninety Blank, had blood-shot eyes this morning, and he +hurried down the clattering iron stairs of West College tying his +neck-tie. As the ugly entry door slammed behind him he did not put his +hands in his pockets and begin to whistle, as he used to do in +under-classman days, because he was not sauntering over to Reunion to +smoke a pipe, or down to Witherspoon to loaf until the next lecture. +He glanced at the clock in old North tower and hit up his pace. + +He had given orders to the team to be at the station with their grips +packed at 9.38, and before that time he had to wire a member of the +Graduate Advisory Committee, asking where he could find him that +evening, and to an official of the Manhattan Athletic Club that he +should not be able to consider his proposition at present, and to the +manager of a Southern college football team that he regretted that all +Princeton's open dates were now filled, and to the Jersey City Station +restaurant to prepare a luncheon of training food for twenty men, and +not to roast the beef to death this time. After that he would have to +call upon the dean and find out whether the faculty had decided to let +Harrison play football or not, and find and be nice to another member +of the faculty who was indignant because seventeen grand stand tickets +had not been saved for him and his wife's relatives at the last +Saturday's game, and then hurry to the station by way of the bank, +where he would ask if they had heard anything more about that +protested check, while he was making a good one out for himself, and +then see to it that all the team and subs were flocked together and +pushed into the train and made to stay there until told to get out and +play football. Some of which would have been more properly the duties +of Sinclair, the treasurer, who was not catching on as rapidly as +Lawrence thought he should. + +He took long, strong strides and looked straight ahead of him, which +was in the direction of an old shop opposite the gate, with a +picturesquely warped roof which he did not see. + +He did not see the fellows along the walk either, and those he did not +cut he nodded to absently without removing his frown. This caused +certain passers-by to shake their heads and say, "Harry Lawrence is +getting a swelled head since he's become so important," especially +those who greatly wanted to be important themselves but weren't, and +so had plenty of time to criticise those who were. + +But Lawrence, with a half dozen unopened letters in his pocket which +he would read on the train going up, did not dream of being +criticised. And if he had he would not have felt very badly about it. +He did not have time. + +Nor would he have had time to stop and thank his good friends Nolan +and Linton, who, when Lawrence had rushed by with one of those +"How-do's" which make one think that one's name has been forgotten, +had looked worried and then said, "Harry'll kill himself before the +end of the season," while Lawrence tore open a telegram with which the +boy met him in front of College Offices and hurried on. He had no time +for breakfast, because the man had forgotten to wake him, and the +night before he had been handling the files of applications for the +Thanksgiving game seats with Sinclair and dictating to a stenographer +until 2 A.M. + +Every evening from eight until midnight there was a reception in his +room, with Sinclair to help receive. It began when they came in from +the club after dinner, with a workman or two from the town waiting in +the entry, who touched their hats and said, "Please, sir, Mr. McMaster +says this bill is correct." Then would come members of the team who +wanted the management to remove conditions for them, and coachers who +wanted to talk serious business and had but a short time to spare, and +some of the fellows who wanted to smoke and chat and seemed hurt when +told to get out; and in addition, the hordes of applicants for seats, +who kept running in and out, incessantly buzzing in the management's +ears like flies, and just as pestiferously merciless, from eight until +twelve, when the door was locked. + +These represented all phases of college life, from the professor who +"never incurred any difficulty in getting all the seats he wanted in +previous years" to the young freshman whose mother knew the +management's mother, and thought he might be especially considered for +that reason, and including class-mates who made it a personal matter +of friendship, and thought they ought to be considered ahead of mere +strangers for that reason. Also emissaries from a certain woman's +college, who must have tickets before they are put on sale, because +the poor, timid girls could not stand in line with all those men, and +cousins of members of the team, and many others, all of whom furnished +an excellent reason for being entitled to just a little more +consideration than anyone else. None of which counted them anything in +Lawrence's reign. + +But this was not what made Lawrence scowl and look fierce as he +hurried by a little, wistful-eyed freshman, whom he did not see, and +who had been hoping all the way from the First Church gate to the +dean's that maybe this time the senior would recognize him. Lawrence +was used to all this, and he liked it. He liked having a lot of things +to attend to in a short time, to see many people and give orders and +talk fast and feel his brain warm with quick thinking. He enjoyed +responsibility, and he thought it was thrilling to get in a situation +and then take a long breath, so to speak, and command it. Nor was he +too old to fully appreciate his privilege of being on intimate terms +with ancient heroes of the football field, and he was glad to be +thrown with so many other prominent alumni. And he took great +satisfaction in watching the long-headed Advisory men begin to +acknowledge by their attitude that although an undergraduate he had +reliable executive ability and somewhat of independent resource +besides. One of them clapped him on the back one day and said, "Good! +That's the proposition we'll make 'em," and added, "You are your +father's own son, Lawrence." + +Except that he would have liked to have a little time to loaf and +enjoy life, he was quite well pleased with being president of the P. +U. F. B. A., and did not care a rap whether the college considered him +arrogant or not. He was attending to his own business and had the +satisfaction of knowing that he was doing it rather well, with the +attendant satisfaction of having had the honorable position given him +by the vote of the college body without his or his friends' +boot-licking one of them for it. And that is one of the most +satisfactory feelings in the world. + +The thing that troubled him was a letter in his pocket. That was the +reason that when the ninth old grad. approached him on the field and +said, "Say, Lawrence, just between us now, what do you think of the +chances with Yale?" he replied, curtly, "How do I know?" and hurried +on up the side lines. This was decidedly fresh, and he jumped on +himself afterward because he did not believe in letting private +affairs interfere with business. Usually he could stand a dozen old +graduates. + +The letter had come the day before. It was from his father and +enclosed Lawrence's November allowance. He never received but one +letter a month from the governor, and it nearly always contained two +statements: "Enclosed please find ..." and "Your mother and all are +well," both of which make very agreeable reading. + +This time the letter was not dictated, but written in the Colonel's +own small, straight hand, and there was an extra paragraph. It ran +thus: "Had I known what this official position of yours involved, the +amount of time, the number and variety of interruptions, and the +vulgar prominence that your name and movements occupy in the press, I +should never have given my consent, which, as you may remember, I did +reluctantly, to your acceptance of it. In my opinion what you are +learning at college could better be acquired at home: a little of +business down-town with me, your _other accomplishments_ up-town in +the clubs and other places with your friends." This was not the sort +of letter to do any good. + +"'Your other accomplishments'--now what the devil does he mean by +that, I wonder?" thought Lawrence. And then he folded the letter and +tossed it into a pigeon-hole marked "Unanswered," and turned his +attention upon a large blue-print marked "Stand B" and tried to assure +himself that the reason his mind kept jumping back to pigeon-hole +"Unanswered" was because he was sorry at being too busy to study, and +disliked having such a low stand in class. But it wasn't his class +standing that kept him awake until old North struck five. + +After this when in New York he did not go up-town to dine with the +family as often as formerly. When he did his father merely said, +"Judge Hitchcock told me he saw you on Broadway last Wednesday," and +similar remarks in a casual tone. + +"Yes, sir," Harry would reply, with his attention on the crest on his +plate. + +Then each would wonder what the other meant, until Helen would +interrupt with, "By the way, I saw by the _Tribune_ this morning that +'President Lawrence of Princeton' says that Yale will beat Harvard at +Springfield. So it's all right then, Winston." He was her husband, +Yale '86, and Helen was a good sister, who had a large intuition and +knew things. + +On Thanksgiving Day the College of New Jersey went up to New York +feeling quite certain of winning the game. The alumni said we would +win. The heelers doubled their bets. The coachers were sure we'd win. +Most of the authorities conceded the victory to Princeton. The team +were confident of winning. Yale won. + +During the dinner after the game, Lawrence was dignified and silent. +People thought he was rattled, if anyone thought about anything else +than the one big, sad fact. He presided gracefully though. He was very +good to look at. The dinner, which is usually very long, was wound up +early, few being unwilling, and Lawrence helped put one of the +blubbering backs to bed who had taken too much for a training stomach +and head. Then he went downstairs, saying, "Now, then, my +responsibility is over with. I am going to have a good time." + + +II + +He had done it hard because he did everything hard. It had lasted +several days and ended in a hospital in West Philadelphia, where he +had three stitches put in his forehead. Now he was back in his old +room in West College, with a pipe in his mouth, drumming on the arms +of his chair and staring straight at his feet, which were upon the +roller-top desk. Dark rings were under his eyes and he told himself +that he had had a good time. + +He was thinking that it was quite a storybook coincidence that they +should have come together, those two letters. They were so different +and yet so much the complement of each other. + +The first was from his father. He had torn it open with his pen, as he +would any other letter, and though he saw that it was several pages in +length and knew intuitively that it would not be like any other letter +he had ever read, he had deliberately rolled up the envelope to get a +light for his pipe from the fire, and he had stretched out in the +chair again as he was before, with his legs sprawled out in front and +elbows resting on the arms, holding the letter before his face. + +Then he had commenced to smoke very hard, and presently stopped +rocking back and forth as he read the words written in that clear, +even hand, without a flourish or a superfluous mark, words that had +caused him to gnaw the mouth-piece of his pipe as they burned their +way into him. And all the while he pictured to himself a tall figure +in a smoking-jacket trimmed with white braid sitting up straight and +rigid at his desk in the corner of the cosey inner room of the office +in William Street, and recalled how once, when an absconding clerk had +left a temporary cloud on the name of the firm, the old, steely eyes +had flashed under the lowering brows as the old gentleman had taken +his seat at the breakfast-table, where he ate nothing. + +The letter sounded very like the governor. There was no mistaking its +meaning. It was a succinct and comprehensive report of dissatisfaction +at the younger Lawrence's methods, with a list of debts of filial +affection and memoranda of overdraws on parental patience covering the +last three years, and accompanied by a brief prospectus for the +unpromising future. It was the sort of a letter he would have fancied +a stately old gentleman like his father that was proud of his name +writing to a son like himself that had disgraced it. + +Only it would have been just as well, Lawrence thought, to have +omitted that part of the letter. He was quite willing to admit most of +the hard things his father said of him because they were facts, but +this about dishonorable cowardice and the family name was going a +little too far, and he told himself that he did not quite see how he +could stand that from anyone. And he sat up straight and pressed hard +on the arms of his chair and looked very like the indignant old +Colonel who had written the words. + +It was uncalled for, it was unjust, it was ridiculous. If his father +would stop to think of things as they really were in this world, +thought Lawrence, Ninety Blank, these little shortcomings of his would +not appear a bit worse than those of some of the very same young men +in town whose industry and clean business ability the Colonel so much +admired, and whom he spoke of as the hope or flower or something of +Manhattan's commercial supremacy or something. + +It was merely that he happened to be indiscreet the last time he was +having a good time. He had made a little too much noise, and the echo +had reached a number of people in town. That was all. It was hard +luck, but it did not amount to enough to become dramatic over. Merely +because his great-grandfather did something and his grandfather was +something was no reason, as far as he could see, why the Lawrences +should have unique moral standards. The governor was certainly getting +old. + +Then he had carefully arranged the leaves of the letter in order, +mechanically folded and put them in a pigeon-hole of the desk, and +opened and spread out the other letter before him. But he did so +unconsciously, for he was staring straight out ahead of him into the +face of the future, which had expressionless features. His father had +concluded with "Signify to me at once your intention of a complete +change in your career, or, notwithstanding your nearness to +graduation, I shall take you out of college and put you at work in Van +Brunt's." That is not the way a boy likes to be written to. + +"Oh, no, I don't think I'd do all that if I were you." He could not +abide his father's tone when he spoke of _taking_ him out of college +or _putting_ him at work, or doing anything with him. He was still +young enough not to fancy being considered young. + +And then the actuality of the situation occurred to him, and he was +reminded that although twenty-one he had not a cent of his own, and +that there was no place in the world to go to or a thing that he could +do to make money enough to even pay his debts. + +"Picture of a young man taken out of college because he is bad." He +smiled broadly at himself in the glass over the mantelpiece. But it +wasn't very funny. + +And it was at this point that he dropped his eyes to read his father's +words once more, and was startled for an instant to see a strange +handwriting, and then remembered the other letter. He was again +startled by the first words that met his glance. "Haven't you had +enough of college?" At the top of the paper was the name of a La Salle +Street, Chicago, firm. It was not so very queer after all. It was only +that it was so startlingly apropos. He read the letter in eager gulps. +Then he read it again. + +It was from his friend Clark, who had been so kind to him when he was +out there. And now he was still more kind. It was singular that the +offer should come just now, on that very day, at that very hour. He +would wire back his acceptance that afternoon. "Now, of course, it is +too bad to make you stop in the middle of your last year," the letter +ran, "but we can't hold it open after the first of January. I know +what a big concession you consider it for a New Yorker to come to +Chicago, but you know better than to be prejudiced. You know the crowd +you'll blow with and the clubs you'll be in, and as the situation is +something extraordinary to be offered to so young a man, I hope you'll +wire me your acceptance at once. The mature judgment you showed in +conducting...." These words came to his heated brain like a cool +lake-breeze. This was what he wanted more than anything else in the +world just now, to get away from his present surroundings, and to +start anew, where he would be his own master, making his own money and +disposing of it as it suited him, and responsible to no one for the +use he made of it or his time. He wanted to be free. + +The bell in Old North broke in on him. He looked at the clock on the +mantelpiece, and was surprised to see that it was only four, and that +it must have been but a half hour since he received those two letters. +Then he remembered that he had a lecture at that hour. It made him +smile to think of it. + +But, it occurred to him, it would be a right good idea to go--he would +be going to few enough more--anything to get out of the close +atmosphere of the room and interrupt the current of his thought. For +his thoughts were chasing each other about in a circle, and they would +not stop, although he pressed his forehead with both hands, as he used +to do during the football season. Lately his brain had taken to +behaving in a very queer manner, and a fellow he knew at the College +of Physicians and Surgeons had told him that if he did not stop +worrying about things he would have neurasthenia or something as ugly +sounding as that. + +As he opened the entry door and stepped out into the open air of the +campus, the old bell began throbbing, clear and strong, in his ears. +It somehow recalled freshman year and how he used to run to reach his +seat before it stopped ringing. + +He was in the crowded quadrangle now, with fellows all about him with +books or note-books under their arms, whistling and singing and +hallooing and scraping their feet along the walks just as they had +always done. Over in front of Reunion was the usual crowd kicking +football and squabbling over their points. The side over by College +Offices was shouting exultingly "Nine to seven!" and a fellow on the +side near by was announcing with equal conviction, as he turned the +ball over in his hands to punt, "Eight to seven." Lawrence found +himself saying "Eight to seven," and mechanically watched the ball as +it sailed through the air and lodged up in one of the second-story +balconies, and stopped to listen to them set up the cry, just as he +knew they were going to, "Thank you, up there, please, thank you-u-u!" + +It struck him as queer that all this was going on just as it always +had, without a single variation to show that this day was different +from other days. It seemed odd to think that he was not to be a part +of this any more. It somehow seemed more odd than sad. He told himself +that it would be a great relief to fly far away from it all. + +Down the walk came a group of his own class-mates, carelessly +slouching along from lecture, laughing and joking, with their arms on +one another's shoulders. It was Linton and Nolan and Stehman and +others. "Hello, there, Harry!" they said and passed on down the walk. +Lawrence turned and watched them. He had replied to their salute in +his usual manner. It had seemed natural and his voice was in perfect +imitation of heartiness, and yet he could not help thinking how little +difference it would make to him if they all fell down dead. The sight +of them bothered, Nolan's bow legs annoyed him. He hoped he would +never see Nolan again. And this was Billy Nolan! + +The bell was echoing and re-echoing in his ears, and each stroke +fairly made him jump. The sight of so many people and the knowledge +that there were others behind him were beginning to give him a feeling +of distress. He felt that he could not stand having so many people +press close to him. It was somehow rattling him. Everything he saw +hurt, and he only wanted to get far away from it all. For he told +himself that he hated the campus and its life, and everything that had +to do with it. The very expression of the buildings was offensive to +him. He wanted to upset the wheelbarrow and its sticky contents when +old black Jimmie touched his hat to him, and he felt like kicking two +innocent seminoles that hurried past with quick, conscientious steps +that made their coat-tails flap behind. All of this was nervous +nonsense, and he knew it. + +He left the crowded walk and walked over toward the cannon and leaned +against a nearby elm-tree. Then he fixed his gaze steadily upon the +top of the old cannon and tried to think of nothing else. He had +learned to take himself in hand this way during his overworked +football season. "It isn't so bad as all this," he said aloud to +himself. "You are still rocky and your blamed nerves are getting in +their work again. That's all it is. Now, then, hold on. You aren't a +hysterical little school-girl, you know." + +In a moment he started on toward Dickinson Hall again. "We are going +to a lecture now," he explained to himself in a whisper, "and we're +going to hear lots of interesting things. We can talk over all those +other matters later on. There's plenty of time, plenty of time." + +He took a long, full breath, as though to hold on tight, and threw up +his head and looked squarely into a pair of brown eyes that were +gazing intently at him. It was That Freshman. + +He had often wondered why he was constantly running across this same +little freshman with the sensitive mouth and the large, thoughtful +eyes. He did not know his name, but he enjoyed observing from the +patronizing height of a senior an air of delicate refinement in the +features and movements of the boy. Sometimes when in a good humor he +nodded to him. But just now the peculiar wistful gaze breaking in on +him in his tossed-up state of mind seemed eerie. For an instant he had +a feeling of guilty fright, as if caught doing something. And then, +because angry with himself for being startled by a freshman, he +blurted out, in a husky voice, "Oh, what do you want?" + +The under-classman blushed and stepped back. He said something +incoherent ending with "Why--er--nothing-- I beg pardon." He attempted +a smile, failed, colored more than ever, dropped his eyes in +embarrassment, and with a sort of shiver turned on his heel. + +The senior, with his own harsh voice still echoing in his ear, stood +there with his hands in his pockets watching the younger boy shrinking +before him. Then something inside of him was touched. He felt how +brutally rude he had been, and he wanted to make amends for it. He +felt more than that. He wanted to be kind to this boy with the refined +face; he wanted to be tender toward him, to protect him, or something +queer and wild like that. Though he did not acknowledge it to himself +tears were ready to come to his dark, blood-shot eyes with the dark +rings under them, and he had an impulse to throw his arm about the +freshman's shoulder and say: "You dear little fellow!" Neurasthenia +could account for some of this. + +As it was he turned and followed the freshman from the side of the new +bulletin-elm, where this took place, to the corner of the Old North. +Here, hardly realizing what he was doing, he touched his shoulder and +said, in a gruff voice, though he did not mean it to be, "Don't you +want to take a walk?" + +But even if he had stopped to think about its being an odd thing to +do, it would have made no difference. He was hardly in a mood for +considering conventionalities. + +After awhile he found himself walking with the freshman way out toward +the Prep. school. To the left was the old view of rolling fields and +the gentle hill. Underfoot were the uneven stones of the old walk with +water-puddles in the hollowed-out places. And there beside him walked +the freshman, talking in a natural tone about a fine tennis-player +that he thought was coming to college next year. It was all quite as +if it were an ordinary occurrence. + +Lawrence could remember the freshman's look of surprise as they +started across the campus, and he recollected murmuring some apology +for his rudeness by saying that he thought it was someone else at +first. Then he must have started the conversation by asking the +freshman what recitation he had just had. But after that it was all a +blank until now. He was under the impression that he had been nodding +to people, but he could not remember who they were or anything about +them except a big-visored, faded crimson cap that someone had on. +Probably he had been carrying on the conversation automatically with +the freshman, but it must have been all right, for the boy did not +look as though anything strange had happened. But a very great deal +had. + +Perhaps it was a sort of hypnotism, though very likely it could be +explained as nothing of the kind, but at any rate from the moment his +thoughts had been stopped with a jerk at meeting the freshman they had +taken a different turn. With the boy at his side and his gentle voice +in his ears Lawrence had begun thinking about another red-cheeked boy +he had known once; and it seemed much more than four years ago. He +felt again the very expression of those old bright days at school when +he took prizes and played on the eleven. He remembered the old field +and how the afternoon sun used to reflect from one of the windows near +by. There came back to him the very odor of the polished desk in the +school-room where he scratched H. L. L., and all the little details of +those dear old days of happy monotony and innocent amusements. He felt +again the old excitement of an approaching vacation. He remembered how +he used to check off the days on the calendar over the mantelpiece, +and he remembered the first trip he took home alone and the blue +serge suit he wore, of which he was so proud, and how he wondered who +would meet him at the station, and best of all, how he used to jump +out of the carriage and run up the steps of home and meet the one that +came out into the hall to meet him. Joyously and innocently he used to +look up into the soft gray eyes that seemed to say, "I am proud of my +boy." But that was a peculiar thing to think of just now. A passage in +his father's letter occurred to him. "Of course I did not, nor shall I +advise your mother of all this"--he had had to turn the page, he +remembered, to find the rest of it--"it would break her heart." "Of +course," he said to himself, hurriedly, "it wouldn't do at all." Then +he thought he did not care to dwell upon old times any more. It was at +this point that he awoke, so to speak, and found himself walking with +this freshman whose name he did not know. + +But instead of everything springing back to actuality immediately as +one would suppose, it took some time to hammer things into seeming as +they really were in their proper proportions. It was like trying to +act sober. He began by paying conscious attention to what his young +friend was saying. + +After all he was only a freshman. He talked like any other fellow +except that his voice was more gentle, and he had a deferential manner +when addressing him. Though rather young to be in college and of +unusual appearance, there was not enough about him to affect a fellow +in such a queer sentimental way. + +And yet he did. To Lawrence he seemed different from everyone else in +the world. He had never experienced this peculiar melting feeling +toward anyone before. What was more, he liked it, and he had no +thought of laughing himself out of it. He had an undefined idea that +it was doing him good. He felt like clinging close to this companion +who was younger and seemed so many times better and purer than +himself. + +Then suddenly the senior was struck by something he had not remarked +before. He waited a moment to make sure. Then it came again. There was +no mistaking it this time. The refined voice was dragging in profanity +at absurdly frequent intervals, with every other sentence almost. He +had very likely been doing so all along. And the odd part of this was +that every word of it was making Lawrence wince and shiver like seeing +a respectable woman drunk. It was none of his business. It was all +nonsense. The expletives were not very bad ones anyway. But he did +not care to stand any more of this; and as abruptly as he had proposed +the walk he said: "Oh, excuse me, I have an engagement," and turned +rapidly toward the campus. Perhaps neurasthenia had a hand in this +also. + +He did not stop to see how the freshman took it. He did not want to +think of him now. He fairly ran up Nassau Street with a feeling as +though someone was after him. He rushed past the fellows along the +walk and nearly bumped into the three old professors starting off with +the Irish setter for their sedate evening stroll. He was trembling +when he reached his room, and he slammed the door and threw himself +down on the rug before the fire. + +He knew something was coming. He knew what it was, too, but he was +going to fight it off as long as he could. He drew the end of the fur +skin up over his head and pressed hard with both hands, as though that +would keep him from thinking of what he did not want to think. Then he +rubbed the back of his hand across his wet brow and tried to sneer the +thing away as he had always been able to do at other times. But this +was not at all like any of the other times, and it would not work. +Besides his nerves were in no shape for a fight of this sort, and he +soon gave up. He let his head fall back against the rug and he lay +there flat on the floor while the aching thoughts came soaking over +him. All this had been accumulating for many days. The freshman had +set it off. + +And it was not as if he had only a little to feel sorry over. He could +not even say, "I'm no worse than most fellows," for he had gone quite +far indeed, much farther than anyone in the world, except two or +three, had any idea of, and he had things to remember that very few +older sinners than he would often care to think about. It seemed so +certain to him now, as he lay there breathing hard and staring at the +fire as though expecting it to jump out at him, that these +remembrances were never going to let up on him for a single moment; as +long as he lived, no matter how he might live in the future, these +unforgetable things were, from this time on, to rise up and spoil +every bit of sweetness in life for him. + +But that was not what hurt the most. It was just and reasonable that +all that should be as it was. It was the thought of his people at home +that was making him squirm and roll over toward the desk and then back +again toward the fire. What had they done to deserve this? He could +not understand. Aside from all consideration of right and wrong, or +wisdom and folly, he was astounded at the thought of how a fellow +could be so dead, dead unkind. It would not seem possible at first. He +kept asking himself, "Is this really true? Is it really true?" + +For an hour he lay there on the floor, with his remorse and his sick +nerves, telling himself the kind of a fellow he was, while the rest of +the college went to dinner. + +After this came the reaction, the natural instincts of love and +yearning for the home that he had left. He told himself how that +vacations would come, and little Dick, the prep., would come, and +Helen and all would come out there to the old place on Long +Island--all but one. His place at the table would be vacant. No, there +would be no place for him. They would avoid mentioning his name. They +would change the subject when visitors referred to him. After awhile +visitors would learn not to refer to him. He would be known as "the +one that went to the devil." + +All his self-reliance had been squeezed out of him. He did not care to +be independent now. He did not want to be free. He wanted--oh, how he +wanted!--a place to go to and people to care about him, like everyone +else. He shrank from the thought of standing alone. He did not feel +equal to it. He felt himself to be nothing but a boy, after all, a +bad, foolish, wilful, sick boy, and he wanted to run home and, just +for once, let his throbbing head fall into his mother's lap and have +her hands smooth the ache out of it. But of course he could do nothing +of the sort. + +The more he thought of it the more impossible it appeared. Why, for +four years--he half arose from the rug and his face became hot at the +thought of it--for four years he had been doing things that she would +not believe him capable of; not if he told her himself. No, he was not +going to sneak into the home-fold like a cowardly prodigal, bleating, +"I have been a bad little boy, papa. Take me back, and I'll promise +not to be bad any more." He was not that kind. He deserved his husks, +and he meant to chew them, even though they stuck in his throat. To +keep away, he showed himself, was one means left him to regain a +little of the self-respect that he had lost. + +Then he arose with something of his former indifference and laughed at +himself a little. "You've felt sorry for yourself long enough," he +said aloud; "what you've got to do now is to make the best of it." He +started toward the desk to take the first steps toward making the +best of it. He stopped in the middle of the room and looked about at +the pictures and the pipes and the books. "I'm done with college," he +said, briskly. "Now I feel better." + +He lighted a pipe to show himself how much better he felt, and began +to word a telegram to Clark. That would finish a good day's work, he +thought. A very long day it seemed, too. Some things were hazy and +dream-like. That walk with the freshman-- But he did not want to think +about that, and he wrote down "W. G. Clark, care West, Houston & Co." + +Yet, though he tried not to listen, there began coming up to him the +tones of the gentle voice dragging in profanity with such pathetic +pains. "But I don't want to think about that!" Lawrence exclaimed. But +all the while he wrote the message he heard the timid voice with the +incongruous words. + +"I wish you wouldn't do that," he said aloud. "It bothers me. Why do +you want to do that?" He dipped his pen in the ink and held it there. +Why did he? Then it came over him with a blush of shame that it was +doubtless to find favor in his sight. Most people would have guessed +it before. + +And then something flashed through his mind, something that he had +heard early in the term. A freshman named Jansen, whom he had looked +out for when he first arrived, had told him of a freshman that was +always talking and asking questions about him. Lawrence had entirely +forgotten this, and the recollection of it made him start up from his +seat. This accounted for the freshman's haunting him on the campus, +gazing at him, imitating his style of dress even. + +It was quite ridiculous. He tried to sneer it out of his mind. But he +could not. He was finding that there were some things that could not +be sneered away. But that was not all. + +A big question met him like a huge, choking wave--"What will this +boy's future be?" And Lawrence pleaded, "Oh, let me alone! Never mind +all that." + +The wave drew back and another came drenching over him--"Will he do as +you have done?" + +"Don't, please don't!" cried Lawrence. There came up before him in his +sick mind lurid, revolting scenes, and in them a fair-faced boy with a +sensitive mouth learning to like it all. Then came a third wave--"Who +will be responsible? What are you going to do about it?" This was a +little too much for Lawrence. He felt powerless to think it out just +now. He would need time for this. Unconsciously he stepped back to +the rug. He lay there, very quiet, almost motionless, until far into +the night. + +Then he arose, a very different boy from Lawrence the President, +greatly feared of under-classmen, and felt his way through the dark to +the bedroom. Here he locked the door and prayed to God, as he had been +brought up to do. + +The next morning one of the clerks, harrying by the ticker where +Colonel Lawrence seemed to be bending over the tape, suddenly +exclaimed, "Why, what is it, sir? Nothing serious, I hope?" + +Old Colonel Lawrence, drawing himself up and gazing straight ahead of +him as he crumpled a telegram in his hand, made answer, "No. My son is +coming home to spend Sunday with me. That is all." + +The clerk did not know that they were tears of joy. + + + + +FIXING THAT FRESHMAN + + +I + +Lawrence, Ninety Blank, wearily knocked four under-classmen off the +walk on the way from the railway station to West College. Then, +feeling better, he dragged himself up the entry stairs, threw his +suit-case at the bedroom portière with a sigh of relief and himself on +the divan with a sense of having done his duty. + +The Glee, Banjo, and Mandolin Clubs had just returned from their +Christmas holiday tour through the South. The trip had been a success +both in the money and the fine impression the clubs had made, which +latter would advertise the college. And that is the object of this +enterprise and is too valuable for the trustees to abolish. + +They had travelled in a special train of private cars lent by the +parents of some of the members. They had had a very good time, because +a Glee club trip is always bound to have that, and because Southern +people know how to help young men in this respect about as well as +any people in the world. Lawrence was glad it was over. + +He had not intended to go on the trip this year. He had been on the +club since he was a freshman. He knew all there was to know about it, +and there could be little novelty in this sort of thing for him. But +that was not the reason. + +Of course it was not. Harry Lawrence enjoyed travelling about the +country with a rollicking lot of congenial fellows, and being made +much of by old grads., and admired before the glare of foot-lights by +millions of attractive girls, and dancing with them afterwards until +three o'clock in the morning, like any other normal, healthy young +man. It was not because he was _blasé_. He wasn't that sort of fool. + +In the first place Lawrence had suddenly gone home, early in December, +with something pronounced by a little, short doctor with mild blue +eyes which saw everything to be a form of neurasthenia. This was +brought on by overwork and worry and other causes. He had held a +position of considerable responsibility during the football season. He +had worried over it a good deal. + +Although, when he reached home, he braced up with astonishing +rapidity, he conceived a notion that instead of flying over the United +States at the rate of ever so many miles an hour, he would like very +well to sit still and yawn by the fireplace at home with slippers on. + +His mother opened up the old place on Long Island for a part of every +winter, and he thought he could put in a very comfortable +old-fashioned vacation out there with her. He had an idea that it +would do him good to take some long tramps over the meadows with a gun +and a dog, and to spend whole afternoons on a horse with pure country +air whistling in his ears. Perhaps, if he felt right cocky, he might +borrow some pinks of his brother-in-law and ride to the hounds with +his Ass-cousins on New Year's Day. And the evenings would pass +pleasantly enough in fighting with Helen, his married sister, across +the table, and in guying his kid brother Dick, the prep.; and then he +meant to have many long after-dinner smoke-talks with his father, with +whom he had recently become acquainted. It was on this last account, +as much as any, that he wanted to stay at home. + +But one of the second basses had the grip and another a dead +grandmother, and that side of the stage was weak anyway. So Doc. +Devereaux, the leader of the club, followed his two letters and three +telegrams out to Compton on the Sound, and grabbed Lawrence by the +coat-collar. He had brought with him a reprieve from the little +blue-eyed doctor, stating that Lawrence could go if he would promise +to keep on with the hot and cold baths, and to eat tremendously. +Devereaux begged and pleaded, and put it on grounds of personal +friendship. When he shed tears, almost, and said, "For the honor of +old Nassau won't you, Harry?" Lawrence looked bored and said he would +think about it. But only upon condition that Doc would stay for dinner +and spend the night at Compton, which he did. + +When Colonel Lawrence came out from town and had comfortably finished +his dinner, and in his stately fashion had taken out a long black +cigar, Harry, who had been waiting, said, "Now then, father," and told +him why Devereaux was there, and asked him what to do about it. + +Lawrence, Fifty Blank, knocked the ashes off, looked at Lawrence, +Ninety Blank, and took three puffs of smoke. "Well, Harry," he said, +"if the college needs you, there is but one way of looking at it." +Lawrence, the younger, said "Yes, sir," and packed his suit-case. + +Having decided to do his duty, he made up his mind that while he was +about it he would enter into the spirit of the thing and have a good +time. Of course this was not as satisfactory to himself as wearing a +long face and telling himself what a martyr he was, but it was +pleasanter for his friends. + +These trips are not only good fun, they are part of one's education. +They are very broadening. Lawrence wanted to be broad-minded. The only +times he had travelled in his own country were with the Glee Club, and +he thought every young man ought to know something of his fatherland. + +He held that most New Yorkers were narrow-minded in this respect, and +he did not intend to be. New York ways of doing things were good +enough for him, because they were the best, but he wanted to see how +other Americans looked at things; and this showed a generous spirit. + +On a previous trip he had visited a portion of the Western section of +his country, and had brought back several new ideas. For instance, he +was pleasantly surprised to meet girls with the same innate ideas that +he had supposed were the exclusive possession of his friends at home. +That was broadening. Also he had it impressed upon him that young +women living in little towns he had never heard of before had +characteristics, not necessarily innate, which were calculated to make +very young men realize that even members of college dance committees +have a thing or two to learn. Which was still more broadening. + +And now he was in Virginia, surrounded by much dazzling full-pulsed +Southern loveliness. He was meeting people that had been brought up to +consider themselves the aristocracy of the American side of the world, +and they had been cherishing this idea for generations before New York +was more than a trading-post of miserly, Indian-cheating Dutchmen. +They had never heard of the Lawrences of New York and were rather +sorry for anyone that had to live there. And this was broadening. This +was not to be about the Glee Club trip, nor about what Lawrence would +have done if he had not gone, but what happened afterward, and if you +read this story you may skip to here: Lawrence lay on the divan. + +He put his hands back of his head and tried to tell himself how sick +he was of teas and club receptions and convivial old grads. and +applause and dances and chicken-salad and girls. Cinders were in his +hair. What he wanted most in all the world was, first, someone to +carry him to a Turkish bath, second, someone to dress him in his +campus clothes, and third, Billy Nolan to put an arm around and call +names. + +But this reactional feeling he knew was inevitable, and he took it, as +he did his sensation of dirtiness and indigestion, as part of the +game. There was something else to make him fidget and frown on the +divan. + +Lawrence had come back to the slushy old sunshiny campus a very +different fellow from the one that used to climb the stone steps from +the station, but he had had a month in which to become accustomed to +it. Besides, that was nothing to be sour about. He was very well +pleased with being a different sort of a fellow, and had made up his +mind to remain so. In fact, all during the trip he had been thinking +that he could put in a peaceful, comfortable time now for the rest of +his life, if it were not for one thing. + +And as he started across the campus with a roll of corduroys under his +arm, and the intention of taking a bath at the club, the very first +thing he saw was that One Thing. + +There was a "Hunt's Discourse" under his arm, and he was running to +reach his seat before the bell stopped ringing, like any other +freshman. But he was different from every other freshman in the world, +to Lawrence. + +This boy, like some of every freshman class that ever cheered itself +hoarse, was beginning to do things his father had not sent him to +college for. And the senior had an idea that his own example was what +had started the boy; and this, when you stop to think of it, was +extremely conceited in him. He thought he could make the freshman +stop, and this, when you stop to think of it, was a hasty conclusion. + +He thought about it during the time occupied in splashing and +spluttering at the club, and most of the time that he was shivering +and whistling and putting on his ugliest sweater and oldest corduroys +and most disreputable slouch hat, and his brown shooting-coat with +quail blood on it. He even thought of it several times while his hands +were deep down in his pockets and his shoulders were slouched forward +and a pipe was in his mouth and an arm was around Jim Linton and they +were floating about the campus calling hello to everybody that was +back. + +The first thing undertaken by Lawrence, the entirely different, was +the purchasing of some fine large text-books. For his foremost duty +was of course toward himself. + +He had never bought any books since freshman year, but he knew where +they were to be found, and a poler named Stacy gave him a list of the +ones he required. + +They were all nice new copies, with the book-store smell about them. +He did not like second-handed ones, and then, too, he was going to +pole very hard and he might wear them out. Besides, his book bill had +never been large--except in his letters--and he thought he could +afford the extravagance in his senior year. + +He took great pleasure in writing his full name on the fly-leaf with a +blotty pen, Henry Laurence Lawrence, Jr., in a flourishless hand like +his father's. They made quite an imposing pile on the table, and he +felt proud of it. He showed them to the fellows that dropped in that +evening to say, "Glad to see you back," and ask him what he thought of +Southern girls. This took until 2 A.M. So he could not attend to that +other matter until the next day. + +He set the alarm-clock before going to bed and said, "Now, then, +to-morrow I fix my freshman." + +He jumped out with only six hours' sleep, though he had just finished +a long journey and his nerves required more rest, all to make chapel +and see his freshman. He saw him. + +Although he said only, "How do you do?" in a serious tone, he knew +that he was doing his duty, and felt so pleased with himself that he +went to town that afternoon and took a Turkish bath at his place in +Twenty-eighth Street--this was the only way to get the cinders +out--and stole some clean linen from his brother-in-law's top bureau +drawer, and dined with the family at home. Then, because he had not +been with them during Christmas, and because he was to be a poler for +the rest of his college course and would have few such chances, he +stayed over Sunday and was given a pensum for too many unexcused +absences when he came back. + +On Monday, however, he saw his freshman again. It was on Nassau +Street. This time Lawrence said, "Hello there!" He saw him once more +on Tuesday, coming out of Whig Hall, and said, "How are you, Darnell?" +and smiled a little. He saluted the freshman in various ways every day +but one for a week. + +This delighted the freshman very much, but somehow had no effect upon +his morals. Lawrence felt like a man wasting breath, and he did not +believe in wasting breath on under-classmen. This young Darnell was +decidedly unappreciative. Besides it was unwarrantably fresh in him +to give all this trouble to a senior, and Lawrence made up his mind to +some day tell him so. + +If it had been a good hard jumping-on that were needed, Lawrence +thought he could have managed, but this thing required tact and +delicacy, which he hadn't. Some fellows, like Jim Linton, would not +have minded a queer, unconventional situation of this sort. Lawrence +was not that kind. He knew as little about telling a fellow that he +was on the verge of making a fool of himself as he did about informing +people that they had souls, or that they should study hard. It made +him blush to think of it. + +Besides, what force would this sort of thing have coming from +Lawrence, Ninety Blank? That was the disadvantage of having a +reputation like his. Nor could he very well halt the freshman on the +campus and say, "See here. Stop this. I am a good boy now. You also +must be a good boy." Ugh! + +The mid-year examinations would be on in a week or two, or three, and +for the present he was simply obliged to leave off reforming the +freshman--especially as he had decided that it would look nice this +time for his report to go home without any conditions on it. It was +his duty to pole. + +Study, after all, is what one comes to college for. It would doubtless +have displeased his parents if they knew that he was wasting valuable +opportunities, which come but once, over a little freshman who was no +relative of the Lawrences. + +He poled very hard and was conditioned in nothing. So hard did he +work, indeed, that when the long, nervous strain was over there was +very little stuff left in him. At the senior dance, which came on the +evening after the last examination, he ran three girls' cards, and +tried to make each think that she was the only reason he had come. +This has been tried before. The next day he felt a slight touch of the +old trouble. + +He became alarmed about himself, felt his pulse, and decided that he +needed a rest. He spent three days and ten of his new term cuts at +Lakewood. The One of the three girls was there spending Lent. + +When he came back to the campus he bumped against that freshman by the +lamp-post in front of South Reunion. He was walking with a sportive +young class-mate named Thompson, who was a typical little fool, and +Darnell said "Hello, Lawrence!" in a tone which just missed being +fresh, and seemed to mean "See, I'm not such a poler as you thought." +For five minutes Lawrence forgot there was a place called Lakewood, +where tall pines murmur. + +That evening he heard things about his freshman that he did not want +to hear. They were not very bad, but quite enough so to make Lawrence +look up his address in the catalogue. He didn't know how to talk to +freshmen. They nearly all looked alike. But he rang the door-bell. + +It was Saturday evening and Darnell was not in. Lawrence frowned and +held that freshmen had no business leaving their studies at night. He +shook his head and went back to Jim Linton's room. The freshman had +not returned when he called again at eleven. + +Lawrence now thought that he had a right to be indignant. He had left +a comfortable room, a game of whist, and three class-mates, who gave +him many abusive epithets for it, all to talk to this freshman. And +see how he was treated! Besides, it wasn't as if Lawrence wanted +anything of him. What pleasure was it to him to talk to a little ass +freshman? But he was doing his duty anyway. + +It did not discourage him. He was not that sort of a fellow. He only +shook his head and arose early the next morning, which was Sunday. He +hurried through breakfast without stopping to read the papers, and +marched straight to the freshman's room on the way to morning service. + +Darnell was in bed with a throbbing brow and a slight attack of +remorse. Lawrence sat down on a trunk which would have held the +freshman's clothes if he had taken them off, and cut a good sermon by +the dean in order to give himself the chance of preaching one himself. + +"Of course it is not strictly any of my business, but I think you are +making a big mistake. + +"You must know that it is no great pleasure for me to go out of my way +to call a man a fool. But you see I have been through all this myself +and I know very nearly all there is to know about it. I have been a +great fool in college, and if I can do anything that will prevent +another from making the mistakes I made, I ought to go ahead and risk +hurting his feelings. Oughtn't I? There's nothing hypocritical in +that. Is there? + +"This thing of wild oats, Darnell, is all wrong, all nonsense, all +Tommy-rot. You know that as well as I do. Of course many people say-- +But those that say such things are either brutes with no finer +sensibilities, or else they are liars, or else they never had any wild +oats. They don't know what they're talking about. + +"Now, of course, I'm only a very young man, after all. Older men, many +of them, would laugh and call me a young prig, I suppose. But I know +what I'm talking about as regards myself, Darnell. I know the things I +have to think about and cannot forget. I know the things that come up +and stare me in the face and make me ache. I know-- But never mind all +that. + +"This is what I want to ask of you: Tell me--you've had your little +taste of it now, the glamour is rubbed off, you find there is not +quite so much in it as you thought--tell me honestly, my boy, do you +believe it pays? Don't you think that one morning like this, with a +head such as you have now, and the thoughts inside of it, with a sight +of those photographs over there on the bureau, is enough to +counterbalance all the fun there is in a month of last nights?" + +To this long speech the freshman made no reply, because Lawrence did +not say a word of it aloud. In fact most of those grand-stand remarks +were not thought out until late that night in bed, while rolling over +trying to get to sleep. He would not have voiced them to the freshman +anyway. Of course not. + +It certainly was "not strictly his business" to walk into the room of +a nodding acquaintance and call him a fool in long sentences. Lawrence +knew that. And it would have been even worse taste to open up his own +bosom and drag out his own private worries and dangle them before the +eyes of another. It is only in certain short stories that such +absurdities are performed by reserved young men. Lawrence was not that +kind of a fool. + +The Sunday morning conversation ran something like this, while +Lawrence tied and untied the freshman's four-in-hand neck-tie about +the foot-post of the bed: + +"The Fifty-seventh Street Harrisons? Yes, very well. Were they down +there?... Is that so?--to Clint Van Brunt? But I don't like her so +well as her sister. Grace is a smooth dancer though.... At Sherry's +last winter...." And similar nonsense until the conversation swung +round to the prospects of the baseball team, which had recently begun +practice in the cage. Then they both woke up and said something. + +And throughout it all the freshman was wondering why the mighty senior +honored him with a visit, and longing for a drink of very cold water. + +Lawrence told himself that this call was merely to break the ice. You +couldn't expect him to talk about such serious things when they were +hardly acquainted. Could you? + +He went again within a few days. He thought he ought to strike while +the iron was hot. It was in the evening this time, and the freshman +was brighter and better looking. Lawrence liked him more than ever, +only he wished that he would not be quite so deferential toward him. +Also he greatly wished that he would not consider it necessary to tack +those superfluous words to his remarks. It bothered him. They seemed +to come out of the refined mouth side wise. Sometimes they stuck, as +it were, and hung there while Lawrence shivered. And the more obvious +Lawrence made it that he did not consider such emphasis essential to +his own observations, the more frequently did Darnell drag it in. This +was to show the senior that he need not refrain on his account. + +This time Lawrence remained until midnight. They did not once mention +the people they both knew in town. They talked about tramping in the +Harz Mountains. + +It was evident on his third visit that the freshman considered +Lawrence's frequent coming due to approval of his development. He +stuck it on worse than ever. Lawrence was discouraged and looked it. + +The freshman, wondering why his senior friend was so silent, suddenly +lifted his big brown eyes. Lawrence was gazing mournfully at him. +Naturally this made him feel queer. He became rattled and blushed. +Lawrence became rattled and nearly did; and then arose, left abruptly, +and kicked himself all the way up Nassau Street, and all along the +stone walk past the dean's house, by Old North, in front of Reunion, +and into West, where he sneaked up to bed. He did not call again for a +month. + +Meanwhile the freshman was doubtless running as fast as his legs could +carry him, with Thompson and others of that ilk, to the devil. And H. +L. Lawrence, Ninety Blank, who by wicked example had started him +going, was doing nothing to stop him. Which was the very best thing he +could have done. + +For this is a sort of a disease, and if it's there it's bound to +manifest itself, like other things that break out at about this age. +Any fatherly, well-meaning interference, such as a fellow like +Lawrence might offer, would have had directly the opposite of the +desired effect. If you do not believe this, it clearly indicates that +you do not understand it. + +Lawrence did not. He, poor devil, skulked off and tried to forget +about the freshman, like a rejected lover, and, again like one, he +could not, even though he went across the street to avoid meeting +those big eyes. + +Once more he took a long breath and sneaked off to the freshman's room +with a brave lot of kind, smiling advice which he practised saying on +the way over. In a moment he came running back to the campus, shouting +for joy. The freshman was not at home. + +He yelled "Yea" with all his might and danced three times about the +cannon, all alone, like a man back on the campus in midsummer. Then +because it was Princeton someone else yelled "Yea-a!" from over by +Clio Hall. Then Jack Stehman raised his window and yelled "Cork up!" +because he felt like it. Someone in East yeaed back in a shrill voice. +Tommy Tucker stepped out upon his balcony in Reunion and echoed it +mightily. Someone blew a horn, a big Thanksgiving game horn. Others +took it up. Windows were thrown open all over the campus. Many voices +sounded the ancient cry of "Fresh fire! Heads out!" Shotguns banged. +Fire-crackers exploded. Bugles sounded. Distant Dod took up the echo. +Witherspoon Hall was already doing its part. + +Within two minutes Lawrence was joined by a score of fellows who +danced with him about the cannon, yelled "Fresh fier-r-r! Heads out!" +until they had brought everyone out they could, then called "Leg pull. +All over!" and ran back to their rooms again, feeling that they had +done their duty. Windows slammed shut again. A voice from down in +Edwards Hall answered "All over!" Every one went on where he left off. +All felt refreshed and strengthened for their duties, and Lawrence +leaned alone against the cannon. But he too felt better. + +He decided that this was a species of Providential interposition, a +sort of vision as it were, the interpretation of which was that any +man who would allow a little fool freshman to destroy the happiness of +the culminating year of the best period of life in the dearest spot on +earth would be an unmitigated ass. + +He now fell to distracting his mind with work and other things, and +realized the beauty of existence, as all undergraduates should. +Besides the beauty of existence there were others that he was in the +habit of dwelling upon during sunset rambles through the woods down +toward the canal; pretty little foolish thoughts which young men who +are still students and have yet to choose an occupation have no +business in thinking. But the way her hair swept back from that brow +of hers on either side of the chaste part and then swirled-- But that +will do. Lawrence and his affairs already occupy too much space. + +And as suddenly as they were interrupted in that paragraph were his +walking-time thoughts cut short whenever that confounded freshman +loomed up with an arm about the Thompson boy, followed by a brindle +bull-dog and a trail of cigarette-smoke. + + +II + +Gussie Thompson was an angel-faced child with pretty ringlety hair, +and he had come to college from a strict boarding-school with the +intention of making a bad man of himself. And when a boy wants badly +to go to the devil there is no reason why he should find it very +difficult. In this thought I find I have been anticipated by Virgil. + +But though the descent is easy it does not follow that it is always +graceful. Thompson, who was conscientiously trying to do it properly, +had his discouragements and sour balls just as often as the poler who +sat in the next seat and wore trousers that were too short. + +People persistently considered Gussie disgustingly good, when in +reality he was very bad and smoked big black cigars with red and gilt +bands about them. And indeed it is discouraging to walk down to the +football practice with the gang, breathing cigarette-smoke at every +fifth step, and then have some class-mate you have nothing to do with +ask you, before all the fellows, to lead class prayer-meeting the +next Sunday. But all that was over long ago. + +He now wore the dark bad expression without any conscious effort. No +one asked him where the Greek lesson was any more. He seldom had to +blow his breath in fellows' faces. And at the club he was no longer +obliged to blink and say, "How do I look this morning?" they asked of +their own accord, "Full last night, Gus?" just as some people say +"Good-morning." + +One evening, at about the beginning of the season known to some as +"bock beer time," he was in his room surrounded with a few of his own +sort, and a knock came at the door. But it was not a very loud one, so +he did not take the trouble to answer until there came a second knock, +an emphatic one. Then he emptied a lungful of cigarette-smoke and +shouted, "Come in and shut your damn racket." He looked up. + +Lawrence was framed in the door-way, Lawrence the senior, with his +'varsity sweater and his impressive air. + +On the campus Lawrence generally nodded to Thompson, when he +remembered him. Once, not long ago, he had walked up the rear stairs +of Dickinson with him and said, "What do you fellows have at this +hour?" and Gussie wondered when the clubs held their first elections. + +With his words of apology and welcome Thompson felt a wave of +satisfaction at having a gang about the table with cards and beer-mugs +on it. He was glad he had strung the champagne-corks over the +mantel-piece. + +All of the gang had arisen, and yet this was a Princeton room. If the +senior observed the unusual mark he showed little gratitude, for +without seeming to be aware of their presence he said, in his gruff +voice, "When will you be at leisure, Thompson?" and looked at his +watch. + +He was the sort of senior that could do these things, and it had the +desired effect. They all remembered that they had engagements and +picked up their caps and said, "So long, old man," and got out. This +was not done constrainedly but as a perfectly natural thing. And +Gussie beamed. + +The door slammed and the freshman said, "Have a drink, Lawrence." + +The senior said, "No, I thank you," and then contradicted himself, +"Yes, I will take a little of that." He did not approve of little boys +having whiskey in their rooms and big cut-glass decanters on their +bookcases, but he remembered something. "That's good whiskey, +Thompson." Lawrence sipped and whiffed and held his glass to the +light, "excellent whiskey." He gravely smacked his lips. "It reminds +me of some Bourbon they once gave us down in Kentucky, on the Glee +Club trip--in Louisville, I think it was. They called it Pendennis +Club." + +Thompson pushed a cigarette-case across the table. "That's Pendennis +Club," he replied, simply. "A friend of mine down there sends it to +me. I find you can't get good liquor in our part of the country. It's +all rot-gut." He twisted his pretty brows into a scowl and emptied his +small lungs of smoke aimed at the ceiling. + +"I see," said Lawrence, looking interested. + +"You know what they say about Kentucky," the freshman proceeded, "for +good whiskey, fast horses, and pretty women." + +"Yes," said Lawrence. + +The freshman refilled his guest's glass with Pendennis Club and his +own lungs with cigarette-smoke, which he allowed to seek the free air +of the room slowly, with his head tipped back and a mouth twisted +scornfully as he had once seen another devil of a fellow do it, who +said, "I don't give a damn for the girl." All of which was lost on +Lawrence, who was rubbing his chin and looking in the other direction +and wishing he had not come. + +"By the way, Thompson, speaking of horses, how did you come out +playing the races last fall? I often saw you on the train going up--" +this was a lie--"when I was slaving over football. Luck stay by you?" + +Then the freshman leaned back and said things about Futurity Stakes +and plunging at Morris Park and a lucky sixteen-to-one shot, +intermingled with a brave lot of profanity and considerable cigarette +smoke. Lawrence wore the look of a man listening, and thought up what +to say next. + +"By the way, Thompson," only it was not by the way to anything but his +own thoughts, "where's your friend Darnell? I didn't see him with the +others in here." + +"No," said the devil of a fellow, "he won't own up to it, but he's a +good bit of a poler at heart, Lawrence." + +"I did not think it of him," said Lawrence, sincerely. "He's a blame +nice fellow though, isn't he?" + +"Right. He's the best friend I have. He's pretty young and has a lot +of things to learn, but he's a mighty nice man. Awfully clever chap, +too. Wish I had his brains. I believe he comes from very nice people +in New York, doesn't he?" + +"Yes. Thompson, you are dead right in saying he's too young." + +A beam of pleasure shot across his young host's face, which was seen +by Lawrence, who now felt all right, and began to talk. + +"He's entirely too young, Thompson, and the deuce of it is that he +doesn't realize how very young he is. A fellow like that never does. +You know what I mean. And as far as I can see--I think you had the +same thing in mind a moment ago--he is about to make a fool of himself +unless he is very careful. He's entirely too nice a fellow, Thompson, +for anything like that to happen." Lawrence leaned back and put his +feet on the table. + +"You see," he continued, "Darnell tries to do things that you fellows +do, who are more mature, and he doesn't seem to realize that he is +only a boy. Now with you and me it is different. We are older and know +things and have been around a bit and-- You know what I mean. We can +do a lot of things and have a good time and be none the worse for it, +but as for Darnell, why, he's a kid, Thompson, a mere kid." + +Thompson breathed cigarettes and looked judicial. + +Lawrence moved his chair around so that he could lean an elbow on the +table. He looked at the fire through the glass of liquid in his hand. +"Thompson, I'm in a hole. A bad hole, too. I'm going to tell you +about it and maybe ask your advice. I don't mind telling you because I +know you can keep your mouth shut. I came here this evening for that +very purpose. + +"You know I know Darnell's people and all that. Well, I know his +sister quite well." That happened to be a lie. "And last commencement +when she was down here she asked me to look after her brother when he +entered in the fall." That happened to be true, though Lawrence had +forgotten it. "She's a pretty good friend of mine, and whenever I see +her"--he could not have distinguished her from the other little girls +in the school up-town--"she always asks me about her brother. And, +well, Thompson, a fellow hates to lie to a respectable woman, you +know." + +"Only a cad will lie to a decent girl," said the other, +sympathetically. + +"Certainly. Now, Thompson, I'll tell you what I think I'll do. I am +going to very frankly ask you to help me out of this hole." Lawrence +looked closely at the freshman. Then he went on, talking rapidly now +with his eyebrows tucked down and the words coming between his teeth. +Thompson had seen him do it before and had practised it in his room +alone. + +"You can do it or not, just as you please, but you are the only one +whom I'd care to ask to do it. You are the only one I'd trust with it. +In fact, you are the only one that _could_ do it. Thompson, you know +yourself that you have more influence over Darnell than any man in the +class." + +"Oh, I don't know," the freshman feebly protested. + +"Well I do. He has as much as told me so. I am going to ask you very +frankly to-- I don't know what your views are," the senior interrupted +himself, "but I believe in having all the fun in the world I can for +myself as long as I mind my own business. But I'd just as soon, when I +have the chance--" Lawrence looked down at the whiskey which he was +gently swishing around in his glass. He made his voice sound as if +embarrassed. "Well, dammit, I'm no saint, but you know it says +somewhere that saving one soul will wipe out a multitude of sins or +something of that sort." + +"God knows we have enough of them," said the devil of a fellow, who +now hurled the butt of his cigarette at the fire and arose from his +seat. He threw back his head and spoke. + +"Lawrence, you needn't say any more. I can give you my answer now." He +plunged his hands in his pockets and began striding up and down the +room and scowled as he strode. + +"Lawrence, I am a peculiar man, and I think my own thoughts and lead +my own life according to my own ideas. I keep this room here open to +everyone who desires to enter. My whiskey and tobacco is anybody's who +wants it. And as long as my guests mind their own business my room is +theirs. But when certain members of my class, certain milksops and +sanctimonious Gospel sharks come up here and tell me that I am doing +wrong and tell me what it is my duty to do, I very frankly tell them +to go to hell." He looked around the walls at the Saronys and a French +print or two as if to call them to witness, then went on: + +"Lawrence, I perceived your drift from the start, and at first, I must +confess, I was somewhat taken aback, Lawrence, by your approaching me +on such a subject." + +The one listening with a bland look of attention on his face and his +feet on the table considered this rather fresh, but said nothing. + +"But only for a moment," the freshman continued, "only for a moment, I +assure you. You talked to me like a man to a man, a real man, not a +Gospel shark or a poler, but a man who knows things and yet gives a +fellow credit for some good impulses. I appreciate your situation +exactly. I have been placed in similar ones myself. I know how it is. +And I'm glad you came up here to-night. You rushed in where angels +would not have dared, and I'm damn glad you did." He stopped walking +the floor. "Now I'm not accustomed to this sort of thing, Lawrence, as +you must know, and I won't promise much. But I give you my word, I'll +do my best for Darnell." + +Lawrence took the hand Thompson dramatically held out to him. He +restrained another impulse, an ungrateful one, and said, "Thompson, I +always thought I understood you better than your own class-mates did." +And Gussie blushed. + +The senior arose. "Gus,"--he called him Gus--"I appreciate to a nicety +the delicacy of your position in this matter. Please don't let it +inconvenience you in any way. I shall always be grateful to you for +what you have undertaken this evening, and if I can ever be of service +to you, please command me." Some of this was sincere. "I have an +engagement now. Good-night. No, I thank you, no more to-night. Come up +and see me some time, Gus. Good-night." + +"Good-night, Harry," said the other. "Wish you would drop up often." + +"I know that," thought Lawrence, as he closed the door, "only I +wouldn't say 'Harry' very often if I were you." + +Left alone, Thompson took a gulp of whiskey straight without wincing +very much, stretched out in a big chair and planned how to follow his +friend Lawrence's suggestions, wrinkling his brows and looking no +doubt very much like the man of the world that he read about as he did +so. + +Meanwhile Lawrence was saying to himself, "Still, it's all in a good +cause," and hurrying along the street with his coat-collar turned up, +like a man ashamed of himself. + +"This time next year," he was thinking, "I'll be out of college and +hustling in the big world which recent graduates are always telling me +I know nothing about. I suppose I shall have to get used to +boot-licking and getting pulls. That's business. But just at present I +don't like the taste." So he hurried up the street for a +counter-irritant, while the mood was on him. + +A few moments later he was saying, "The fact of the matter is, +Darnell, I'm in a pretty bad hole, and I think I'll ask your advice." + +"_My_ advice?" said Darnell. + +"Yes, if you do not object to giving it." + +"I think you know what I mean," said the freshman, "don't you?" + +"Yes," said Lawrence, "I know what you mean." He also knew he was +finding it a different matter talking to this freshman. + +"Well, I'll tell you about it anyway," he went on. "Last year, when +your friend Gus Thompson's sister was down here for the sophomore +reception--what?" The freshman's big eyes were making him nearly +blush. + +"Why, Gus is an only child, you know. You must mean his cousin." + +"Did I say sister? I meant cousin. His cousin, of course--she's a +smooth girl, his cousin. Well, his cousin got at me and asked me to +look after him when he entered college and see that he poled and all +that. Sort of queer thing, wasn't it? But I promised to do it, and you +know you hate to lie to a--well, I hate to deceive her about it." + +Then Lawrence went on to point out that while he, Darnell, had plenty +of fun in life, he kept up in first division at the same time, which +was the way to do, whereas that boy Thompson, who seemed rather +immature, had two conditions and was in a good way to being dropped; +and he, Darnell, had considerable influence over Thompson--oh, yes, +he had: Gus had only that evening referred to Darnell as his best +friend, and so on. But Lawrence forgot to say damn this time. + +When he finished, the freshman turned toward the senior two +fine-looking eyes filled with surprise and some other things which +caused Lawrence to feel like a hypocrite, which he was. + +"Why," replied Darnell, "of course, Lawrence. To be sure I don't know +how well I can succeed, but I'll be very glad to try it. And, +Lawrence, I think I ought to tell you that I appreciate your trusting +me in a thing of this nature, only----" + +"Oh, that's all right," said Lawrence, arising. + +"Only, Lawrence," continued the freshman, who seemed to have something +to say, "why didn't you tell me this was what you wanted long ago? I +would have been willing, I think, without your cultivating my +acquaintance so long." + +"See here," said Lawrence, with his hand on the door-knob, "to be +right honest, I never dreamed of asking you to do anything of the sort +until this very day. If I cultivated you it was for yourself and +because I like you. I never told anyone _that_ before. Good-night." + +On his way across the campus Lawrence stopped and told an innocent +old elm-tree this: "The man that first said '_Similia similibus +curantur_' was very much of a fool. I feel more like a fellow cribbing +in exams than I did before." Then he kicked the elm and shouted +"Hello-o, Billy Nolan, are you up there?" and ran up the stairs to +smoke a good-night pipe and talk about senior vacation. He felt better +in the morning. + +It was one evening about a week after this that young Thompson came +running up to Lawrence's room with a scowl on his face, and talked +like an important man in a hurry. + +"Why, he's dead easy! I'll say, 'Aw, let's get out of here, this beer +is rotten.' 'All right,' he'll say, 'let's wander over to the room.' +Minute we get there he proposes that we pole the Greek or something. +See his idea? He thinks he'll sour me on being quiet, but, ha, ha! I +fool him every time--how? Why I just sit down and pole to beat the +band until too late for him to join the gang. See? Oh, but he's easy! +I have made up my mind to keep that boy from making a fool of himself, +and when I make up my mind to a thing, I don't believe in crawling. +Besides, poling won't hurt me any." + +"Oh, no, Thompson," said Lawrence sympathetically. "I don't see how it +can hurt you." + +Darnell came in a little later and sat down in the very same chair and +had this to say: "Lawrence, Gus Thompson is a queer fellow. You know +he doesn't go with the crowd any more, and because _he_ is sour and +doesn't care to have any good times, he tries to interfere with my +enjoyment too. He's always proposing that we stay in the rooms--you +know we room together now. I thought I could look after him better in +that way-- Well, when he kicks on poling I start to join the gang, and +then he says 'All right, let's pole.' He must be jealous about me. But +that's the way I work him. He's so easy." + +"Yes," said Lawrence, "lots of people are." + + + + +THE SCRUB QUARTER-BACK + + +Tommy Wormsey was a meek little boy with an ugly face, mostly covered +with court-plaster, and he would rather fall on a football than eat. + +When he came trotting out upon the field, the college along the side +lines always smiled at the way he tipped his head to one side with his +eyes on the ground, as though he was ashamed of himself and of his funny +little bumpy body, stuck into a torn suit and stockings which weren't +mates and had holes in them. When he skimmed over the ground and dived +through the air and brought down a two-hundred-and-something-pound +guard, with his knotty little arms barely reaching about the big +thighs, it looked very absurd, and when he jumped up again, yelling +"3--9--64" in his shrill earnest voice, and ran sniffling back to his +place, with his sorrowful face seeming to say, "I know I oughtn't to +have let him slide so far, but please don't scold me this time," the +crowd laughed uproariously, which hurt his feelings. + +But he paid very little attention to anything except the scrub +captain's orders and the admonitions of the coachers, to whom he said, +"Yes, sir," and "I'll try it that way, sir." He was afraid of them, +and looked down at his torn stockings when they spoke to him. Those of +the crowd along the ropes who knew everything, as well as the other +spectators who only knew a few things, said that Freshman Wormsey had +more sand and football instinct than any man on the field. But they +did not know what a coward he was at heart. + +More than once when a 'varsity guard had broken through and jumped on +him, and the scrub halves had fallen on him from the other direction +to keep him from being shoved back, and the other 'varsity guard and +the centre, who were not light, had thrown themselves upon these, and +one of the ends had swung round and jumped on the top of the pile on +general principles, Wormsey, at the bottom, said "ouch!" under his +breath, if he had any. He weighed 137 pounds stripped. + +At night, after the trick practice with checkers at the Athletic Club, +he always hurried back to his room, and stacked the pillows and sofa +cushions up in the corner of the room, with the black one in the +centre, and taking his place on one knee in the opposite corner, +socked the ball into the pile. Every time he missed the black one in +the centre he called himself names. + +Sometimes when he did this he became excited, and sprang forward and +knocked down chairs and tables and things. But he paid no attention to +that. He only bit his nails and fell to passing again, and kept it up +sometimes until eleven o'clock, which was a whole hour later than he +had any business to be out of bed. + +But there were days when it became tiresome, this constant pound, +pound, pound, fall down, get up and pound again, and once in a while +there came dark times when he felt that it all didn't pay, which was +very unpatriotic thinking; and the next day, when the crowd yelled, +"Well tackled, Wormsey!" he wondered how he could have been such a +mucker as to think it. But it was rather hard work for a +seventeen-year-old boy whose bones weren't knit to play two +thirty-minute halves every day as hard as they were doing now, and +then practise place kicks and catching punts afterward, besides +keeping hold of all the signals and systems and stuff that were +drummed into his little head every evening, along with the rest of the +second eleven, in the room across the hall from the one where the +'varsity were learning their systems and signals and tricks. + +It's all well enough for them. They have their 'varsity sweaters with +the big P on them, and have their pictures printed in the papers, and +are pointed out and praised and petted and fondled and fussed over +like blue-ribboned hunters at the horse show; but for the poor, +faithful, unappreciated scrub it's a different story. There's none of +the glory, and all work and grind and strain at the top notch of +capacity. And nothing at the end of it but thanks and the +consciousness of doing one's duty by the college. So about this time, +when they were approaching that critical stage in training which is +like getting one's second wind in a cross-country run, he used to have +some terrible times with himself. If anyone knew what muckerishly +cowardly thoughts he had, he was afraid they'd fire him from college. + +He was ashamed of himself, but he couldn't help it. He was getting +sick of training, sick of getting up at seven o'clock in the morning +and hurrying down to breakfast while the alarm clocks were going off +in East and West colleges, and the frost was still on the grass. Every +day, as soon as the morning recitations were over, no matter what kind +of weather, he must jump into the 'bus at the corner of Dickinson +Hall, drive down to the grounds, undress and dress again, and hobble +out upon the field, and get his poor little body bumped and pounded +and kicked and trampled on, and the rest of his personality yelled at +by the captain, and scolded by the coachers, who stand alongside in +nicely creased trousers, with canes in their hands, and call out, +"Line up more quickly, scrub," which is hard to do when one's lungs +are breathless, especially when one is a quarter-back, and needs a +certain amount of wind to scream out the signals in a loud enough tone +to keep from being sworn at. And that's the way they make football +stuff. + +To-day he let Hartshorn drag him five yards and missed one tackle +outright, and he was discouraged. After the line-up, while they were +practising him at catching punts, he seemed to have such bad luck +holding the ball; and once, in trying for a wild one when he had run +over by the cinder track, grunting and straining, and had put up his +little arms, only to feel the ball bounce off his chest, he gnashed +his teeth so loud and said "Oh, dear!" in such a plaintive whimper, +like a child waking from a bad dream, that two pipe-smoking seniors, +who were trooping out in the rear of the crowd, smiled audibly and +said something about him. He could not hear what it was. He only +heard them laugh, and it nearly broke his heart. But all that he could +do was to call them things under his breath, and run sniffling back to +his place again. + +The trouble with the boy was he had worked so hard and worried so much +that he was over-trained, and so, naturally, there was not much ginger +left in him. And the reason the keen-eyed trainer did not see this and +lay him off for a few days was that Wormsey thought it his duty to +make up in nerve what he lacked in ginger; and he was too bashful to +tell anyone how difficult it was to make himself play hard, and how +that he no longer felt springy when he jumped out of bed in the +morning, and that he slept all the afternoon after practice, instead +of studying, as all football men should. + +He went into the field-house the next day, unbuttoning his coat and +hating football. He hated the ill-smelling dressing-room. He was sick +of training, sick of rare beef and Bass's ale and bandages and +rub-downs, and the captain's admonitions and the coacher's scoldings. +He thought he would give anything not to be obliged to play that day. +He was sore all over, and his ear would be torn open again, and he +didn't like having the blood trickle down his neck; it felt so +sticky. + +It was a hot, lazy, Indian-summer day; and his muscles felt exhausted. +He felt as much like exerting them as one feels like studying in +spring term directly after dinner, when the seniors are singing on the +steps. As he came hobbling out of the field-house he laced his little +jacket, and made up his mind that after the practice he would tell the +captain that he could not spare the time from his studies to play +football, patriotism or no patriotism. This was not necessary, because +he was tumbled over in the opening play, and remained upon the ground +even after the captain cried "Line up quickly," with his ugly little +face doubled up in a knot. + +"There goes another back," said the scrub captain, pettishly, snapping +his fingers. "Rice, you play quarter; and Richardson, you come play +half in Rice's place." + +Another sub and William, the negro rubber, picked Wormsey up, the +doctor following behind, and turning back to see the play, which had +already begun again, for he wanted to see how the new system was +working. + +As they approached the field-house he saw the two fellows who had +laughed at him the day before standing apart down at the end of the +field. One of them was tapping his pipe against the heel of his shoe, +and saying, "I didn't know that that little devil could be hurt. He +always--" But just then the 'varsity full-back made a long "twister" +punt, and he interrupted himself with an exclamation about that. It +sounded like a reproach to Wormsey, and he began to feel that he had +somehow gotten hurt with malice aforethought. And this made him so +ashamed that when they reached the field-house the trainer, sponging +his face, said, encouragingly: "That's all right, me boy. Don't feel +badly. You'll be out again in a couple of weeks. I've been meaning to +lay you off for a while, anyway. I'll tell you for why; you're a +little stale, Tommy, a little stale." + +Every day now Wormsey trudged down to the field on crutches--they had +to be sawed off at the bottom first--and watched the practice from a +pile of blankets on the side-lines. It was a fine thing, he told +himself, to watch the others do all the work while he sat still with +four 'varsity sweaters tied about his neck. This was a great snap; he +was still on the scrub, was at the training table, and would have his +picture taken, would go to the Thanksgiving game free, and yet did not +have to get pounded and pummelled. + +He was made a good deal of now. The coachers patted him on the back +and said "My boy" to him. He had a lot of sympathetic adulation from +admiring classmates. Upper-classmen whom he had never seen before, but +who somehow knew him, came up and said, "How's the leg, Tommy?" At +which he hung his head and sniffled, and said, "Getting along pretty +well, thank you," and then grinned, because he didn't know whether +they were guying him or not. + +In a few days he could walk with a cane, and he put on his football +clothes because they were more comfortable. He limped after the teams +up and down the field, and squatted down to see how the 'varsity made +their openings, and he learned how to tell, by the expression of his +legs, on which side the quarter was going to pass the ball, which +nobody else in the world could tell. Also, by carelessly daily +sauntering into the cage during the preliminary practising, with a +guileless smile on his face, he found out the 'varsity signals, which +he had no business to find out. + +Sometimes he became very much excited during the scrimmages, and once, +when Dandridge, the wriggly 'varsity half-back, kept on squirming and +gaining after he had been twice downed, Wormsey screamed, as he hopped +up and down on one foot, "Oh, grab--grab him! _Please_ grab him! Oh! +oh!" so loud that all the field heard it and laughed at him. Then he +realized what a fool he had made of himself and kicked himself with +his good leg, and limped slowly up the field to study the next play. + +But conceited as it was, he really thought that he would have stopped +that runner if he had been there. He imagined just how it would feel +to have once more the thrill of a clean tackle, sailing through the +air, and locking his arms tight, and squeezing hard, and both rolling +over and over, while the crowd yelled in the distance. And he thought +it would be fine to get out there again, and run his hands through his +hair, and call out the signals, and plunge the ball home into the +back's stomach, and then pitch forward, and push and strain and sweat +and fall down and get up again. He had a firm healthy skin now, and +had gone up to the tremendous weight of 138½, which was vulgar +obesity. + +One windy sunny day when Wormsey was limping friskily up and down the +field with his hair blowing about, Stump, the 'varsity quarter, +instead of springing up to his place after one of the tandem plays, as +he should have done, lay still on the ground, while the college held +its breath. + +"It's Stump! it's Stump!" they whispered to one another with scared +faces. Then they no longer held their breaths. They moaned, and +stamped their heels into the frosty ground, and gazed out sadly toward +the dear, frowzy head of the man who was being carried to the +field-house. + +"It's only a wrench," said the doctor. "He'll be out in a few days." + +The captain's mouth grew a little more stern, but he only snapped his +fingers, and said: "Bristol! No, he's laid off too. Wait a moment, +doctor," he called out. "Is Wormsey well enough to play?" + +"Wormsey?" said Tommy to himself in little gasps. "Why, I'm Wormsey. +What! play with the 'varsity!" + +And the doctor's voice came back through the wind, "No, I think not." + +"Oh, yes, I am!" yelled the shrill voice, which was heard all up and +down both sides of the field, and reached to the Athletic Club; and +throwing away his cane, and bending over to let some one pull off two +sweaters, Wormsey ran sniffling out on the field. + +"See, Jack," he called to the trainer. "I don't limp a bit." But he +kept his face turned to one side so that the trainer couldn't see it +twitch. + +"Come here and I'll give you the signals, Wormsey," said the captain. + +"I know them already," said Wormsey, looking ashamed of himself; and +he took his place on one knee behind the centre who had so often +tumbled upon him. + +Then he jumped in and showed everybody what he had been learning +during the past ten days. He was in perfect condition now, except for +the ankle, which he forgot about. He was quite accurate in his quick +method of passing, and he tackled ravenously. Fellows like Wormsey +never get soft. "Just watch that boy follow the ball," exclaimed one +of the coachers to another. "Too bad he's so light," said the other. + +Once when the scrub had the ball they gave the signal for a trick +which they had been saving up as a surprise for the 'varsity. Tommy +knew that signal. He dashed through the line between tackle and end, +he caught the long pass on the fly, and having plenty of wind and a +clear field, he made a touch-down unassisted, which made the crowd +yell and applaud. Of course it was a great fluke, and Wormsey knew +that, but all the same, while the crowd gave a cheer for Tommy +Wormsey, and a three-times-three for "the little devil," he grinned +for a moment, and puckered up his eyes. But it is not the crowd that +chooses the team. + +That evening at dinner all the college was talking about the great +tear the little freshman had made, and down at the Athletic Club +Wormsey overheard one of the coachers say: "When Stump comes out +again, it'll make him work to see the freshman putting up a game like +that. But of course he can't keep it up. The pace is too fast." + +Wormsey bit his nails and had his own opinion about that. But whatever +it might have been was never learned, because the next day he was +taken off the field for the season. His bad ankle was sprained in the +first half, which served him right for disobeying the doctor's order. +But he should not have cared. Didn't he play one whole day on the +'varsity? + + + + +WHEN GIRLS COME TO PRINCETON + + +If you would like to see a college campus as it really is, with +students walking along with the gait and the manner and the clothes +they usually wear, and to hear the old bell ring, the hall and +dormitory stairs rattle, the entries echo and the feet scrape along +the stone walks as on ordinary occasions, and see the quadrangle +become crowded and noisy, then suddenly empty and quiet again, and if +you wish to have a view of your brother's room in its average state of +order and ornamentation, do not come to Princeton for one of the class +dances, or on the day of a big game, when everyone is excited and well +dressed, and even the old elms are in an abnormal flutter, but come +down in a small party some quiet day in an ordinary week, when there +are no extra cars on the small informal train which jolts up from the +junction. Tell your brother that you are coming, or his roommate, who +will gladly cut a lecture or two and show you about the campus. Then +you may see the college world in its normal state, and the +undergraduate in his characteristic settings--any number of him with a +pipe in his mouth or a song, slouching across the campus with the +Princeton gait, wearing something disreputable upon his head, +corduroys and sweaters or flannels and cheviots upon his body, and an +air of ownership combined with irresponsibility all over. In short, if +you prefer to get some idea of college life, and learn, as far as a +girl can, why college days are the best of a lifetime, visit Princeton +on some day that is not a special occasion. But very likely this is +not what you prefer. + +Most girls would rather hurry down with a big trunk in a crowded +special train, and go to four teas, meet a score of men apiece whom +they will never see again, dance all night, and then, in a few +minutes, arise looking as fresh as they did on Easter Sunday, and +smile good-byes at the depot to the breakfastless young men whom they +leave forsaken and sleepy to try to go on where they left off, while +they themselves hurry back to town, and to another dance the next +night. + +A college dance is generally considered very good fun. There is an +adventurous zest in journeying to a college, and exploring it, and +meeting crowds of people you never saw before, and there is something +wild and reckless in being quartered in an odd little boarding-house, +or, more delicious still, in some room in University Hall borrowed by +your entertainer for the occasion, with the owner's photographs and +souvenirs hanging about just as he left them. Then, too, the young men +themselves, some of whom you have met or heard of before, try to be +very agreeable, and do everything in their power to make you have a +good time, if for no other reason, in order that you may see how +superior their college is to any other, so that even several-seasoned +society girls consider it worth their while to run down to a college +dance, and be amused by these fresh-faced young fellows. Some of them +have been coming off and on for several generations of college men, +and could talk interestingly of your brother in the class of '88 +should they be so inclined. They know all about these hops. This is +written for you who have yet to attend one. + +There are three regular dances each year, and they are given by the +three upper classes. One takes place at the close of the mid-year +examinations, to usher in the new term. Another is given at a more +beautiful time of the year, usually occurring on the eve of some great +baseball game. The third one, the most splendid and most jammed, is +the sophomores' reception, given on the night before Commencement to +the class which graduates the following day. + +Each class has a dance committee, who fly around and work hard to make +their dance finer than the last one, and generally succeed. They +procure a fine patroness list to engrave on their invitations, +containing several of the sort of names that appear in connection with +Patriarchs' balls and Philadelphia assemblies, together with those of +two or three professors' wives, to lend a tone. The committee get hold +of the Gymnasium, pull down the bars and draw the trapeze to one side; +then have a lot of pink and white cheese-cloth tacked up, hang some +athletic trophies over the rafters, string a few hundred incandescent +lights here and there, and send to one of the neighboring cities for a +smart caterer and a large high-priced orchestra to come for the night. +Then they are ready for you. + +Before the dance, however, you are taken to a few teas which are given +by some of the clubs. You saw the club-houses when you were shown +about earlier in the day. Some of them are very handsome, and they are +all nice, and the nicest is the one to which your brother belongs, or +whoever owns the club-pin you carry home with you. At the teas the +rooms are crowded, the air is hot, the flowers are tumbled over, you +become hoarse, and in most features it is similar to any tea, except +that there are enough men. You will here meet several of those whose +names you have on your dance-card, and you may make up your mind +whether to remember that fact or not. + +After the round of teas there remain but two hours in which to dress. +When you have hurried on those things which make up "a dream," "a +creation," or "a symphony," whichever it is that you bring, and have +had, if you feel like it, a bit of dinner, you are taken, at a little +after eight o'clock, to church. The Glee, Banjo, and Mandolin clubs +give a very good concert here, and it is a good place to have your +escort point out the various men who are fortunate enough to be on +your card, and gives you a good opportunity to notice the taste +displayed by other girls in their costumes, and feel pleased with your +own. There are all sorts of gowns, made of many sorts of materials +with interesting names. + +When the concert is at last over--much as you enjoyed it, it seemed +rather long to you, who were thinking of what was to follow--you are +taken to University Hall, which is across the street, or to the +Gymnasium, if the dance is to be there, which is a little farther back +on the campus, and you are shown to the dressing-room, where those +last fluttering finishing touches are put on. Those calm, +assured-looking young women who came in ahead of you are a little +excited too, as is that laughing girl who was pointed out to you as a +flirt. + +When you are quite ready, and are pulling and smoothing your gloves +while waiting for the chaperon to start your party, you catch a +glimpse of something, as the door opens for an instant, which extends +from the door all along the dimly lighted passage to the very stairs +beyond--something which looks like a great black bank with gleaming +white patches here and there. This is made up of young men, whose +collars are stiff and straight. When your chaperon stalks forth with a +sort of flourish, several members of the black and white bank come +forward to meet your party, and the rest make inaudible comments upon +your appearance, probably to the effect that you are "smooth." But all +that you are sure of is that your escort offers you his arm with a +smile and a stiff bow, that you walk nervously up the winding stairs, +step into a dazzle of light, where members of the dance committee are +running hither and thither with dance-cards and girls, and where +patronesses are smiling, bowing, looking stately, holding their fans, +and doing whatever patronesses usually do. Then the orchestra plays a +promenade, to which a few impatient couples try to waltz, and you +begin what you have talked about and thought about and dreamed about +for a month. + +You notice when you have danced the first one with your brother's +roommate, at whose special invitation you came, that as soon as he has +taken you to your seat he rushes off like mad. In a moment he comes +back again, bearing with him the young man who was pointed out to you +at the concert as being down on your card for No. 2. While he is being +presented, still another anxious-eyed man runs up and hurriedly +snatches off your host. These are men who are "running" girls' cards. + +Now, while you and your new acquaintance are waiting for the music to +begin, and are amiably agreeing that the concert was good, that the +room is warm, that the light effects are pretty, you may steal another +glance at your dance-card to make sure of this man's name. It is +carefully written in ink on the pretty silk-and-leather-bound card +which was handed to you on the way to the concert. All the numbers +are filled and three extras. This is the way it was done: + +About three weeks ago a young man was sitting in the grand stand one +sunny afternoon watching the baseball practice, and wondering whether +the nine would beat Harvard, when one of his clubmates came along and +asked him for a match. He complied with the request, and said, "Don't +mention it." Then the borrower of the match asked if he were going to +the dance, and as he admitted his intention of doing so, he was handed +a preliminary card which had your name at the top of it. Then, after a +little more conversation, he put his name down for No. 2, and handed +it back to your host, who thanked him. And again he said, "Don't +mention it." That was the man who is about to dance with you. At that +time you were unknown to him. The other names were secured in various +ways. In the midst of a lecture your card was passed along to some +fellow on the end of the row, who, with the same pencil with which he +was taking notes on "Post-Kantian Philosophy," secured for himself a +_deux-temps_ with you. Other men were hailed out in front of Old North +when the seniors were singing, or at the club dinner tables, and in +the lounging-rooms when they were talking baseball, or when they were +at the billiard table and had to walk across the room to where their +coats were hanging to see their cards. Perhaps your host took a night +off to it, and went out on the campus and yelled "Hello, Billy +Wilson!" under Billy Wilson's window to see if he were in before he +ran up the stairs to his room and demanded to see his dance-card; and +went on thus from entry to entry as if he were out after +subscriptions, except that he went to his friends. Sometimes it is not +an easy task to fill five or six cards, especially when every one is +feeling rather down-hearted over an unfortunate athletic season. Of +course if the girl has been down before, and is well known and +popular, there is no difficulty of this kind. Probably the next time +you come down you won't need a card. + +Except for the five dances which he saves out for himself you see very +little of your host during the evening, and even then he seems worried +and absent-minded. It no doubt piques you a little that the moment the +music ceases he leaves you, and, with an expression on his face which +reminds you of when "Pigs in Clover" was the rage, darts across the +room, bumping into people and begging pardons. The only time he looks +comfortable and recalls to your mind last Christmas holidays is when +he and you have slipped off to one of those quiet little nooks so +bounteously adorned with rugs and hangings, brought for the occasion +from some dormitory room, to enjoy two little bits of ice which he has +pillaged from the supper-room. Then for a while he seems to forget his +cares, and you two have a good old-fashioned chat. You notice a streak +of chicken-salad along his silken collar, but that gives you no +adequate idea of the muscle and bad language required to secure and +bear away those two little dabs of ice and one napkin, any more than +his anxious expression indicates the amount of patience and ubiquity +required to "run" three girls' cards at a college dance. + +All this time you have been going through the several different stages +of "a perfectly lovely time." You have shown a lot of young men how +well you can dance, and have gotten along very well with all you have +met except that once when you asked sweetly, sympathetically, "Won't +you be just too glad to be a sophomore next year?" of a very studious +and diminutive member of the graduating class. The chat is no longer +about the concert, nor is the heat mentioned, though it is terrific, +nor the effect of the lights upon the pink and white cheese-cloth, +except by those gallants who see fit to say something about its being +becoming to certain complexions. And, most gratifying of all, you +notice that those who have your name on their cards more than once +come the second time without being brought. Indeed, some come again +who have not that good fortune, and you pay slight attention to your +card after supper, but dance with those who come up and beg for a +dance, because you are tender-hearted and hate to displease them. It +is a good plan to lose your card now or hide it. Some girls tear up +theirs the moment they come, for fear they might make a mistake, and +consequently hurt somebody's feelings. + +By this time you have gotten your second wind, if you'll pardon the +expression. You talk without previously meditating upon what you are +about to say; but you know it's all right just as you drift to the +strains of the music automatically. Your eyes are wide open and +sparkling; your cheeks have a flush which is becoming; you are dimly +conscious that your visit at Princeton is a success. And just as you +are beginning to wish that all this could last forever you hear a +strain of music of which every daughter of a loving home should be +fond, and then, for the first time, you notice that the stately +patronesses in their bower are opening their eyes very wide and +gritting their teeth very hard. Then, having danced that last one +furiously, you are dragged off, casting a lingering glance at faded +flowers, wilted collars, tired musicians, torn skirts. + +When you come from the noisy, laughing dressing-room a moment later, +wrapped from head to foot in a great long thing which covers any +changes the five hours' exercise might have wrought in your +appearance, you are met by your bedraggled escort under the light, +where you took his arm before, long ago, on the way to the dance. You +can remember how stiff his collar was then and how smooth his hair. +Everything, animate and inanimate, looks different now, especially +with that ghastly streak of dawn which mingles with the electric +light. It makes some of the girls look rather faded and jaded, you +think, and some of the men rather rakish, but not even the girls seem +to care very much. Every one is too excited to be tired, and too merry +to be formal. All the stiffness of your escort's manner has gone with +that of his collar. As he offers his arm this time he does not gaze +straight ahead of him and murmur something incoherent about hoping +that you are going to enjoy this, for he begins singing "It's all over +now," to the dank and misty campus trees on the way to University +Hall, and you give him permission to smoke a cigarette, and shout +good-night down the stairs, and tell him what time to call around in +the morning--later on in the morning--for he has made you promise to +stay over all of the following day and see a little of the college and +campus, and take a stroll in the queer old town. + +Then, as the gray dawn creeps in through the dotted Swiss curtains +which somebody made for the freshman who owns the room, causing the +roses on the bureau to look pale and livid, and while the far-away +voices of the dance committee can be heard from back of Witherspoon, +where they are having an informal game of baseball in their evening +clothes to celebrate the success of their efforts, and the sparrows +outside your window begin to twitter as though there had been no +dance, you lay your head upon the pillow and tell your roommate what +the tall one said who danced the two-step so divinely, and what that +funny little fellow with frowsy hair told you, and what were the +remarks of the football man with whom you sat out two dances, and how +the entertaining man who sang the solo at the concert seemed to like +you, and what your brother's roommate told you not to tell. + + + + +THE LITTLE TUTOR + + +At first they thought he was one of the new students, he was such a +little fellow and had such a smooth, boyish face. And one of the +college men had stopped him on the street, and, in a manner that +seemed to indicate that he had some particular reason for desiring the +information, asked him abruptly: "What class do you belong to?" + +The little tutor had looked up timidly through his large spectacles +and answered, in his thin, high voice: "I am not a member of any of +the classes. I am to be one of the instructors in the academy." + +He had smiled reassuringly, to show that he did not take any offence. +But the tall young man did not seem to dream of embarrassment; he only +said: "You _are_?" and passed on. + +This happened early in September, the day before the term opened, and +the little tutor had been busying himself looking about the campus and +getting his bearings in the little city. He had never been in the West +before, and this seemed very far out West; it was like a foreign +country to him. The broad, evenly laid, well-kept streets lined with +so many fine lawns, were a matter of great interest and speculation. +He thought it queer that when a man could afford to have nearly a +whole block of lawn that he should have only a frame house upon it, +but some of these frame houses were very large and comfortable and +invariably freshly painted, and he liked that. He admired the new and +handsome business blocks of fine brick and stone. But what seemed most +wonderful to him was the broad, level sweep of the prairie when he +walked out into the country. It almost took his breath away. + +But it was the campus, as being his future place of work, that +occupied most of his attention and curiosity. He walked slowly over it +all, examining each building and every feature thoughtfully and with a +critical air as one about to buy. There were only about a half-dozen +buildings in all, including both the college and academy. It struck +him as odd that both institutions should be on the same grounds and +apparently of the same importance. The buildings were rather new, and +he missed the dignified, patriarchal aspect of the old campus he had +been accustomed to. He thought he could never feel any veneration for +all this brand-newness as he had toward those old landmarks he loved +so well. Indeed, it all seemed small and puny viewed in this light, +and he walked about with rather a patronizing air, as he thought with +pride of his Alma Mater, and it seemed to him that this institution +was favored in obtaining for an instructor a graduate of such a famous +old institution--and an honorman, too, he said to himself, with a +blush of satisfaction. + +Of course, this preparatory school teaching was only temporary with +him. Only a preparation for something else, and that but a step to +something higher, until he became--but the little tutor never +acknowledged just how high his ambition aimed. It was at this point, +as he was leaning against a tree, that the young man had come up and +asked him what class he belonged to. + +But he had not minded that in the least; he knew how boyish-looking he +was. It was very natural for them to make such mistakes. A little +thing like that would not discourage him. They did not know him; wait +a few days, and they would learn who he was. + +And he was right. The whole college and academy learned who he was the +very next afternoon in chapel. And even the townsfolk soon learned to +know him by sight; they thought it odd that such a little fellow +should be a professor. By the end of the month the children coming +home from school had learned to point out his small figure with the +large head, carried with his peculiar, springing strides, and they +would say to one another, "There goes the Little Tutor." + +But as they watched him walking briskly by, holding his body stiff and +straight, they little knew what was going on behind that smile, which +was a curious mixture of gravity and good nature. + +For some reason or other things had not gone as he had expected, and +so far, at least, they were not tending toward the future he had +pictured. + +He had thought that out there they would appreciate that he came from +such a large, famous old institution, and that he had stood so well in +his class and all that; but neither the attitude of the faculty, +college, nor academy indicated anything of the kind, he thought. And +this wasn't all. No one seemed to take any interest in him as an +individual. That is, beyond a cold curiosity. + +He did not see why no one took the initiative and made friends with +him; he could not, being a new-comer. He knew he had never been very +popular at college, but he had a few good friends, and nearly every +one of his classmates was kind to him. As he looked back on those dear +old days, midst those dear old influences, his present surroundings +seemed cold, very cold. + +And he could not explain this coldness. Surely it could not all be on +account of that first mistake. Oh, that terrible first day in chapel. +He thought he would never forget it. He remembered sitting up there on +the platform, before all the college and academy--for out there the +whole faculty come to chapel, and they sit in a semicircle behind the +President. He was conscious of many eyes being upon him, and he knew +what they were thinking and whispering to each other, "Is that the new +tutor?" "What a kid!" And, indeed, as he cast his eyes furtively over +the faces before him he discovered even among the preps. many a +raw-boned countryman who was his senior in years, and this thought had +so rattled him that he took off his glasses--those large owl-eyed +things--and began wiping them, as he always did when embarrassed, and +then he suddenly reminded himself that this always made him appear +more youthful, and so he clapped them on again. He had not felt this +peculiar lonely out-of-it feeling for a good many years; no, not since +beginning of freshman year, at his first eating club. + +But what was that? He had heard his name pronounced. Surely he was not +going to be called upon to lead in prayer. Then the whole sentence +re-echoed in his confused brain, the distinct clear-cut words of the +President, "Horatio B. Stacy, A.B., will be Professor Wilkin's +assistant in the academy." If any of the bold, searching eyes had for +a moment wandered from him, he knew they had returned again now. He +remembered wondering if he jumped enough for them to see him. He +remembered how the steam-heater rattled and pounded in the little +chapel and the odor of the new paint, as the young President went on +with his perfectly enunciated words in his clear and cold voice: "He +comes highly recommended from a good Eastern college. I trust he will +prove satisfactory. Let us sing number three hundred and sixteenth." +The President pronounced sixteenth perfectly. And the organ burst +forth with a loud, cruel prelude, and the hymn was sung. The little +tutor always remembered number three hundred and sixteen, one bar of +which always seemed to sing "satisfactory." + +When the long hymn was finished, the President, having pronounced the +benediction, stepped down from the platform and started down the +centre aisle, followed by an old white-headed professor, and he by the +professor on his left. The little tutor sat next, and so, innocently +enough, he started down behind them. How was he to know that there was +a custom to be observed in this trooping out of chapel, that the order +was determined by precedence? Ah, it made him flush when he thought of +it, even now. He could remember just how the whole college and academy +laughed--they did not titter, but laughed outright--and when he +realized the position and hesitated, trembling, half-way down the +aisle, and tried to smile, some of them fairly shouted. He could even +now see, in his mind, the face of one of the college men next to the +aisle as he leaned back and laughed merrily, cruelly, looking squarely +into the little tutor's eyes without pretending to control his mirth. +The little tutor never remembered how he gained the cool of the +outside. + +But why was he to be blamed? They should have told him. How was he to +know that there was any rule about the matter? At his college the +professors never attended chapel; that is, except two or three, who +sat in the stalls. + +The next morning, with some fear and much hope, he had met his first +class. Perhaps his hand shook a little as he held the roll while his +pupils came into the room, and his voice trembled, perhaps, as he +addressed the class, and he couldn't help blushing--his old +failing--when he heard the laugh caused by his mispronouncing a queer +name; but he told himself that he had gotten along splendidly when the +long day was over, and the future seemed bright once more as he +planned his work. + +He thought out just what his attitude toward his pupils would be. He +was determined that he would not lord it over them, but would win +their confidence, become friends with them, get to know them all +personally, and invite them around to his rooms some time, perhaps. He +even determined upon his policy of discipline, if that should become +necessary. He would not, he thought, be sarcastic with them, as one of +his professors at college used to; no, because that, he deemed, was +taking a mean advantage of the student, who could not, by reason of +the relations of master and pupil, answer back; the master had it all +on his side. Neither did he think he would affect the indignant +attitude; no, because--well, he remembered the fellows' laugh at him +when he once tried to be indignant. He would assume a dignified +disregard, as the dean used to. That was the best method of +maintaining order and attention in a class-room. That would best +become Horatio B. Stacy, A.B. He fell asleep that night wondering what +his pupils would give him for a nickname. + +Now, as the week went by he never had been obliged to exercise his +authority. The classes all paid very good attention, better than he +had hoped for. But how very different this thing teaching was from +what he had supposed! + +The little tutor had been there almost a month; he had walked all +around the town and about the country; had faithfully attended all his +classes, and sometimes he had six hours a day; had gone to chapel +every evening at five; had sat, stared at, in the semicircle behind +the President, and had trooped out again with his odd gait, and always +the _last_ one in the procession now. But he had not a single friend +in the State, unless it was his landlady with the false hair front. + +He remembered thinking at college that the attitude of those dear old +professors was rather distant. But that dignified conservatism was +nothing like this unconcern, this icy indifference, manifested by +these professors and assistants; and he was one of their number +remember, too. + +He smiled grimly as he recollected how that, when he first came, he +had rather expected that some of them might invite him to dine. This +he deemed would be proper in view of his position as an assistant, +especially as this institution was so small that the faculty was not +large enough to be divided into many cliques. And he had even pictured +himself enjoying a delightful conversation with that old, white-haired +professor whom he had taken such a fancy to, or, perhaps, holding an +animated discussion with some of them as to the respective merits of +Western and Eastern colleges. + +But he could have endured their attitude if only his plans would work +in regard to his classes. It was about his pupils that he thought the +most. He made a study of each man and each mind and learned what to +expect from each: which were good at one kind of work and which at +another; which were the bright, indolent fellows and which were the +plodders. They nearly all worked quite hard, that was the one +encouraging thing. But he could not understand them. The little tutor +had never been to a preparatory school himself, but he felt certain +that these fellows were not like most preps. He certainly could not +understand their attitude toward himself. He wanted to be friendly +with them all, and tried to laugh and joke occasionally to make the +relations easy, but it was of no use, they only looked at him +inquiringly, as if he were doing something they hadn't bargained for. +They all came to recitation in a business-like way, which seemed to +say, "Here we are, now you teach us." + +They never thought of bowing to him as they came in. They seemed to +regard him only as an automaton that was paid--and by _their_ +money--to stand up there and teach, and he would not have believed +that he was thought of by them outside, that he entered into their +existence at all, if he had not one day come into the room with rubber +over-shoes on his feet and heard them say something about the "Little +Tutor." That was the time he learned his nickname, and he felt rather +glad when he heard them say it, though they were somewhat confused +when they turned and saw him. + +When recitations were over, when they had gotten their money's worth, +they returned to their lodgings in the same brisk business-like +manner, for dormitories are scarce out there. The little tutor thought +perhaps this had something to do with the lack of college feeling in +the institution. There was no _esprit de corps_. They were, the whole +collection of them, college and academy, simply a lot of young men who +came together in one place, paid their money and got an education by +which they would earn more than enough to repay them. So you see it +was a good bargain. Perhaps this was putting it too strongly, he +reminded himself, for there was some feeble exhibition of class spirit +once or twice, and a football team, too, that practised after supper +in their shirt-sleeves. But, oh! how he longed for a sight of those +old familiar figures he used to see slouching carelessly across the +campus in corduroys and sweaters, with pipes and songs and all that +easy good friendship, and the practising at the 'varsity grounds. But +these are bitter thoughts. + +He hoped that these pupils of his would not always wear linen shirts. +He wished their vests were not cut so low. He longed for a sight of a +familiar cheviot shirt and a carelessly tied bow at the neck. He would +have given a good deal, he thought, just to see one man walking by +with a sweater tied by the arms about his neck, a dirty sweater +perhaps, and his hands deep down in his pockets. Sometimes he felt +that he would enjoy, yes, actually, hearing somebody flunk in one of +his classes. Who would have thought that of little poler Stacy? + +You see the boy was almost hysterical with this morbid homesickness. +He was brim full of it, and a very slight jar would have been enough +to upset him and spill it all. + +Sometimes he realized that he was making a fool of himself and then he +used to take himself in hand for being so childish. But he had always +had these little boyish ways of thinking about the people and things +around him. He remembered how it was at college; when he first came as +a freshman his poor little brain was nearly worn out with wondering +and imagining, and when he fell to thinking of those days long ago, it +seemed impossible to him that he was a grown man now and teaching in +an academy. But it was true, and the framed diploma hung in his room. +And, what was more to the point, he was making money. He had felt +encouraged when he received his first earnings. + +On a Saturday evening he had called around at the treasurer's office +and received his money, carefully counted and put in an envelope with +a blue lining. The treasurer was an old man with a hard face, and when +the little tutor came in he did not say "How do you do," or anything, +but simply turned toward the safe and took out the money, keeping the +pen in his teeth as he did so, and only taking it out to ask, as he +looked up at the little tutor, "That is right," in an exact tone, "is +it not?" + +He hated this proceeding, and hoped that next time there would not be +the right amount, so that he might have a cheque. But he felt +light-hearted when he carried the money to his room and wrote his +letter home and enclosed a certain share of his profits. Prospects +seemed brighter and his hopes ran high, and his dreams ran away out +into the future when all his drudgery would be over and he would be +recognized as a great man, an authority on--but somehow it was hard to +hold those old aspirations that had seemed so realizable about +commencement time, when he was an honor man. This cold western climate +and these common-sense practical New Englanders seemed to have a +chilling effect upon his ambitions, especially as his self-confidence +was never very firmly rooted, for he was not, strangely enough for a +young man, very much of a believer in himself, and his conceit was not +spontaneous, but was of the bolstered-up kind, so that when he halted +in his castle-building he was in a very dangerous position, for, if +you take a young man's conceit away from him, is he _not_ in a very +dangerous position indeed? + +He was also, he told himself, learning this life lesson: that to win +what men call success in this world required something that he was +afraid he did not possess: he did not know exactly what to call it. +When he was in college he used to comfort himself with saying: "Never +mind, you may not amount to much here, but when you get out in the +world individual worth will not be handicapped by modesty." But he was +beginning to despair of this. It would do well enough in books, but it +took what they call _bluff_ to get along with men, even if you want to +do them good, and this, he knew very well, he did not, and never +could, possess. And when he followed this line of thought, he used to +sigh and come to the conclusion that what the world called success was +not worth the struggle when one had to use such manoeuvring to win +it. But he reminded himself that he must not allow himself to sink +into such pessimism, as in his case those at home had a claim upon +him. + +It was not at all characteristic of the "little Stacy" of college days +to become so despondent, for he was of a hopeful, trusting +disposition, and it was all because he had no friend to talk to, no +kindred spirit for his confiding nature, or any other kind for that +matter. + +His discouragement took the form of indignation in the end, but not +before he had several times taken hope and smiled in his old trustful +way, only to find that it was a blind lead. + +For instance when that young Wheaton in his rhetoric class appeared to +be striking up a friendship with him, and even walked through the +campus several times with him, the chances of having a friend had +seemed fair and he began to think that at last he was being +appreciated by one fellow, and a nice fellow too. But after young +Wheaton had obtained an extension of time on the essay he was to write +his manifestations of friendliness suddenly ceased. And the little +tutor wondered how he had offended his pupil. + +Then there was the time he was invited to a certain annual reception +that is always given. The little tutor knew that he was asked only by +reason of his position, but he remembered accepting with a good deal +of pleasure, and the anticipation of his _entrée_ into the society of +the town was a matter of no small excitement to him: a good deal +depended on it, he had told himself. He meditated considerably over +the manner of conducting himself in his first appearance in society as +an instructor: what was becoming to a tutor, and just how dignified he +ought to appear, and he even found himself practising remarks in his +room and examining in the glass the expression of his face and all +those old failings of his self-conscious nature of which he was so +ashamed. He remembered how excited he was as he rang the door-bell, +and how awkwardly he bowed when he had come down-stairs, and how +little the people restrained their curiosity in examining him. He did +not mingle with the younger people any more than he could help, for he +always hated young ladies, but stayed with a group of women who were +talking about Emerson. + +These ladies were members of a literary club, which thought itself +very literary and tried to be Bostonian; and no doubt it was. Stacy +had some very good ideas, and would have been willing to express them, +and could have quoted readily from an essay he had once written, but +somehow they did not seem to be expecting anything from him except to +smile and say, "Yes, certainly," now and then, as those two young +assistants were doing, and so he tried to pick up a low-toned +conversation with one of them on the edge of the circle. But they made +themselves so obnoxious by their air of superiority that he boldly +made some allusion to the athletic insignificance on the part of their +college in comparison with his own. One of them immediately made some +answer which brought in something about Yale (at which the other +laughed loudly), and then drew up his brow and looked complacent, as +if he had made a splendid shot. The poor little tutor turned on his +heel furious, and felt a strange desire to swear, something that he +had never done in all his innocent life. + +He came to the conclusion that the fault of this whole matter lay not +in himself, but in them. This is what he conceived to be the reason: +Nearly everyone in the little city, students, faculty and townspeople, +were New Englanders by blood or birth. That part of the country, like +other sections of the West, happened to have been settled entirely by +New Englanders. Perhaps they were not all of the best sort of New +England extraction either. At any rate no one knew anything but New +England ways of doing things and looking at things, and to the little +tutor, whose environments had not been such as to cause him to bow +down and worship the Pilgrim fathers, or to think that the sun rose +and set on Plymouth Rock, all this was at first a matter of surprise, +then of wonder, and finally of hate. + +Every day in chapel the President spoke in his cold tones of character +moulding, and held up before his hearers Puritan models. On Sundays +the little tutor went to the principal church of the place, and a kind +of essay that seemed to him nothing but washed-out New Englandism was +thrown out to him. The text-books were all those of New England +writers; all the manners and customs about the college were copied +after New England colleges; the very compositions that he had to +correct contained allusions to the Pilgrim Fathers and sturdy New +England character and noble Puritan traits until the little tutor +began to wish that there never had been a Plymouth Rock. He wondered +how everyone else seemed to stand it so well. But they had been +brought up on it and never knew anything different, and could not +conceive of any one's not thinking as they did and as their fathers +did and as their great-grandfathers had done, and pitied (only Stacy +doubted if they could pity) any family that did not have a piece of +the Mayflower to worship. + +The most aggravating feature of it, to the little tutor, was that they +were so very self-satisfied about it all, never dreaming that there +could be anyone so barbarous as not to envy their New England blood, +and it was this attitude that used to make the little tutor indignant +and cause him to wish he could be sarcastic, as one of his professors +used to be: how he would pitch into them! But the worst of it was that +he realized his diminutiveness and his boyishness; so he felt helpless +and baffled, and he had to submit to the cold indifference and haughty +air of superiority worn by those two young assistants not much older +than himself, who graduated from such a miserable little unheard-of +college. Stacy thought that if they had gone to his college they would +have had some of the conceit taken out of them. He thought he might +stand it all as far as he was concerned, but he felt somehow as if +they were insulting his college in their treatment of himself, her +representative. He blushed to think how poor a representative he was. + +It was just at this point in his discouragement that he had an +opportunity which he had often longed for. At last he would have a +chance to show them what was in him. This would be his final stroke, +he told himself, and he staked his all upon it. He was to lead the +prayer-meeting. These prayer-meetings were attended by the college, +the academy, and even the professors. + +Like many excessively shy men, the little tutor was not abashed before +a crowd when he appeared in some identity other than his own. At +college he had always done well in his orations, because unconsciously +he merged his own personality into that of an imaginary orator. So on +this occasion he was perfectly cool; indeed, he was surprised at +himself. The subject was, "Help one another." He had thought, in +preparing it, that it was a singular coincidence, his having that +subject. He thought he could talk to them from his heart on such a +subject. And he did. + +They all listened intently, and he thought they must be surprised to +see how thoughtful he was, and how earnest, and what a splendid +speaker he was. When he finished, he knew that he had done well. + +He felt almost joyful when he returned to his room. He dreamed that +night that certain men came up to him as he was walking alone, and +tried to become intimate with him, as he had seen it done at college +with fellows who had suddenly become prominent. + +The next morning he was joined on the way to the campus by the +principal of the academy. Stacy thought he was going to compliment him +upon his admirable talk. But he was mistaken. He even hinted about it +indirectly, though ashamed of himself for so doing; but this had no +effect. At last, in desperation, he was going to say, "Professor +Thorne, may I ask you whether my talk last evening met your approval," +but while he was trying to invent some excuse for such a question they +reached the academy building. + +As he took his seat on the platform waiting for morning prayers to +begin (the academy had prayers as well as evening chapel), he looked +around at the preps. and studied their faces carefully. + +Professor Thorne that morning spoke on one aspect of +character-moulding, namely, "Independence." He did not directly +mention the address of the evening before, but Stacy thought he might +just as well have, as he sat there beside the principal before the +eyes of the whole academy without changing his gaze from the floor or +moving a muscle, except once, when the principal made some reference +to the sturdy New England character; then the little tutor made a +slight involuntary gesture, but no one noticed it. + +That morning in the class-room the little tutor did not seem himself, +and his pupils watched him curiously. And if the conduct and +appearance of the little tutor was unusual that morning, what was it +in the afternoon! + +At one o'clock, when nearly every one went down to get the mail, the +little tutor was casually noticed by some of them in the post-office. +"Anything for Horatio B. Stacy?" he asked at the window in a high +voice. Then they noticed him excitedly tear open the one letter he had +received and, as he ran over the contents, he said excitedly, in a +voice loud enough to be heard, "Just in time--just," but at that point +he seemed to notice that he was being observed. His dazed expression +was a curious mixture of surprise and, perhaps, pleasure. + +Then he came in late to his recitation at three o'clock and seemed to +be barely able to keep his attention on the work, and now and then he +would look up and smile and stare at them in an indescribably queer +way. And in the midst of the next recitation he suddenly arose and, +motioning the young man that was reciting to take his seat, he said, +in a husky voice, "Here, stop! the class will please excuse me," and +bowing politely, even grandly, he hurried out of the room, not seeming +to care that his pupils had not got their money's worth. The little +tutor was not himself. + +At half-past seven o'clock that evening he came promptly to the +faculty meeting and quietly took his customary seat by the door. None +of the faculty were aware of anything unusual until after they had +transacted the ordinary business and had decided one or two cases that +came up, and the president had arisen, as usual, and said, in his +clear tones, "Gentlemen of the faculty, is there further business of +any nature to come before this meeting?" and the white-headed old +professor as usual had turned his head sedately around to see if there +was anything, and then settled down in his chair again with his +disappointed look, as was his custom. At this point the little tutor +arose. + +No one saw him at first, and the president was beginning to say "Then +the meeting stands adjourned," but before he reached the last word the +little tutor cleared his throat with a loud, forced sound, which made +them all, young and old, turn their eyes upon him. He was smiling, +they thought. + +"I think it is about time for me to speak," he said, in his high +voice, with a little nervous tremor in it. + +He was vaguely conscious of this, and, also, of the light of the lamp +reflected upon the blackboard back of the President's head. Then he +buttoned up his little cut-away coat and began the speech he had +practised in his room. He spoke slowly and, apparently, very coolly, +and in a deep voice which he always assumed in delivering his +orations. + +"You are probably aware, as I am, that in the wording of the letter by +which I was engaged to serve as Professor Wilkins's assistant in your +academy, there was no clause which specifies the length of time for +which I was to serve in that capacity. This is the case, is it not? A +purely temporary arrangement, so that, in case I proved +unsatisfactory"--he tried to imitate the President's pronunciation of +this word--"I need not be retained the entire year. + +"I have been here one month," he said, with impressiveness. He paused +a moment, and then assuming a smile which he thought was like one of +his old classmates, he concluded: "I appreciate the delicacy of your +position, and will relieve you of the disagreeable duty--a duty from +which you have been restrained by your very kind and thoughtful +appreciation for my feelings--by voluntarily offering my resignation." + +The little tutor walked bravely over to the desk and bowing low laid a +carefully written sheet of paper on the desk, thereby purposely +allowing an opportunity for expression of opinion. But he had crossed +the room and reached his place before anyone began to speak; at first +it seemed as if nothing was going to be said on their part. Then the +President at last made answer, speaking very deliberately, it seemed +to Stacy: + +"Well, Mr. Stacy, this is very sudden; very unexpected. We are +surprised. Believe me, Mr. Stacy, in case the performance of your +duties had not been satisfactory, we would have advised you." + +The little tutor believed him. + +"Furthermore, your work has been entirely satisfactory, has it not, +Professor Thorne?" + +"Entirely," echoed Professor Thorne, across the room. + +The little tutor was baffled by the tones of the President. He thought +they belied his words. Nobody seemed to be impressed as he had +expected. + +"It is my intention to leave to-morrow!" he exclaimed, excitedly, +making an emphatic gesture with his hand. + +"Surely, Mr. Stacy, you are laboring under some wrong impression. +Surely, there is some misunderstanding. You are a little excited, Mr. +Stacy. Perhaps you are a little overworked. You had better think it +over before you make up your mind permanently." + +Professor Thorne here spoke up: "Don't you think, Mr. Stacy, that it +would be a little unwise on your own account. Pardon me, Mr. Stacy, +but I understand your circumstances, and it would be rather late in +the year to obtain another position now." + +The President was about to say something further, but as he turned he +saw on the young man's face a look as of a weak animal at bay; and he +stopped. + +"Don't you know why I'm leaving this place? I'll tell you," he +exclaimed, excitedly; all his oratorical manner and assumed +grandiloquence was forgotten with the rest of his speech. He almost +screamed in his natural voice, "I'll tell you, I HATE you--all, every +one." He swept his hand wildly around the circle, "From the oldest, +gray-haired D.D. to those two conceited young assistants, you cold, +intellectual, cultured, bloodless, unemotional, self-satisfied +creatures--I HATE YOU. Of course _you_ don't care; you won't lose +anything by my hate." He paused a moment, buttoned up his little coat +and began again, the words pouring out of themselves: "I know I'm +nobody; I know I'm not attractive, or cultured, but I'm a human +being--if I'm not from New England--and I have a human heart. I have +been here a whole month, and in that time what one of you has made a +friendly advance?--has spoken a word of encouragement?--has even +taken note of my existence, except as a machine paid to do a certain +amount of work? I found that out that first day in chapel when your +President told you all of the bargain he had made. He assured you that +you were not cheated, as the article rented had had a good standing in +his class. I wondered at the time he did not, in naming my good points +like a horse, mention my college instead of saying _a good Eastern +college_--that's what I can't stand. I could endure the treatment of +myself, but those slurs on my college I cannot and will not stand. +Stop! Don't get excited; don't try to explain anything. You don't want +me to go, because you think you have a good, hard-working horse. You +think to detain me by informing me of my poverty. That might do, +but--but read that!" He snatched from his pocket the letter he had +received that morning. + +"_Read that!_" and he started toward the desk with the letter in his +hand. But the strain was too much for the little tutor. He fainted for +the first time in his life. + + * * * * * + +He never found out whether they read the letter or not. Of course, he +could have ascertained by writing out there, but he never did. +Indeed, he did not like to think of that time now, though he did love +to take out a certain letter with a printed head at the top and read +the formal language which stated briefly how that, owing to the fact +that Mr. Charles Benjamin Howard had decided, etc., "the fellowship +in, etc., was open to Horatio B. Stacy as being, etc., and that it was +with a great deal of pleasure"--but he knew it all by heart, because +he had intended to repeat it once on a certain awful occasion when he +was, he thought, temporarily insane, at least not Horatio B. Stacy. + + + + +COLLEGE MEN + + "Johnnie, Johnnie, Dagnan, + Johnnie, Johnnie, Dagnan, + Do you want me? + No, sir-r-ee, + Not this afternoon, 'ternoon, 'ternoon, 'ternoon." + + +That is what a crowd of noisy, lazy, slouchy-looking fellows, in a +circle in front of Reunion were singing to a little, old, dried-up +man, with a plaintive face and blue uniform, in the centre of it. + +John Dagnan, chief of college police and envoy extraordinary to the +faculty, cast a sad reproachful glance at two of the number to whom he +had borne many a summons to appear at one o'clock, and then relapsed +into his characteristic melancholy silence, gazing inscrutably into +the distance. + +Over by the elm in front of the _Princetonian_ Office were four +seniors pitching pennies and looking very much in earnest over it. Up +and down in front of the shambling old building two or three +base-balls were flying back and forth over or against the heads of the +loafers and passers-by. Several other groups were merely sitting on +the steps or standing on the stone walks, talking or whistling or +waiting for nothing. + +The steps in front of the entry door were so crowded that young +Symington, following his friend Tucker, had to tread upon some of the +loungers to get inside. But the loungers were used to that and did not +stop their conversation. It's easier than arising. + +Symington would have liked to stop and watch the fellows pitching +pennies, and hear more of the song, and see what the little policeman +was going to do about it, but he did not say a word. He merely +followed Tucker up to his room and wondered why he failed to notice +it. + +Charlie Symington was a well-built prep. boy who had been known to +strike out three men with the bases full. He had been invited to spend +Sunday in Princeton by some important athletic men in order that he +might see how much better their college was than all others in the +world. This was because Charles was young and foolish and had shown +signs of shifting his youthful affections and his future athletic +brilliance to that other college where two of his intimate friends +were going, and which had brilliance enough already. + +These athletic officials thought that this would be narrow-minded in +him, and they were giving him a very good time. The way they did it +was not by treating him as a distinguished guest or by telling him +what a fine fellow he was, which would have turned the little boy's +head and have made him think he could do as he pleased. They simply +said "Come," and when he came, let him walk around with them. + +For they were a right conceited lot in regard to their college, and +thought that all they had to do was put a boy on the campus, let him +use his eyes and breathe the air and get it in his young system, and +his good sense would do the rest. If it did not, his sense was not +good and they did not want him, thought they. + +As for the young pitcher, he did not quite understand why these great +and awful men whom he had often heard of were so kind to him, and he +did not care. He only opened his eyes and ears and shut his mouth, and +let his friends do whatever they wanted with him and thought it was +very nice in them. + +And that is all I am going to tell of; what Symington the prep. drank +in with his eyes and ears open and his mouth closed. Nothing will +happen. + +A lame arm had laid him off his team for the usual Saturday game, so +he had arrived in Princeton this afternoon in time to see the 'varsity +play with a small college nine. He watched the game critically and +closely, and passed judgment on each player--under his breath. + +He knew the initials, age, class, and previous history of every man on +the team, and he could have told you just what each one did and did +not in the seventh inning of the Yale game two years before. In regard +to the important games previous to that he was somewhat hazy. He was +only sure of the scores by innings, the total base hits, and the +errors, though he hated to confess it. + +Tucker, the Base-ball president, had honored him to the extent of +allowing him to sit on the bench under the canopy with the team. Here +was a splendid opportunity of gazing upon their faces at close range. +Once when the third baseman came in breathless from a home run, with +perspiration running down his face, he tripped on Symington's toe and +said to him in a loud tone, in order to be heard above the applause, +"Pardon me, Symington," which Charlie did. + +After the game, which was of the subdued, half-holiday recreation +sort, good to bring either a pipe or a girl to, without fear of +putting either out by inattention, Tucker, the president, brought him +up the street and through the noisy quadrangle to Reunion Hall where +he now was ascending the stairs. + +Tucker opened the door and picked up a dozen or more letters from the +floor and said, "Sit down, Charlie," and began to assort them. + +But he said "Sit down Charlie" in an absent-minded tone, and Charlie +knew that, and so he looked about the room instead. He thought this +was the kind of a room a college man ought to have. He gazed at +everything in it from the oar of the last Princeton crew (which must +have rowed in triremes--there are two hundred and nine of those oars) +to the small photograph of a girl's face in a dainty little figured +blue silk frame, all alone over Tucker's desk. That was the first +thing he had discovered of which he could not approve. It grieved him +to be obliged to think that of Tucker. He seemed such a fine fellow, +too. + +Just then Mercer, the treasurer, came in with his rattling tin-box, +and talked business with Tucker, who nodded his head and kept on +opening and glancing through letters. + +Symington tried not to listen, but he couldn't help hearing, so he got +up again and went to the window. A great lot of racket was going on in +the quadrangle below. Somebody had thrown some water out of a window +at somebody else, and now they were trying to throw stones back +without breaking glass, which was hard to do. Everyone was shouting or +yelling, or both, and it was echoing from Old North and College +Offices. This is called Horse. + +It interrupted Tucker so that he had to raise his voice and repeat +several times what he said to Mercer. Finally the voices became louder +than he liked. Stepping across the room in a matter-of-fact way with +an open letter in his other hand, he threw down the window from the +top, with a shrill squeak, and said, in a casual tone, "Ah, I'm afraid +you'll have to be just a little bit more quiet down there. You're +getting a trifle too noisy. There, that's better," and went on with +his sentence to Mercer, who answered, "That's so. Shall I wire him +about it?" The racket had suddenly subsided. + +Symington the prep. sat down and looked at Tucker. But the senior +changed his expression no more than when he knocked the ashes out of +his pipe. Charles asked no questions because he was not that kind of a +prep., but he arose, went to the window again and looked at the +horse-players. Then he looked at Tucker once more. Most of them were +bigger than Tucker. + +They acted as if nothing unusual had taken place. They were laughing +now at something else, only it was quiet laughter. They were +under-classmen. + +The two athletic officers were busy now, the president talking very +rapidly and seriously, and the treasurer listening intently. +Symington, the prep., gazed out of the window as only preps. can gaze. +He found it interesting enough. + +It was that hour of the day when the undergraduate leaves whatever has +been occupying his attention, and thrusts his hands deep into his +pockets, and heads for the spot in town where he feels like going +three times every day. There were dozens of them in sight doing it +now. + +The prep. thought it odd, the way some of them stood still out in the +middle of the campus, and with their eyes turned toward an upper story +of one of the buildings yelled, "Hello-o, Sam, going down to grub?" or +beseechingly, "Please shake it up," or commandingly, "Get a move up +there!" He liked it though. + +He could hear footsteps rumbling down the entry stairs, then the door +slam, and then the man himself would emerge in sight. He saw them +coming out of North, too, and from West, and he could make out others, +way over by East College. Many of them headed toward Nassau Street. +Some set out in the direction of the Chapel. Others turned toward the +Gymnasium. Nearly all of them whistled or made a noise of some sort as +they went along. + +One fellow, a tremendous man, was stalking by with his head thrown +back, singing at the top of his voice. But the funny part of it to +Symington was that the big fellow's face seemed utterly unconscious of +whether any one was around to see him or not. He was all alone, and he +seemed to be having a quiet, comfortable time of it. + +When the clock tolled six Tucker arose and said, "Now we'll go and get +some dinner, Charlie--Pat, Symington and I dine at the Athletic Club +this evening. We'll see you later." Pat was Mercer's right name. + +Symington was glad to hear that he was to dine at the Athletic Club +this evening. He had read all about this affair, and had seen +pictures of it in _Harper's Weekly_. But he listened attentively to +all Tucker had to say on the way down. + +His friend opened the heavy oaken door with a small flat key, +explaining that it was necessary to keep the doors locked because the +mob would otherwise make themselves at home in there. "You see, +Charlie," he said, "although this is the training-quarters it is a +private club, and not a public affair like the field-house we were in +this afternoon. But the membership is open to every one for +competition. When you come to college, if you make the team, you will +be a member as long as you are training with it. If you become a +captain or get any of the Athletic offices you'll be a life member." + +But Symington the prep. was not listening to that. When the door +opened he caught a glimpse of a big brick fireplace with tiling over +it, on which was inscribed "Oranje Boven," and higher up were +footballs hung in clusters with scores painted upon them, and all +about the wainscoted walls of the hallway were baseball and football +and lacrosse championship banners with gilt lettering. That's what he +was paying attention to. + +"Yes, leave your cap there, any place. Now I want to see what you're +good for in this line. We'll go over the house afterward." Tucker led +the way toward the sound of knives and forks. + +Now it should be understood that Symington, the head man of the +school, was not afraid of anything on earth, and if he were dining at +Prospect with the President of the University, it would not have +mattered. But to walk straight into a room and be introduced to the +captain of the team was a little too much. It took his appetite away +at first, and he thought he could eat none of that famous training +food of which he had heard. However, the shock soon passed. + +He was presented to all the members of the nine, and to the subs and +to the trainer, and also to two professional pitchers from the +Brooklyn League team, who were down to coach the players, and who were +just now eating with their knives a huge meal at a little side-table. + +Symington was given a seat next to Jack, the trainer, who was cordial +and kind to him, and said, "Oh, me boy, you must eat more than that." + +The meal seemed to be a very business-like affair. The men were brown +from their exercise in the sun, and ruddy and glowing from their +recent rub down, and hungry from both causes, and they devoured great +sections of rare beef as though they knew it was their duty to get +strong for Old Nassau. + +The conversation was quite shoppy. When he had finished, the captain +pushed back his chair from the table and said, "Fellows, you played a +pretty good game to-day. But we've got to brace up in team work. When +a man's on a base we must simply push him the rest of the way around." + +As soon as dessert was finished, Tucker said, "I want to smoke. Let's +start up for the singing, Charlie." + +Symington would have liked to explore the rest of the club-house, +though of course he did not say so. He did not even ask what the +singing meant. But as they arose to leave the table he did ask a +question about one of the portraits of the ancient and modern athletic +heroes which line the walls. + +"Yes, Charlie," said Tucker, "that's he." + +"I remember just how he looked when he made that long, low drive, that +time, in the ninth inning," Symington said, solemnly. + +"Yes," said Tucker, briefly, "a great many of us will always remember +his long, low drives. Here is your cap." + +This was in reference to a large portrait at the end of the room. The +frame had a deep black border. + +Tucker and his friend, the other fellow, the University treasurer, +whose name the prep. had forgotten, waited until entirely out of the +house before lighting their pipes. + +Two or three of the team joined Tucker and Symington and the +University treasurer. The prep. felt that one of them was coming up +beside him. He waited a moment and then glanced out of the corner of +his eye. He caught his breath, but did not fall down. It was the +captain of the 'varsity nine. + +It's a very fine thing to be head man of your school and pitcher on +your team, but oh, if the school could see him now! + +"How do you like our club?" asked the captain in a voice something +like other men's. + +"I like the club," said Symington. + +"Yes, we think it's a pretty comfortable place. Come down to-morrow +and we'll show you the Trophy-room and all." Then he began to question +him about his team at school. + +To Symington's surprise and delight the captain seemed to know the +score of all the important games they had played and how many--or how +few--base hits had been gained in each one off him, Charles Symington. +And he can tell you to this day every word of the conversation and at +what point of the walk it was when the captain said, "Well, you are +pitching pretty good ball this year. This is McCosh walk. Look at +those trees." + +"Yes," said Symington. + +The soft evening light was sifting down through the interlacing +branches, making a glow to dream about, which Symington did not +notice. He had no time to waste at present. + +They passed between Chapel and Murray Hall and across back of West +toward North. Just as they reached Old Chapel strange notes of music +broke in on the prep.'s ears. At first he could not make up his mind +whether it was vocal or instrumental, or whether it was real at all, +in fact, or part of a dream like everything else perhaps. The seniors +were singing, and from that part of the campus it echoes oddly, as you +doubtless know. + +When they turned the corner and were on the front campus a wonderful +sight met the prep.'s eyes. On the steps of Old North, and spilling +over upon the stone walks in front and filling up the window casements +on either side, was the senior class in duck trousers and careless +attitudes with the dark green of many class-ivies for a background and +the mellow brown wall of the ancient pile showing through in places. +Most of the fellows had an arm about one or two others. + +One of the number was standing up in front beating time with a folded +_Princetonian_. They were singing a dear old song called "Annie Lyle." +Their voices came rich and sweet in the twilight air. + +Under the wide elms were the rest of the college. Also the poor +post-graduates and some of the faculty's families and the little +muckers, and even a few seminary students from over the way. But only +the undergraduates seemed becoming to the scene. The others rather +spoiled the effect. + +Some of the fellows were sprawled out flat on their backs looking up +through the tree-tops at the fading blue. Some rested their heads on +each other and got all mixed up so that no one could tell which were +his own legs. Others were strolling about or looking at the strangers +who came to spend Sunday or to see the game. A few were passing +tennis-balls and being cursed by the rest. All of them wore négligé +clothes or worse. + +The captain said he did not feel like singing and led Symington across +in front of the seniors and made him sit down beside him on the grass. +This was in the eyes of the whole University. + +Symington was quite near the men on the steps. He looked them over +and tried to catch the joke they were all laughing at now the song was +finished. He thought it would be a right fine thing to sit up there +and sing to a college. And he made up his mind that if he ever did it +he would climb up on top of one of the lion's heads like that little +short fellow with the long pipe. + +After singing "Rumski Ho" in long, measured cadence, and other good +old things and several new ones, some one on the steps began shouting, +"Brown! Brown!" Several voices said, in concert, "We _must_ have +Brown." Out in the crowd they began crying, "Right! Brown. We want +Brown! We _must_ have Brown!" + +Three seniors lay hold of one senior and lifted him to his feet. +Symington could hear him saying, "Don't, don't. I'm a chestnut. They +won't listen to me any more. Please don't make a fool of me, fellows." +But he was made to stand out in front and sing a solo. + +While this was going on the rest of the college jumped up from their +places and pressed up into a close semicircle about the steps. +Symington and the captain had to arise to keep from being trampled on. + +When Brown finished his solo he was applauded so much that he had to +sing another, and Symington made up his mind that next to being the +captain he would most like to be Brown. + +Then the crowd called for "Timber," and a man got up who had the +queerest face Symington ever saw. He looked as if he were trying with +all his might to look serious and would never succeed. Everyone began +to laugh the moment Timberly stood up, especially his own classmates. +And when he began to sing his comic ballad they laughed still more. + +When he finished, the audience clapped their hands and yelled. A crowd +of juniors gave the college cheer and ended with the words "Timberly's +Solo." In some respects Symington liked Timberly more than Brown. + +When Timberly at last, looking sad, sat down, Symington heard several +voices saying "Everybody up." Those on the ground arose, and those in +the windows jumped down. Symington got up too, though he did not know +why, and took off his cap when he saw the captain do it. + +It was late twilight. The campus was becoming dusky. The faces were +dim. The ball-throwing had ceased, and the little muckers had left. +The elms were sighing softly overhead in a patriarchal sort of way. +Symington thought everyone seemed more quiet and solemn than they +were before. Perhaps he only imagined it. + +Then, with all the seniors on their feet, with their heads uncovered, +the leader waved his white baton, and over one hundred voices sang +"Tune every heart and every voice, Bid every care withdraw," and the +rest of the college hymn. + +Many of the audience joined in, and nobody thought it fresh in them; +and Symington would have liked to join in too, only he did not know +how. He felt very queer for some reason, and forgot who was standing +beside him for a moment. The poetry of the scene was getting into him. +He didn't know that, of course, but he had a vague feeling that this +was living, and that it was good for him to be there. + +When the hymn was finished the class cheered for itself and for the +college, and for itself again; and the senior singing was over. + +From all over the front campus there suddenly broke out in many loud +discordant keys, "Hello, Billy Minot" and "Hello, Jimmy Linton" and +"hello" Johnnys and Harrys and Reddys and Dicks, and Drunks, and +Deans, and Fathers, and Mables and horses and dogs and houses and +others. As each found the man he wanted, an arm or two was thrown +about a neck or two, and they started off for some other part of the +campus or town. + +The captain had also helloed for someone. Symington was left alone for +a moment. But he was not exactly alone. He listened to the scraps of +talk as the fellows moved past. "Pretty good singing this evening.... +Get to work now.... At Dohm's.... I told him to come up.... New York +to get advertisements.... The Trigonometry.... Trials for the Gun +Club.... _Princetonian_ Subscriptions now.... The mandolin to some +girls that came to see the game with him.... You damn sour ball." Some +of them were humming the last notes of the song. Others were saying +nothing. + +A loud clear voice beside him called "Hello, Charlie Symington." It +was Tucker looking for him in the dusk, and he called him just as they +called to college men. Symington was to meet the captain again later +on. Tucker put his arm about Charlie's shoulders as they stepped along +toward Reunion. Perhaps he did it unconsciously. + +"You can amuse yourself with these," said Tucker, tossing into +Charlie's lap a copy of the _Bric-a-Brac_, which he had read long ago +at school, and a lot of photographs. "And if you want a nap," he +added "just read that." He threw across the room the last number of +the _Nassau Lit_. That's a very old joke. + +Tucker then turned to his desk and got to work over something. +Symington did not know what it was, and of course did not ask. But it +was not fifteen minutes before "Hello-o, Tommy Tucker" came in a loud +voice from the quad, below. Tucker frowned and did not look up. + +Then it came again, with a sharper accent on the second syllable, +"Hell_oo_, Tommy Tucker." + +"Hello," Tucker replied, shortly. + +"Are you up there?" + +"No, I'm down at the 'varsity grounds running around the track." + +"You busy?" + +"Yes, Ted, I am. Don't come up." + +"All right." Then a whistled tune began, and the shuffling of a pair +of feet along the walk. Gradually they faded and mingled with other +whistling and feet scraping. + +While Symington was thinking this over he heard another voice calling +for someone else, and when a muffled response came back, the clear, +outside voice said, "Stick your head out!" He heard a window lowered +and the inside voice say "Well?" + +"Stick it in again." + +The window slammed and the man below went on down to Dohm's, whistling +softly to himself. + +Symington, the prep., thought that was very funny and laughed aloud, +and hoped he did not disturb his host by so doing. + +Presently someone else yelled for Tucker, and when he replied, "Yes, +of course, I'm busy," the man below called back, "Too bad," and the +entry stairs began to clatter. In a moment a broad smile and a pair of +clean duck trousers burst into the room. + +"Timberly," said Tucker, smiling in spite of himself, "I thought I +told you not to come up here this evening." + +"I believe you did. That's so." Timberly was trying to look serious. +Then brightening up at the sight of Symington as if remembering +something. "But you see," he said, "I wanted to meet the pitcher." +Tucker grinned and introduced them. + +Timberly shook Symington's hand vigorously and said, "Wasn't that a +smooth song I sang on the steps--hey? I'm a good one, only none of 'em +appreciate me. Oh, yes, I nearly forgot--I'm up here on business. I'm +up here on business, Tommy Tucker," he repeated, and daintily kicked +off Tucker's cap and disappeared into one of the bedrooms. Tucker kept +on working. Symington wondered what Timberly was doing. + +It was nearly half-past eight now, and other fellows began dropping +in. Some helloed first and some came unannounced. Tucker looked up to +see who they were. Sometimes he said "Hello" and sometimes he did not. +Some of them took off their caps. Others did not. Tucker left it to +the first ones to introduce Symington to the later ones. + +After half an hour's absence Timberly emerged from the room finishing +a sentence he had begun before he opened the door. "And Tommy, you +must do the rest. You can tie them so nicely too." + +"Tommy, look," said the man with the banjo on the sofa. + +Timberly was standing up straight, nicely incased in evening clothes +and holding two ends of a white tie in his hands. He looked +well-groomed and seemed like a different man now. Perhaps he was. + +"What are you doing?" said Tucker, in a stern voice. + +"I've got to do it. It's two years now, and it's not good form to let +a dinner call go more than two years in Princeton. Here, Tommy, fix +this." + +"Do it yourself." + +"These were great friends of my brother's, and he made me promise on +the Family Bible, if we have one. Here, tie this. Great Scott, I've +done all the rest. They are your own clothes. You ought to at least be +willing to fix the tie." + +Tucker put his pen between his teeth and tied the knot with Timberly +kneeling at his feet like a patient child having his face washed. +Tucker was one of the three men in college who could make a decent job +of a tie on another man's neck without standing behind him. The others +looked on in silence. Timberly looked up and winked at the prep. + +As a rule Symington did not like people to wink at him, as though he +were a boy, but this was a most peculiar wink. He not only liked it +but nearly snorted out with laughter, which would have been a very +kiddish thing to do. + +Timberly jumped up. "You're a pretty nice fellow, Tommy Tucker, even +though you are arrogant," he said, and leaned over and rubbed his chin +affectionately across Tucker's nose, then grabbed his cap and started +for the door. + +"By the way Timber," said Tucker. "I want you to return those clothes +some time. Do you hear? I may go out of town next week." + +"That sounds reasonable," replied Timberly, reflectively rattling the +knob as he glanced about the room at the others. + +"And I don't want to chase all over the campus for 'em. Do you hear?" + +"Now, Tommy Tucker, you talk as if I were accustomed to keeping things +I borrow. What are you fellows laughing at? Besides, you know very +well, T. Tucker, that even if I should happen to forget to return your +suit, all you would have to do would be to wire down home for +mine--or, no, ask me and I'd wire down myself and save you the +trouble." He banged the door. + +"Now do you suppose," laughed the one with the cigar on the divan as +Timberly's feet in Tucker's patent leathers went pattering down the +stairs, "that Timber thought he was in earnest in that last brilliant +remark of his, or was it meant for horse." You could seldom tell with +Timberly. + +"I don't believe he knew himself," said the man with his feet on the +arms of Symington's chair. "He's on one of his streaks to-day. I saw +the symptoms this morning in Ethics. And when he's that way he's as +good as crazy." + +"Right," said the one with the banjo. "He don't know what he's saying +any more than he knows that he has a cap on his head with a dress +suit. If he were in his right mind he would not go out calling." + +"He'll either make a fool of himself this evening wherever he goes, or +else he'll make one of those great tears of his." + +But Symington the prep. thought Timberly was about the best fun in the +world. + +Some of the fellows left and others came in. Symington thought some of +them behaved oddly. One man seemed very sour and came in scowling and +sat down without saying hello to anybody. He put his feet on the table +and pulled his cap down over his eyes. As soon as he finished his pipe +and had emptied the ashes on the carpet to keep out the moths he arose +and stretched himself and went away again. He had not said a word. And +after he had left no one said anything about it. + +That happened while the crowd was thickest. When there were only a few +fellows in the room some one generally remembered to introduce the +incomers to Symington. He rather liked the way they treated him. They +did not, as a rule, patronize him because of his being a prep. And +they did not take pains to make him feel at ease, which would have +rattled him. They treated him more as if he were one of them, and +talked to him, if they felt like it, and let him look after himself, +if they did not. At least that is the way it seemed to Charlie. And +they called him Charlie or Symington, without any Mister, which would +have made him feel ridiculous. + +And all this time Tucker at his desk kept on working and only looked +up occasionally to say, "How are you, Willie, there's the tobacco, +come in." The only time he arose from his seat was once when Jack the +trainer came in, and looking at the crowd said, "Mister Tucker, can I +speak with ye a moment." The busy man said "Certainly" and led the way +into his bedroom and closed the door with a bang, and came out again +in a few minutes saying, "All right Jack, I appreciate your position. +I'll see to it. Good-night," and sat down to work again. + +At a little before eleven the prep. began to feel the force of +training habits. He was gritting his teeth hard to keep from yawning. +Tucker, who had not looked up for nearly an hour, whisked his papers +and things to one side, slammed two drawers, turned a lock, and +suddenly jumped up from his chair. He ran across the room with a yell +which startled the prep. and made the chandelier ring. Then he threw +himself upon two fellows on the divan and began calling them names. +His teeth were set and his face so fierce that the prep. found it +difficult to keep from believing him angry. And then the two on the +divan arose in their might and cast him upon the floor, exclaiming, +victoriously, "There, be Gosh." Tucker was through his work for the +week and was feeling glad about it. That was his way of expressing it. + +"Now, Charlie," he said in a loud, careless manner, "we go out and +have some fun now. Here's a cap. Don't wear that ugly stiff hat any +more. See?" + +Symington had no idea where he was going, but he arose and said +good-by to the three others in the room. They did not seem to feel +badly in the least over their rude treatment on the part of their +host. One of them, sitting on a table with one foot on a chair and the +other on the floor, was reading a book of verses and did not look up +when Tucker said, "So long." The other two, who had been talking about +the baseball prospects and including Symington in their conversation, +remained flat on their backs talking about the baseball prospects +without Symington. + +It was a beautiful evening. In other words it was spring term and the +night was clear. There were still groups of fellows seated on the +doorsteps or stretched out under the trees. The gleam of their +flannels could be seen in the dark. They were up in the balconies +also. One of them knocked the ashes from his pipe and Symington saw +the sparks float down. He heard a low laugh come from one of the wide +open windows. Up from Witherspoon came the tinkle of mandolin music. +They were playing to some visiting girls on those broad balconies in +front. + +"This is West," said Tucker; "Jack Stehman lives in that room up there +and Harry Lawrence in the one below----" + +"Oh, Stehman the tackle?" asked the prep. + +"Yes. Have you met him?" + +"No." + +"You will to-night." + +The prep.'s heart gave a bound. He was to meet Stehman. + +They passed down by Clio Hall and dingy Edwards and turned toward a +long gray building a little to the left. + +"This is Dod Hall," Tucker said, and opened one of the big doors. + +They went up two or three flights of stairs and turned down the hall, +and Tucker kicked a door at the end of it. Something clicked and the +door opened of itself. Four or five voices shouted, "Come in." + +Mingled bits of conversation and tobacco smoke and the odor of +lemon-peel met them in the little hall-way as they entered it. But +Symington the prep. looked behind the door and made up his mind that +his door would have an electric apparatus like that when he came to +college. + +A fellow stuck his head out of one of the bedroom doors and pointing +across the hall-way to the main room with a long, bright deer-knife, +said, "Come in, Tom, I'll be there in a moment." He rubbed +perspiration from his brow with the back of the hand which held a +lemon and disappeared into the bedroom. + +"Yea-a-a!" cried several voices as Tucker pushed back the portière and +stood in the door-way. "Come in, Tommy," they said. "Come in, +Symington," said one of the fellows that knew the prep. + +"Fellows, this is my friend Symington, the prep.'" said Tucker; +"Symington, this is de gang." Tucker tossed his cap and Symington's +gracefully into the scrap-basket and pushed Charlie into a seat on the +sofa. A fellow with spectacles began asking him what he thought of +the afternoon's game. The prep. did not know the man's name, but that +did not matter. + +There were about a dozen fellows scattered about the room, but the +thing that attracted Symington's attention was in the centre of it. + +Two square-topped desks had been placed end to end. On these lay a +table-cloth, or rather some sheets, and on them was stacked a pile of +things good to look at and better to eat. The only reason the food did +not immediately become part of the dozen fellows was because they were +waiting with watering mouths for something to wash it down with. And +this was being prepared as rapidly as Randolph and Ashley in the +bedroom could do it. Perhaps they were trying to do it too rapidly, +for Symington heard a voice exclaim, "Aw, look out, you ass, you're +spilling it all over my bed." + +While they were waiting, Dougal Davis and Reddy Armstrong and Harry +Lawrence and Jim Linton and others came in. When the lounge, +window-seat, chairs, tables, and coal-scuttle became crowded, the +new-comers sat on the floor. + +Presently the introductory strains of Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" +came from the bedroom, followed by Randy and Dad Ashley and two +assistants bearing aloft two basins, which seemed to be heavy. They +strode in, swinging their feet far out in front in a stagey manner to +the tune of the "Wedding March" which they shouted with their heads +thrown back. + +Hunter Ramsay jumped up and marched behind them. The rest thought this +a good idea and did likewise, and all sang loud and stamped hard and +made the poler growl in the room below, which did no good. Then after +marching twice around the table they carefully set the bowls down at +either end of it with the ice tinkling against the sides. One of the +bowl-bearers remarked, "Maybe you don't think those things are heavy." + +"Now then!" said Stehman the tackle, approaching the table. "Ah!" said +Symington's friend Tucker. The others may have said things also. If +they did not they looked them. + +No one waited to be asked. Everyone was supposed to know without being +told what was the object of white breasts of cold chicken with +russet-brown skin, and rich Virginia ham with spices sticking in the +golden-brown outside fat, and little, thin, home-made sandwiches and +olives and jellies, Virginia jellies, you know, and beaten biscuit and +chocolate cake and fruit cake, or black cake, as they call it in the +South. As a matter of fact they all did seem to know, and this +included Symington, who held his own with the others very well for a +little prep. boy in training. He had forgotten to be sleepy now. + +Thus began one of the greatest evenings in the life of Charlie +Symington, and it lasted until two o'clock. It was an old-fashioned +spread. There was no caterer with a gas-stove in the bedroom, or a +table set with a bank of flowers down the centre, or properly attired +waiters opening wine behind the chairs. Randolph's mother had sent up +a lot of deliciously cooked stuff from the old place in Virginia. +Randolph had said to some of the fellows, "I've got a box of grub. Can +you come 'round this evening?" And by the looks of things most of them +had found that they could as well as not. + +Symington had the best time of them all, and, besides, he learned +much. He noticed that quite as many fellows took lemonade as drank +punch, and this was a matter of surprise to the prep. For his ideas of +college men were largely drawn from would-be sportive young freshmen +that drove through prep. school towns waving beer-bottles overhead and +beating their horses into a gallop. + +Nobody got drunk. Everyone became livelier and brighter and better, +but that is the object of such gatherings, and those who confined +their attentions to the lemonade end of the table were as noisy as the +others. No one was urged to take the red fluid rather than the yellow. +In fact no one observed which fellows visited which punch-bowl. No one +but Symington. And he had been under the impression that at college a +fellow's jaws were pried open with a baseball bat and rum was poured +down his throat, while three other men held his legs and arms. + +The room had now become beautifully hazy with smoke. Some of the +fellows tipped their chairs back and put their feet up. The +window-seat was full to overflowing. One man rested his head on +another fellow's shoulder and asked him to muss his hair. The legs of +the one having his hair mussed stretched out over the legs of two +other fellows and intertwined with those of a third. Two men were +sitting beside the oranges on the table. Some were on the floor with +their backs against the wall. All had full stomachs and light jovial +spirits. Symington was watching Dougal Davis blow rings. + +Harry Lawrence started up "The Orange and the Black." They sang all +the stanzas. Then they sang more songs, old songs which are still +popular and new songs which were then popular and are now quite +forgotten, probably. Everyone sang, whether he knew how or not. +Symington sang too. The one he liked the best was a funny song +beginning, "Oh, to-day is the day that he comes from the city." They +sang that one over and over again. Then they sang it once more. They +were all having a good time. + +After a while the room became quiet and someone turned down the lights +and they told ghost stories, which frightened the prep. + +They wound up the evening by trooping downstairs in the dark, for the +lights were turned out long ago, and marching up to the front campus, +singing as they went. And there they danced about the cannon and sang +and whooped and yelled until Bill Leggett came over with his lantern +and said, in his gruff voice and good-natured manner, "Boys, it's +nearly Sunday morning." + +"All right, Bill," they answered. Then all said good-night and went to +bed. + +Tucker had a roommate some place, but Symington had his bedroom that +night. + +"If you want anything, just yell for me, Charlie. My room is right +next, you know. Goodnight." Tucker was half undressed. + +"I sha'n't want anything. Wait a minute, Tucker, please. I'm not sure +about something, and it bothers me." + +"Well?" + +"Princeton won the football championship in '78, didn't we?" + +"Say that again." + +"Didn't we win in '78?" + +"Yes, Charlie, we did." + +Symington thought his friend Tucker was smiling at his ignorance. But +that wasn't it. + + + + +THE MAN THAT LED THE CLASS + + +The Latin salutatory was finished. Dougal Davis bowed and took his +seat and the applause began. + +He had done well and he knew it, but he did not stop to dwell upon +that now. There would be plenty of time to feel pleased with himself +later on. At present his chief sensation was of jubilant relief at +telling himself that the thing was over with at last. + +Not many of his audience had understood much of what he had been +saying, but that did not matter. The fellows smiled at the right time +when he said something about _puellas pulchras_, and they nodded their +heads knowingly when he made the reference to athletics, as he had +told them beforehand to do. And he had gotten through without +forgetting the paragraph beginning with "Postquam," as he feared he +would. + +He was mopping his good-looking brow. His nerves were still quivering, +but he felt perfectly cool and unafraid of anything, and he sat very +still with his eyes half closed, and felt the tension on his nerves +soothingly relax. Then for the first time he heard the applause, and +it occurred to him that all those many people out there were clapping +their hands for him, and that for five minutes they had heard very +little else but his voice, and he felt without glancing up that they +were still looking at him and very likely thinking, "That is the man +that led the class." He told himself all this with an inward smile of +wonder at his own importance, and at his not being more impressed by +it. + +Then he slowly raised his eyes and moved his gaze around over the many +fluttering fans to the right. He passed over it once without seeing +it, then he found the face he was searching for. She was looking up at +him with just the kind of a smile that he knew would be there, and +when she caught his eye, the smile became radiant, and he fancied he +saw a little look of triumph in it. This he answered with a shrug of +his engowned shoulder and an almost imperceptible grimace, and quickly +looked away again. No one else saw it, but she saw and she understood. + +The applause had ceased, and the next man was introduced and the +audience turned their attention to him. + +Davis took a long breath and looked about him. There was a fat old +lady fanning vigorously, and at every stroke of the fan a ray of +light was reflected in his face. Over there on the right of the +platform were the venerable trustees. Harry Lawrence's fine looking +father, with the handsome head of gray hair, was in the front row, +looking grave and indulgently interested. On the left were the faculty +in their black gowns. They appeared more or less accustomed to all +this. Down in front were his classmates, and back of these the many, +many people closely crowded together. Their faces looked like little +patches of white with dark marks for features, and nearly all of them +seemed to be fanning. + +He remembered the lining up under the elms this morning in front of +North, and the band that played, and the girls that gazed, and the +many classes calling "'82 this way!" and "'61 this way!" and the +old-fashioned cheer that '79 gave. Then with the band taking a fresh +hold on the air, how the long procession had begun its march under the +trees toward the church, between the crowds of visitors who parted to +either side and looked at them as they filed by. + +First came that member of the faculty who is always grand marshal and +carries an orange and black baton, then the august trustees followed +by the faculty in their gowns and mortar boards, and behind these +trooped the sons of Nassau; each class in the order of graduation, and +last of all those who were about to become graduates, over whom all +this fuss was being made, and who were somewhat impressed by it and by +the length of their gowns. + +He remembered the slow, dignified march led by the grand usher and his +assistants up the aisle of the old church between the crowded pews of +smiling fathers and proud mothers and the girls with bright-colored +dresses. He recalled how amused and yet pleased he was at hearing a +junior whisper to a girl beside him, "There he is--that's Davis, the +one I was telling you about." This he remembered had interrupted the +silent rehearsal of the sentence with the ablative absolute in it. But +he did not have to rehearse it any more. All the salutatorian had to +do was to sit still and hear what the other speakers had to say and +feel good. + +He was thinking about himself and the four years just past, and having +a right good time at it. He recalled how he had been a nobody at the +start, and he smiled as he remembered how some of these very fellows +in the pews before him had looked down on him in freshman year, and +how he had forced their respect and won their liking. He traced the +progress of it from the first step when he gained the one freshman +position on the _Princetonian_ board and overheard someone say, "What! +that poler?" up to the present time when people pointed him out on the +campus and said, "There goes Dougal Davis." Few ambitious men graduate +with as much to be proud of and as little to regret. + +First there was the prize for leading the class in freshman year, then +came the sophomore essay prize, and the Washington's birthday debate, +and the next year a classical prize and two or three Hall honors, +including one of the four appointments for the inter-Hall junior +oratorical contest, in which he had won first place, and a number of +other prizes of which he did not stop to think in detail, and finally +the appointment as first representative of his Hall in the Lynde +debate which had taken place the night before, and the result of which +would be announced to-day. Intermingled with these were other honors, +such as the membership of an elective club, and the presidency of his +class in junior year, and the class oratorship on Class Day, and then +the Latin salutatory to-day. + +You see he had just about all one man could get, and before he left +the room he was going to hear his name read out before everybody, as +the winner of still a few more honors. This was the culmination of a +rather successful career, and he told himself that he did not care how +conceited it was, he was going to enjoy it for all it was worth, for +before the sun set he would be an undergraduate no longer, and there +would be plenty of time to find how small he was. + +Dougal Davis was the son of a foreign missionary, and he had entered +college with the intention of making a minister of the Gospel of +himself. He still had that intention. He was one of the most popular +men on the campus. + +When he began his course he was as bristling with prejudices and as +redolent of sanctimony as many high-minded young men of noble purpose +and little tact, but unlike some of them he had sense of humor enough +to find out pretty promptly that he was a young prig. + +He soon shed many of his prejudices, and he was fair-minded enough to +let the good wholesome atmosphere of the campus air out his +sanctimony. This is a way of saying that early in freshman year he +took himself in hand and decided that if he and a number of other +fellows looked at a number of things in vastly different ways it did +not necessarily follow that the other fellows were dead wrong. He was +in evidence at class prayer-meetings, but not more than at the +meetings at the lamp-post in front of Reunion, with his hands doubled +up under a sweater, gossiping with the crowd. That is the sort of a +fellow he was. + +Davis's father had a small salary and a large family, like all +missionaries, and one of the girls had come back to the States when +Dougal did to go to a school in Philadelphia. So young Davis earned +the price of his education. + +But this was not so hard as it sounds. Being a minister's son he had a +scholarship, which saved his tuition bills, and he ran a club, so that +his board cost nothing. Leading the class in freshman year not only +brought him the prize of $200, but the best kind of advertising with +the faculty as well, so that in sophomore year he had more tutoring +sent around to him than he knew what to do with. Then he became +Princeton correspondent for several papers, and dropped tutoring +except on special occasions and at very special rates. He had such a +reputation that he could have had any price he asked. "Go to Davis; he +can put you through any examination," they used to say. + +In junior year he enlarged his newspaper correspondence and began +doing some syndicate work. He gained a bit of reputation with football +writing, and in his senior year he used to sign his name to a column +of it every week. "The joke of it is," Dougal used to explain, "I +don't know beans about the game." This was not strictly true, for no +one with eyes could go through four years of tramping down to 'varsity +field without absorbing enough to enlighten the average sporting +editor. + +In short, before Davis was three-quarters of the way through his +college course, he was paying his expenses and making a surplus which +was considerably larger than that which poor young men who earn their +way through college to preach the Gospel are supposed to have. + +Now he might have sent a portion of it out to his hard-working parents +in Persia, or have helped to defray the expenses of his ambitious +sister at school. This would have been noble of him, but he did +nothing of the kind. One does not need much money in Persia; there's +nothing to spend it on. His people had a large, comfortable home with +a dozen servants to look after it, and they seemed to have leisure +enough to write articles for English and American magazines now and +then. A rich aunt looked out for his sister, and she had the +reputation of dressing more artistically than any girl in the Walnut +Street school. The only thing he did for her was to send an occasional +box of candy, or a book, like any other brother. Davis did not even +save his money. He blew it in on himself and his friends, like any +other natural young man. What do you suppose he worked so hard for if +it were not to go in with the rest of the club for coaches at +Thanksgiving games, and to take runs to Philadelphia over Sunday, and +to give spreads in his room on Saturday nights, and to do the other +things for which one has sore need of money and for which he goes +broke for about twenty days of each month? If Davis had been a modern +undergraduate he would perhaps have spent money on good-looking +clothes, though I hardly think that of him. + +The only disadvantage in his way of living was that it took time, so +that he did not have as much of it to loaf in as he would have liked. +Especially as he was mixed up in half-a-dozen outside interests of the +college world, and had a provokingly high stand in class to maintain +besides. For although the fellows used to say he kept on leading his +class from force of habit, as a matter of fact it took considerable +valuable time. + +The worst of it was that he had to do his reviewing up regularly week +by week, for he was of no account at cramming all night for exams, he +said. Perhaps this was true. When the crowd used to gather in +half-undressed condition with wet towels around their heads and wild +looks on their faces, Dougal generally stretched out upon the divan +and drummed on a banjo, with his eyes half closed and a pipe in his +mouth, and listened to the others quizzing and getting excited, and at +twelve o'clock, except on rare occasions, he said good-night, and went +to bed and slept like a child, and the next day would saunter into +Examination Hall as fresh as a spring term Sunday, and write the best +paper in the class. It is in this way that many fellows remember him +best. + +The reason he never seemed to be especially rushed was that he had the +knack of arranging his time, and had learned while still in college +that there are a great many moments in twenty-four hours. He went to +breakfast before chapel, and he crammed a great deal into those odd +hours that come between lectures, which most fellows spend in making +up their minds what to do, and he found he better appreciated a loaf +on Saturday night if he put in most of the daylight in work. It was in +that way he managed to find time to keep up his Hall work and attend +to his _Princetonian_ duties and committee meetings and write orations +and essays, besides managing one of the clubs and turning out an +average of one thousand words of copy a day in time to catch the +afternoon mail. + +And it was in this way that he managed to keep from breaking down +under it. When the bell in North struck five he always tossed aside +his book and ran down the stairs three steps at a time and yelled, +"Hello, Tommy Tucker," or "Billy Nolan," or somebody with all his +might, and with him took a rattling hard walk--not down Nassau Street, +but 'cross country--or else an hour's pull at the weights in the +gymnasium with a cold shower-bath and a hard rub at the end of it, and +then walked tingling with health and content to the club, when he ate +the largest meal of anyone there--except when big Stehman was back +from the training-table. + +After this he stretched his legs far under the table and leaned his +head against the back of the chair, and there lingered with the coffee +and gossip, blowing beautiful smoke rings for an hour. He had been +known to refuse a $5 tutoring offer for this hour, just as he had once +sacrificed an elective course in Greek philosophy for the five o'clock +one. + +During the past year Davis had been making up his mind to a few +things. One of them was that he would go out to the foreign field. He +could not say that he felt himself called to it. He did not sign the +pledge that was circulated about in the colleges at that time as the +"Student volunteer movement." + +Ever since he could remember he had intended to be a preacher, though +there was a period, which came about the same time as his first pair +of trousers, when he thought he would rather be a dragoman with a +fierce mustache and big buttons. And now he came to the conclusion +that he would become a foreign missionary, like his father. + +He felt that he was pretty well suited to the work and would make a +success of it. He had a strong constitution, a good voice, and +adaptability to circumstances. He knew pretty well by nature how to +get at people, and the summer spent slumming down in Rivington Street, +New York, had taught him considerably more. Besides, he already had +the language down fine, and could stumble along tolerably well with +two of the low dialects. + +What is more, he thought he would like it. He did not tell himself +that it was noble to go and bury himself way out there, for there +wasn't any burying about it. He liked the climate and expected to have +a good time in Persia, with a man-servant to bow low and make his +coffee in the morning, and to fill his big, long pipe every evening, +and he pictured himself on a horse riding beside a certain blue river +with peculiar big trees along the bank quite as often as saving souls. + +At least this is the way he used to talk in pow-wows in fellows' +rooms. But there were certain long-faced friends of his that +misunderstood when he talked in this manner. + + * * * * * + +The salutatorian was not troubling himself about that just now, as he +sat there on the stage resting his chin on one hand and fanning +himself with a programme in the other. He had been idly listening to +Nolan as he thundered and perspired about Purity in Politics. For his +part he preferred gamey Billy Nolan, the all-round athlete, to earnest +William the orator. Nervous little poler Stacy was now straining his +lungs with his well-committed plea for the Greek Ideal. Davis was not +following it very closely. He glanced down at his classmates in the +front rows. He knew that before the day was over he was going to feel +pretty sad. That was not troubling him very much now either. But every +time he looked down there a certain thing bobbed up and spoiled the +pleasant taste in his mouth. It was hardly worth getting uncomfortable +over. This was the way it had begun, long ago last fall, as they sat +around the table after dinner talking football. And you can see how +ridiculous it was to worry about it. + +Davis was holding forth at some length with considerable earnestness, +as he had a perfect right to do, of course, and Jim Linton had not +joined in the discussion. He seldom did. He was quietly sipping his +coffee at the end of the table and looking quizzically interested. + +Presently he interrupted. "Oh, Dougal," he said. He had arisen to go +and was refilling his pipe. + +Dougal stopped short. "Yes?" he said in an intense tone. + +Linton looked at him a moment, folded up his pouch, put it in his +pocket, and struck a match. + +Then he said, between puffs, "I'd a little rather you would not get +excited, Dougal," and started off for the billiard-room. + +It was nothing but a bit of ordinary club chaff such as passes back +and forth every day, and Linton forgot the occurrence before he +finished chalking his cue. But Dougal's cheeks had flushed crimson, +and before he knew what he was saying he had come out with a muttered +remark in which the word "gentleman" was loud enough for all at the +table to hear, and that is a very awkward word to handle sometimes. + +That was the reason no one said anything for a moment. Silences were +rare in that room. He did not go on with the discussion of the +defective coaching system. Nor did the others. + +A little later as he started for the campus old Jack Stehman joined +him and said, in his sober, conscientious way, "Say, Dougal, you had +no business saying what you did about Jimmy. Of course you didn't mean +it, but you had better apologize, don't you think?" + +Davis said he did not look at it in that way, and changed the subject. +Before he got to sleep that night he saw what a fool he had made of +himself, and made up his mind to apologize to Linton before the whole +table. But that was in the middle of the night. + +The next day there were guests at the club. The following day Linton +dined out. The day after that Davis tried to make himself do it as +they sat about the fireplace, but he postponed it until some time when +his heart was not beating so loud, for he did not feel himself called +upon to make a scene before the whole club. When he thought over what +he meant to say it all seemed very ridiculous, and he blushed at the +thought of it. Linton of all fellows would dislike any slopping over +of this sort. So he changed his mind and decided to speak to Linton +alone about it. + +But it was a very hard thing for a man like Davis to talk to a man +like Linton about a thing like this. There was something about Linton +that he did not understand. He was the one man that made him +self-conscious. He always felt as though Linton saw through him and +understood how ambitious he was, and was laughing at him for his +strenuous struggling. He told himself that he did not propose to be in +awe of a lazy dilettante who thought himself a clever reader of human +nature. But that did not help him to apologize. And the longer he put +it off the harder it became, naturally. And the longer he put it off +the more he found to dislike in Linton, which was also natural, only +you would not have thought this of Davis. + +After a while he began wondering how he had taken to Linton in the +first place, and why the other fellows liked him so much. Every time +they were together he began comparing himself with him. By most +standards Davis ought to have been satisfied. Linton himself never +seemed to think of comparison. He seemed to calmly take it for granted +that Dougal was a wonderful man, and often referred to it as an +acknowledged fact. He seemed to be glad to speak of it. But he had a +way of making fellows love him that was galling to the man that led +the class. + +All the college bowed down to Dougal Davis; not twenty under-classmen +knew who Linton was. But Timberly and Reddy Armstrong and Jack Stehman +had a way of throwing an arm about lazy Linton, whom they loved, that +it did not occur to them to do with the wonderful Dougal Davis, whom +they admired. Davis wanted that love. He wanted everything. You see he +had quite a disposition to contend with. + +So he kept on having disagreeable times with himself and the +conscience which would not let up. Finally he made up his mind to +patch it all up on Commencement Day, and he had hit upon a plan by +which he could make just amends to Linton, he told himself, and duly +punish himself at the same time, and then he could graduate in peace. + +Meanwhile he would have to stop thinking about that and walk down from +the stage with the other Commencement speakers, for Charles Benjamin +Howard had finished telling people about the Utility of Difference, +and the orchestra was playing "Ta-ra-ra boom de ay." + +There was an intermission of ten minutes now. After that would come +the announcement of prizes and the conferring of degrees, then +Smith's valedictory, followed by the benediction, and then the class +would walk out into the world with their little diplomas under their +arms tied with pretty ribbons. + +The audience changed their positions and looked about at the other +people there, whispered to each other, and went to fanning again. Some +of the fathers looked at their watches and yawned and wished +Commencement was over with behind their programmes, and fell to +thinking about things in the office which they had come here to +forget. + +Other old grads. smiled kindly, and remembered how they used to do +when they were in college. The young alumnus looked pityingly at the +graduating class in the front rows and thought how little these boys +knew about the big world he knew so much of. + +Meanwhile the juniors and the lower classmen were very active and +noisy in the rear of the old church. The Whig men were gathering on +the left-hand side, and Clio Hall on the right. Many reinforcements +were arriving that had not been near the church during the other +exercises. The aisles became jammed. The seats were already so. + +Suddenly a man jumped up on a pew, and screamed, "Now, fellows! Clio +Hall, this way! Hip-hip!" + +"Clio Hall--this way!" came out with startling force from many +throats. + +This woke everyone up, and those that had never been there before were +a little shocked for a moment. The loud voices echoed strangely +against the old walls and among the old pillars and under the old +galleries, which by the way are used to all this and weren't surprised +a bit. No doubt they miss it these days. + +Then the left-hand side of the church raised its voice and said, "Whig +Hall, this way! Whig Hall this wa-ay!" in still fiercer tones. Then +Clio called itself together again, and then Whig Hall cheered and so +did Clio, and gave a long cheer and so did Whig. Then both cheered for +themselves at once, and tried to drown each other out, and succeeded. +They kept this up until time was called. That is, the clerk of the +board of trustees arose and stretched his long neck and began to +announce the prizes from a long list in his hand. This was +interesting. + +Whenever he read out an award in his strong voice, it was met with a +tremendous cheer from the Hall whose member won the prize. It mattered +not whether the honor was one for which a literary society's training +could count; they cheered anyway, whether it was a fellowship in +modern languages or a prize in the School of Science draughtsmanship. +Nor did it matter whether the man had never since the first week after +his initiation worked the combination lock of the Hall door. They +cheered him anyway. And when the two societies were in doubt as to +which he belonged to, they both cheered. It made magnificent noise. + +There are a great many of these prizes. One has no idea until +Commencement comes that there are so many advertised in the catalogue; +and the clerk read each one out in a loud voice, and then waited for +the cheering to cease. + +Dougal Davis had heard his name announced three times, and each time +the cheer rang out from the enthusiastic throng in the rear he felt +the little echoing thrill inside of him. + +Once as he stepped down from the platform he caught a glimpse of a man +leading the cheer for him. The man's back was turned, but he saw him +standing there 'way up on the railing of the pew in his excitement, +and he saw his arms vigorously jerking out the cheer. + +Davis was used to this sort of thing and he held his features very +well, though as he marched up for the third time he felt rather +foolish, for the audience were smiling audibly at the sight of Dougal +Davis, of Persia, running off with so many prizes. Timberly asked him +when he came down, "Why don't you stay up there, Dougal? I'd sit on +the edge platform and swing my legs." + +It was only at the announcement of the Lynde prize debate that he felt +at all tremulous. His friends kept telling him that he was sure of it, +but he felt that he would not get it. This is, as everyone knows, the +greatest inter-Hall prize offered, and many people consider it the +greatest honor of a college lifetime. It was quite enough for a fellow +to feel weak at the stomach over. Dougal kept repeating under his +breath, "What's the difference, what's the difference?" and he +reminded himself that there were a second and a third prize as well as +the first, and that any way, even if he won none of them, it was a +pretty fine thing to have secured the appointment from his Hall. +Besides, he was doing so many things that he could afford to drop an +honor or two. + +"The Lynde Prize Debate," came in the resonant tones of the tall, +gaunt clerk. Everything was very still. + +The cheerers were silent. The two leaders were standing on tip-toe, +each with his elbows doubled up and mouth half open, ready to begin +the cheer. One of them, however, would have to keep still. Dougal shut +his lips. + +"First prize awarded to Dougal Davis, of Pers----" + +Then came the loud, eager "'Ray! 'Ray! 'Ray!'" of the quick cheer, and +then two more quick ones, and next a long one with "Davis!" on the +end, then the word "Davis! Davis! Davis!" that way, three times. Then +they began giving more quick cheers again and a few long ones, as if +they had just started. + +Meanwhile the clerk kept his sober gaze upon the paper in his hand, +waiting to announce the second and third winners and pretending to be +annoyed at the delay, though enjoying it as much as any girl in the +audience. + +"Good work, Dougal, good work," cried one of the four fellows pounding +him on the back. + +Dougal did not smile slightly or look unconcerned. He grinned all over +his face and enjoyed it. As soon as the attention was taken away from +him he leaned back in the corner of the pew and enjoyed it some more. +That is the way to do. + +He was still tense and excited from his victory when a few minutes +later he heard the clerk reading off something about the new +fellowship in Political Science. This was the one he had gone in for, +and he had felt doubtful over the result, because he had not been able +to spend as much time upon it as he wanted to, and it required a great +deal. However, the only other man in the race was nothing to be afraid +of. But all the same a little dart of dread shot through him now, and +he thought what if he should lose it after all. It would not do at +all. This was what he wanted more than any of the honors. He had a +particular reason for wanting to win it. This he failed to do. + +Before he was quite aware of what was taking place the clerk had +already made the announcement and the crowd were wildly cheering, +cheering that other fellow as if they had never heard of Dougal Davis. +He felt like a man that steps off a bridge in the dark; he heard the +splash and felt a shock, but he did not know just what had happened. +He had never been beaten in anything before. It came very hard. But +that was not what made it hurt so much. It was because Linton had won +it. + +He could not help thinking of the little speech he had planned to make +that evening--"Well, you see, Jimmie, I haven't time for it, anyway. I +have to go to the Seminary, and maybe to the Medical College after +that. So I thought I would resign, and I hope you'll apply for it and +come back to the old place for another year. You're sure to get it, +if you apply for it." Wasn't it a pretty little speech? + +He turned and glanced over at Linton, who sat with his head nestled +contentedly against Reddy Armstrong's shoulder, while the +happy-looking fellows all around him were punching and pounding him +and rumpling up his hair as if they never would cease; and as if they +were glad Dougal Davis was beaten. Linton himself only raised his +eyebrows and shook his head deprecatingly. He seemed to take it all +very easily, as if he were accustomed to winning prizes and beating +Dougal Davis, and he still wore that imperturbable look, and Davis +knew that it would have been just as imperturbable and contented +looking if he had lost. + +And this spoiled the salutatorian's day of triumph. He did not glance +back now to where his sister and aunt were sitting. He forgot to +unroll his sheepskin as the others did when they came down from the +stage with them. He blew his breath through it against the palm of his +hand and looked absent-mindedly at the scratched paint of the +old-fashioned pew. He remained thus all through Smith's valedictory, +except once when the speaker stretched out both arms and the class +arose; then he listened for a moment and said, "Biff!" under his +breath. When it was all over he passed out with his class and through +the gazing throng, thinking not of the much that he had won, but only +of the one thing he had lost, and this was unfortunate, because much +people were looking at him and thinking how fine it was to be Davis, +and that is fame, and it was too bad to miss it. + + * * * * * + +Linton had no ambition and he colored meerschaum beautifully. He was +usually mum in a crowd, but he was fine company on a long +cross-country walk, and he knew more about ordering a dinner than any +man on the campus, except one of the faculty. + +When he did not want you in his room he told you so, and he was the +kind of a fellow you would do anything for after you came to know him. + +He had a very efficient sense of humor, which does not mean that he +said funny things at the table. Some people thought him sarcastic. But +many fellows went to him for advice or sympathy, and it was not only +because he could keep his mouth absolutely closed. + +Linton had a walking acquaintance with every road, lane, and pathway +within a radius of twenty miles of the campus. He knew how long it +took to cover any route, and where there were good places to stop and +rest, especially the quaint ones where they served it in mugs. + +Here he used to sit and sip and smoke the golden afternoon away, +dreaming of how it all must have been years ago in the old stage coach +days when the horses drew up on the clattering cobble-stones and the +passengers alighted and looked about and asked how many more miles it +was, and the red-faced driver jumped down from the box and swaggered +into the tap-room, and called for a pint of ale, and told the landlord +how bad the pike was near New Brunswick. + +He considered himself somewhat of an artist. There were ever so many +bits that he was fond of showing you if he thought you could +appreciate them; like the bend in the canal up toward Baker's basin, +with peculiar water and willow-coloring in springtime. Linton said it +was like a French water-color. He used to carry a gun over his +shoulder, and say he was going snipe-shooting; really it was to look +for things like this, and get up a big appetite for dinner. He could +also point out a view of gentle hills and rolling green fields on the +way to Kingston that was a good imitation of English landscape, he +said, and he knew just where the tower of the School of Science ought +to make an effect through treetops, like the view of Magdalen tower +from a point in Addison's walk, if it were only beautiful Gothic +instead of ugly Renaissance. But perhaps all this was merely to show +that he had once canoed down the Thames from Oxford to London. + +He was very well up in the ancient history of the town, also. He knew +all about most of the old houses, and he had sketches of the best of +the old brass-knockers and colonial doorways. It is said that he used +to prowl about on moonlight nights for this purpose. Small +window-panes were another thing he was insane over. He had substituted +for the ordinary panes of his windows, dingy little square ones with +thick frames painted black. Some of the fellows said the reason he did +this was to be odd. Linton blew smoke, and said yes, that was the +reason. + +But it was the old campus that he loved the most. He knew just about +all there was to find out about it, and dreamed a great deal more. + +He had ever so many favorite aspects, such as the one of the back of +the Dean's house--with small, square window-panes--from away over at a +point between Whig and Clio Halls, and the rear view of Prospect +across the stretch of sloping meadow toward the canal, and a number of +congenial little spots that meant something to him, like the stone +buttress at the bottom of the tower of Witherspoon, a great place to +warm your back against in spring sunshine, with the blue smoke +trickling lazily from your mouth and the fellows batting up flies on +the old diamond; and then for midnight chats there were the smooth +steps of chapel with the elms saying things in low tones overhead. But +those midnight chats were all over now. It was Commencement Day, and +it was the saddest thing that had ever happened to Linton. + +He was not at all anxious to spring forth into the world and battle +with opportunity and all the other things that the class-day speakers +and the valedictorian said that he was going to do. He thought this +little world was good enough for him, and there wasn't much spring in +him. + +Ever since he could read he had been told that youth was the happiest +time in life, and he had come to the conclusion that it must be so. He +did not like the idea of giving it up. He had become well settled +where he was, and had just gotten rid of a persistent siege of +kid-pessimism--of which he was now very much ashamed--and was just +beginning to realize what a big, beautiful, real thing friendship was, +and now--Jack and Timber and Billy and Red, where would they all be in +three days' time? It seemed pretty sudden, this thing of breaking up. + +And there was very little comfort to him in the thought of coming back +next year. What would the old place be without the old class. He did +not like to think about it. + +It struck the class as a pretty joke for Jimmie Linton to bob up and +win a fellowship. "How did you happen to do it?" said Tucker, on the +way out of church. "I didn't know you had any brains." + +"Didn't you?" said Linton; "I've quite a lot of them. And I worked +like a good little boy for that fellowship; but nobody will give me +any credit for it. They all know that if Dougal hadn't been too busy +with other things, I would have had no show." He was quite right. +There was nothing modest in this. Dougal Davis had about as good +powers of acquisition as anyone graduated since the time of Aaron +Burr. + +Political science was not strictly in Linton's line. He wrote things +for the Lit., and elected all the English courses. He was a great +browser in Elizabethan literature, and when he dabbled in verse this +was evident. One of the exchanges once called him a nineteenth century +Herrick. Linton felt right pleased, and wrote something nice about the +University of Virginia man that said it in the next Lit., and also +made it an excuse to give one of his famous spreads. You would have +expected him to go in for an English fellowship, if for any. But he +did not go in for any deliberately. He was not in the habit of +studying his courses more than enough to get through the examinations, +except when he ran across something he was interested in, or a +professor he liked. There are many excuses for laziness. + +In Political Economy, and such subjects, he liked the lecturer very +much, and he found himself becoming interested in the primitive man, +and the origin of society, and all that. The farther he went in the +course, the more interested he became. He went to the library, and +often walked past the Elizabethan alcove. Next he began buying the +books, because he liked to feel that he owned them, and rub them up +against his cheek, and he soon had a shelf full of Bagehot and big, +thick Sir Henry Maine and others. + +Then because he had never done anything serious during his course, and +because he knew it would please his people and amuse the fellows, he +announced his intention of trying for the Political Science +fellowship. There was no one else in for it. + +He went about it scientifically, and was surprised to find how much +enthusiasm he had aroused in himself. He had never known before what a +fine thing study was. He said he wished he had done more of it during +his college course. + +He was surprised when he heard a few weeks later that Dougal Davis was +in the field. Historical work he thought was still further out of +Davis's line. But he only rolled over on the divan and went on +reading. For he argued thus: "I like this stuff and I don't see how it +can hurt me to learn a lot about something. If I don't fetch a +fellowship I won't have to correct examination papers. I'd hate to +correct examination papers." + +One day at the club he asked Dougal--he sat opposite--what he wanted +with political science. Davis cleared his throat and said every +preacher of modern times should know something of sociology, which was +undoubtedly true. But that was not the reason. And somehow Linton +guessed it. + + * * * * * + +It was twilight and the class had gathered together on the steps of +Old North for their last senior singing. Only they were no longer +seniors; it was "by and by" now, and they were out in the "wide, wide +world." They huddled up close together as if half frightened at the +thought of its being the last time. + +There were but few undergrads. stretched out under the elms to listen, +and most of these were the juniors--seniors they were now--waiting to +rapaciously take possession of the steps the moment the present +occupants marched off for their last supper together at nightfall. +These and a handful of the out-of-town visitors were all that were +left of the big Commencement crowds that had been gathering there +every evening to hear the seniors sing. Sometimes they had felt that +they would have preferred being left a little more to themselves, if +it were possible, during the last days of college life. + +But now this unmolested aloneness only added to their dreariness and +made them feel the ghastly certainty of this evening's being the end +of all. The grass was trampled and faded, and the crowd that had +trodden it was gone. The bell in Old North belfry rang out painfully +loud. + +"Well, fellows, let's sing," said the leader, rising slowly. He raised +his chin and then bobbed his head and started up, "The Orange and the +Black," just as they had all seen him do many times before. + +They sang as they had never sung before. It did not matter what were +the words of the song. "They stole his wallet, they stole his staff," +had nothing in it that was especially apropos of college friendships +or the sadness of farewell, but the way they sang it, with the +long-drawn "Ramski Ho," meant something. It was so full of +association. And no one noticed this time whether the man behind him +was on a key of his own. His only thought was, "When shall I hear +Billy's good old bark again after to-night?" And when Sam's and when +Ed's and Big Hill's and Little Hill's and where would be the fellow a +year from now whose shoulder was next to his own. + +During the past month or two the class of Ninety Blank had been drawn +very close together by the thought of what was coming. They had never +been very seriously cliqued up, but what there was of dissension was +forgotten, and they were now one solid crowd. Fellows who had never +anything to do with each other before except to say, "Hello, there, +Ray!" and "Hello, Harry!" had taken to strolling around the campus +together arm-in-arm talking about what they were going to do next year +and wondering why they had never happened to see more of each other in +the past, and regretting that there were to be no opportunities for +doing so in the future. + +But during the excitement of Commencement week, with the crowds of old +grads. and of girls and the big baseball game and the concerts and +Class Day full of its exhibition farewells in the church and around +the cannon, and the teas and the big dance on Tuesday night, and the +many other things that filled up every moment of every day and +night--together with the responsibility of seeing to the entertainment +of their guests--all this, and the feeling of importance at being the +cause of so much color and sound had in a measure distracted their +minds from the thought of what it all meant. But now all that was +changed. + +The last of the display ceremonies was finished. The class had their +diplomas. It was all over. The rollicking old grads. with their many +reunions and their old-fashioned cheers and their funny songs had left +for the city and business again for a year. The girls and their +mothers and their parasols had vanished like the chinese lanterns +among the trees. The campus was almost deserted, and except for their +own voices, was as still as a cemetery. Each man on the steps was +realizing as he never had done before how glad had been those four +years, and how startlingly fast they had sped by, and how much more +these friends of his meant to him than he had ever imagined friends +could mean. + +Two of the number had been obliged to pack their trunks and depart +during the afternoon without waiting for the banquet. The whole class +were at the station to see them off. They did it in the old-fashioned +way, with much cheering and singing, and the old custom of lifting +them up and putting them through the car windows. Then after each man +had shaken the hands of those departing, and said, "God bless you, +Tommy," they had watched while the little train rolled down the grade +and became smaller and smaller, and they cheered until the two men +waving their hats on the rear platform were hidden behind the curve. +Then they marched solemnly back across the campus again, and tried to +go on with the packing of their own trunks. + +But few had been able to remain very long in the lonely, old, familiar +dens. There were too many things to suggest the old times which sent +big wedges into throats, and they realized that there were to be few +enough opportunities of being with those fellows out under the trees +to waste time in dreary packing. "It's too deuced hot up there in my +room," said Harry Lawrence to Billy Nolan. + +For the most part they had spent the afternoon in silent, moody +wanderings, in groups of twos and fours and half dozens, all about the +old, dear, familiar landmarks of the campus. Now at evening they were +gathered together as a body again. This was to be the last time. And +that thought kept recurring to each man on the steps. + +It was about dusk now. The front campus was wrapped in that strange +half-glow that sometimes comes at late senior singing time. It was +very much in keeping with other elements of the scene, and it had its +effect upon the fellows. + +Old North seemed solemn and dignified, but somehow more gentle and +caressable than formerly. Even the old elms, who have seen this thing +happen so many, many times, ceased whispering for a space and +listened. John, the college policeman, left Reunion for his home down +William Street, and Sam, the night watchman, said, "Good-night, John," +and took his place. Bill Leggett took down his lantern and started +around to light the campus lamps as he always did at this hour. The +village street seemed far off, and its lights and its bit of life +seemed part of another world. There was a pause in the singing. + +It lasted a long time. Tucker scratched a match on the stone steps. +The crack seemed very loud. Those near by turned and watched him light +his pipe and watched him throw the match to the ground. It kept on +burning for a little while. They watched it until it went out. + +Presently Doc. Devereaux, the leader, said, "Fellows, there are a lot +of chairs and benches scattered about. Let's drag them up here in +front of the steps and make a circle." They all arose and did it as if +it had been a command. + +The rattling of the chairs against each other sounded harsh and +discordant, and yet no one seemed to want to lessen it. Some of the +fellows laughed and joked a little, as though they weren't thinking of +anything serious. It made a large circle. They sat down in comparative +silence. The Class President arose and said, "Say, fellows, let's sing +'Here's to you, my jovial friend,' all around the class, and each man +stand up while we're singing to him." + +They started with the President and went around to the left. You know +that drinking song. It's a simple little salute, but there's more +heart in its swelling high notes than in anything ever written. But +perhaps that is because of its association. + +"Here's to you, Jack Stehman," they sang. + + "Here's to you, my jovial friend, + And we'll drink with all our heart, + For sake of company-- + We'll drink before we part, + Here's to you, Jack Stehman." + +Stehman, the President, had arisen when his name was called, and +remained standing while the song was carried through. The big fellow +seemed to loom up bigger than ever in the half dark. He arose with his +old, well-known slouch, and the sight of this little characteristic +brought up to every one of them the whole big, lovable personality of +the man. + +He started to look around at the fellows and smile as they began to +sing, but the clear, warm notes rang out, "We'll drink before we +part," and he changed his mind and looked down at the grass under his +feet. He was not embarrassed. He merely preferred looking down. It was +so different from Class Day, when he had made his much-applauded +President's address, and told people in his nice set speech about the +sadness of farewell and the beauty of the elms. He was the one all the +girls had asked the most questions about. The class censor had guyed +him about his brand new dignity and his good looks. Nobody was +feeling like guying him now. + +Little Stacy sat next. He did not stand up very high. There was not +much to him. He had been a poler all through the course, and you would +not have expected the thing to affect him very much, but you could see +his thin hands working nervously along the edge of his coat as he +looked about at the half-darkened crowd of faces, and he smiled his +foolish, little, self-conscious smile. The little chap had no idea +that they would ever sing to him in that way, and when he heard Harry +Lawrence's strong bass come out with "And we'll drink with all our +heart," he fairly quivered. When he sat down the President reached a +big arm about him. + +Then came Reddy Armstrong. He was not very tall either. He stood up +very straight and stiff with his round, freckled face screwed up into +funny twists. He only stared straight ahead into nothing. He looked +dazed. He was dazed. He had been through some very queer things that +day. "Poor little Red," thought Linton as he looked at him. + +All around the big circle went the song until it ended with Timberly, +who sat on Stehman's right. By this time it was too dark to see +Timberly's queer features. Perhaps it was just as well. + +"Now," said the President, simply, "let's all cross hands and sing +'Auld Lang Syne.' Doc., start it up, please." + +They arose, and each man gave his right-hand comrade his left hand, +and his left-hand comrade his right, and they sang the good old song +in the good old way, with the clasped hands swinging far up and down +in time to the music. + +Presently the song was finished. It seemed to stop suddenly. They all +waited a moment in silence to see whether the leader had another verse +to begin. + +But he did not. Jack Stehman stepped out into the middle of the ring. +"Now, fellows," he said, "let's give three good rousing cheers for the +dear old class--God bless every man in it--and then we'll give up the +steps to the juniors--the seniors I mean--and march four abreast to +the dinner. Are you ready? Hip! hip! ... another one--Hip! hip!" + +Linton was standing apart over beside the steps. His back was turned +toward the others. + +While the rest were cheering, Dougal Davis crossed over to him. + +"Jim," he said, "I haven't congratulated you yet on winning the +fellowship." + +Linton kept on looking at the newly planted class ivy. His hands were +in his pockets and his legs spread apart. + +"Did you notice that I hadn't, Jim?" + +Linton turned around suddenly. "Oh, yes, I noticed it. But that was +this morning." He put his hand on Davis's shoulder as in junior year. + +"Shut up, Dougal," he said; "we haven't any time to waste in talk." + +"All right," said Dougal. "Don't let's be left behind. They are +starting." He laughed a little. It was a foolish-sounding laugh. +Linton did not observe that. He laughed also, in very much the same +way. + +They stepped in line with the others and marched off the campus +singing, with all their might, + + "Nassau! Nassau! Ring out the chorus free. + Nassau! Nassau! Thy jolly sons are we. + Care shall be forgotten, all our sorrows flung away, + While we are marching thro' Princeton." + + + + +BRIEF LIST of Books of Fiction Published by Charles Scribner's Sons, +153-157 Fifth Avenue, New York. + + +_William Waldorf Astor._ + +=Valentino:= An Historical Romance. 12mo, $1.00. =Sforza:= A Story of +Milan. 12mo, $1.50. + +"The story is full of clear-cut little tableaux of mediæval Italian +manners, customs and observances. The movement throughout is spirited, +the reproduction of bygone times realistic."--_The New York Tribune._ + + +_Arlo Bates._ + +=A Wheel of Fire.= 12mo, paper, 50cts.; cloth, $1.00. + +"The novel deals with character rather than incident, and is evolved +from one of the most terrible of moral problems with a subtlety not +unlike that of Hawthorne."--_The Critic._ + + +_W. H. Bishop._ + +=A Pound of Cure.= 12mo, $1.00. + +"A powerful and purposeful story, clean and strong and interesting +throughout."--_The Churchman._ + + +_Hjalmar H. Boyesen._ + +=Falconberg.= Illustrated. 12mo, $1.50. =Gunnar.= Sq. 12mo, paper, 50 +cts.; cloth, $1.25. =Tales from Two Hemispheres.= Sq. 12mo, $1.00. =Ilka +on the Hill Top=, and Other Stories. Sq. 12mo, $1.00. =Queen Titania.= +Sq. 12mo, $1.00. =Social Strugglers.= 12mo, $1.25. + +"Mr. Boyesen's stories possess a sweetness, a tenderness and a +drollery that are fascinating, and yet they are no more attractive +than they are strong."--_The Home Journal._ + + +_Robert Bridges._ + +=Overheard in Arcady.= 12mo, illustrated, $1.25. + +"The cleverest book of the year. Aside from the humor, it is a keen +and subtile criticism of living authors."--_Atlanta Constitution._ + + +_Noah Brooks._ + +=Tales of the Maine Coast.= 12mo, $1.00. + +"They are all good; 'Pansy Pegg' is a classic. Hawthorne did few, if +any, better things than 'A Century Ago.'"--_Boston Advertiser._ + + +_H. C. Bunner_. + +=The Story of a New York House.= Illustrated by A. B. Frost. 12mo, +$1.25. =The Midge.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. =Zadoc Pine=, and +Other Stories. 12mo, pap., 50 cts.; clo., $1.00. + +"It is Mr. Bunner's delicacy of touch and appreciation of what is +literary art that give his writings distinctive quality. Everything +Mr. Bunner paints shows the happy appreciation of an author who has +not alone mental discernment, but the artistic appreciation."--_N. Y. +Times._ + + +_Frances Hodgson Burnett._ + +=That Lass o' Lowrie's.= Illustrated. paper, 50 cts; cloth, $1.25. +=Haworth's.= Illustrated. 12mo, $1.25. =Through One Administration.= 12mo, +$1.50. =Louisiana.= 12mo, $1.25. =A Fair Barbarian.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts., +cloth, $1.25. =Vagabondia=: A Love Story. 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, +$1.25. =Surly Tim=, and Other Stories. 12mo, $1.25. =Earlier Stories.= +First Series. =Earlier Stories.= Second Series. 12mo, each, paper, 50 +cts.; cloth, $1.25. =The Pretty Sister of José.= Illustrated by C. S. +Reinhart. 12mo, $1.00. + +=Little Lord Fauntleroy.= Sq. 8vo, $2.00. =Sara Crewe.= Sq. 8vo, $1.00. +=Little Saint Elizabeth=, and Other Stories. Sq. 8vo, $1.50. =Giovanni +and the Other.= Sq. 8vo, $2.00. Illustrated by R. B. Birch. + +"Mrs. Burnett discovers gracious secrets in rough and forbidding +natures--the sweetness that often underlies their bitterness--the soul +of goodness in things evil. She seems to have an intuitive perception +of character."--RICHARD HENRY STODDARD. + + +_William Allen Butler_. + +=Domesticus.= A Tale of the Imperial City. 12mo, $1.25. + + +_George W. Cable_. + +=The Grandissimes.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts., cloth, $1.25. =Old Creole Days.= +12mo, cloth, $1.25; also in two parts, paper, each, 30 cts. =Dr. +Sevier.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.25. =Bonaventure.= 12mo, paper, +50 cts; $1.25. _The set, 4 vols., $5.00_. =John March, Southerner.= (_In +Press._) + +"There are few living American writers who can reproduce for us more +perfectly than Mr. Cable does, in his best moments, the speech, the +manners, the whole social atmosphere of a remote time and a peculiar +people. A delicious flavor of humor penetrates his stories."--_The New +York Tribune._ + + +_Rebecca Harding Davis._ + +=Silhouettes of American Life.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. + +"There are altogether thirteen stories in the volume, all written in +that direct, forcible style which is Mrs. Davis's distinctive merit as +a producer of fiction."--_Boston Beacon._ + + +_Richard Harding Davis._ + +=Gallegher=, and Other Stories. 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. + +"The freshness, the strength, and the vivid picturesqueness of the +stories are indisputable, and their originality and their marked +distinction are no less decided."--_Boston Saturday Gazette._ + + +_Paul Du Chaillu._ + +=Ivar the Viking.= 12mo, $1.50. + +"The story of a typical Norseman in the third and fourth centuries. +The volume is a thrilling and an interesting one."--_Boston +Advertiser._ + + +_Edward Eggleston._ + +=Roxy.= =The Circuit Rider.= Illustrated. Each, 12mo, $1.50. + +"Dr. Eggleston's fresh and vivid portraiture of a phase of life and +manners hitherto almost unrepresented in literature; its boldly +contrasted characters, and its unconventional, hearty, religious +spirit, took hold of the public imagination."--_The Christian Union._ + + +_Erckmann-Chatrian._ + +=The Conscript.= Illustrated. =Waterloo.= Illustrated. Sequel to The +Conscript. =Madame Thérèse.= =The Blockade of Phalsburg.= Illustrated. =The +Invasion of France in 1814.= Illustrated. =A Miller's Story of the War.= +Illustrated. + +_The National Novels, each, $1.25; the set, 6 vols., $7.50._ + +=Friend Fritz.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.25. + + +_Harold Frederic._ + +=Seth's Brother's Wife.= 12mo, $1.25. =The Lawton Girl.= 12mo, $1.25; +paper, 50 cts. =In the Valley.= Illustrated. 12mo, $1.50. =The +Copperhead.= 12mo, $1.00. =Marsena=, and Other Stories. 12mo, $1.00. + +"It is always a pleasure to welcome a vigorous new-comer in +literature, and the talents of Mr. Frederic abundantly entitle him to +this description. Mr. Frederic is a realist and his work is well +done."--_Boston Post._ + + +_Eugene Field._ + +=A Little Book of Profitable Tales.= 16mo, $1.25. + +"This pretty little volume promises to perpetuate examples of a wit, +humor and pathos, quaint and rare in their kind."--_New York Tribune._ + + +_James Anthony Froude._ + +=The Two Chiefs of Dunboy.= An Irish Romance of the Last Century. 12mo, +paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.50. + +"The narrative is full of vigor, spirit and dramatic power. It will +unquestionably be widely read, for it presents a vivid and life-like +study of character with romantic color, and adventurous incident for +the background."--_The New York Tribune._ + + +_Robert Grant._ + +=Face to Face.= 12mo, paper, 50cts.; cloth, $1.25. =The Reflections of a +Married Man.= 12 mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. =The Opinions of a +Philosopher.= 12mo, illustrated, $1.00. + +"In the 'Reflections,' Mr. Grant has given us a capital little book +which should easily strike up literary comradeship with 'The Reveries +of a Bachelor.'"--_Boston Transcript._ + + +_Edward Everett Hale._ + +=Philip Nolan's Friends.= Illust'd. 12mo, paper, 50cts.; cloth, $1.50. + +"There is no question, we think, that this is Mr. Hale's completest +and best novel."--_The Atlantic Monthly._ + + +_Marion Harland._ + +=Judith.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. =Handicapped.= 12mo, $1.50. +=With the Best Intentions.= 12mo, cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cts. + +"Fiction has afforded no more charming glimpses of old Virginia life +than are found in this delightful story, with its quaint pictures, its +admirably drawn characters, its wit, and its frankness."--_The +Brooklyn Daily Times._ + + +_Joel Chandler Harris._ + +=Free Joe,= and Other Georgian Sketches. 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, +$1.00. + +"The author's skill as a story writer has never been more felicitously +illustrated than in this volume."--_The New York Sun._ + + +_Augustus Allen Hayes._ + +=The Jesuit's Ring.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. + +"The conception of the story is excellent."--_The Boston Traveller._ + + +_George A. Hibbard._ + +=The Governor=, and Other Stories. 12mo, cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cts. + +"It is still often urged that, except in remote corners, there is +nothing in our American life which appeals to the artistic sense, but +certainly these stories are American to the core, and yet the artistic +sense is strong in them throughout."--_Critic._ + + +_Dr. J. G. Holland._ + +=Sevenoaks.= =The Bay Path.= =Arthur Bonnicastle.= =Miss Gilbert's Career.= +=Nicholas Minturn.= Each, 12mo, $1.25; the set, $6.25. =Sevenoaks= and +=Arthur Bonnicastle=. Each, paper, 50 cts. + +"Dr. Holland will always find a congenial audience in the homes of +culture and refinement. He does not affect the play of the darker and +fiercer passions, but delights in the sweet images that cluster around +the domestic hearth. He cherishes a strong fellow-feeling with the +pure and tranquil life in the modest social circles of the American +people, and has thus won his way to the companionship of many friendly +hearts."--_The New York Tribune._ + + +_Thomas A. Janvier._ + +=Color Studies, and a Mexican Campaign.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, +$1.00. + +"Piquant, novel and ingenious, these little stories, with all their +simplicity, have excited a wide interest. The best of them, 'Jaune +D'Antimoine,' is a little wonder in its dramatic effect, its ingenious +construction."--_Critic._ + + +_Henry Kingsley._ + +=Ravenshoe.= =Geoffrey Hammond.= =Austin Elliott.= 12mo. (_In press._) + + +_George P. Lathrop._ + +=Newport.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.25. =An Echo of Passion.= 12mo, +paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. =In the Distance.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; +cloth, $1.00. + +"His novels have the refinement of motive which characterize the +analytical school, but his manner is far more direct and +dramatic."--_The Christian Union._ + + +_Brander Matthews._ + +=The Secret of the Sea=, and Other Stories. 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, +$1.00. =The Last Meeting.= 12mo, cloth, $1.00. + +"Mr. Matthews is a man of wide observation and of much familiarity +with the world. His literary style is bright and crisp, with a +peculiar sparkle about it--wit and humor judiciously mingled--which +renders his pages more than ordinarily interesting."--_The Rochester +Post-Express._ + + +_George Meredith._ + +=Lord Ormont and His Aminta.= 12mo, $1.50. + +"A novel for which the lover of literature will do well to put up his +hands and, in the words of the old grace, be 'truly thankful.'"--_Pall +Mall Budget._ + + +_George Moore._ + +=Vain Fortune.= 12mo, $1.00. + +"How a woman's previous ideas and actions will completely change when +the medium of a wild, intense love is interposed, was never more +skillfully sketched."--_Boston Times._ + + +_Fitz-James O'Brien._ + +=The Diamond Lens=, with Other Stories. 12mo, paper, 50 cts. + +"These stories are the only things in literature to be compared with +Poe's work, and if they do not equal it in workmanship, they certainly +do not yield to it in originality."--_The Philadelphia Record._ + + +_Duffield Osborne._ + +=The Spell of Ashtaroth.= 12mo, $1.00. + +"It has a simple but picturesque plot, and the story is told in a +vividly dramatic way."--_Chicago Times._ + + +_Bliss Perry._ + +=The Broughton House.= 12mo, $1.25. =Salem Kittredge=, and Other Stories. +12mo, $1.00. + +"A wonderfully shrewd and vivid picture of life in one of our hill +towns in summer."--_Hartford Post._ + + +_Thomas Nelson Page._ + +=In Old Virginia.= Marse Chan and Other Stories. 12mo, $1.25. =On +Newfound River.= 12mo, $1.00. =Elsket=, and Other Stories. 12mo, $1.00. +=Marse Chan.= Ills. by Smedley. Sq. 12mo, $1.50. =Meh Lady.= Ills. by +Reinhart. Sq. 12mo, $1.50. =A New Volume of Stories= (_in press_). + +"Mr. Page enjoys the distinction of having written the most exquisite +story of the war ('Marse Chan') which has yet appeared. His stories +are beautiful and faithful pictures of a society now become a portion +and parcel of the irrevocable past."--_Harper's Magazine._ + + +_George I. Putnam._ + +=In Blue Uniform.= 12mo, $1.00. _On the Offensive._ 12mo, $1.00. + +"An entertaining picture of life on the frontier by one who knows +whereof he is writing."--_The Churchman._ + + +_Saxe Holm's Stories._ + +=First Series.= =Second Series.= Each, 12mo, paper, 50cts.; cloth, $1.00. + +"Saxe Holm's characters are strongly drawn, and she goes right to the +heart of human experience, as one who knows the way. We heartily +commend them as vigorous, wholesome, and sufficiently exciting +stories."--_The Advance._ + + +_Stories from Scribner._ + + =Stories of New York.= + =Stories of the South.= + =Stories of the Sea.= + =Stories of the Railway.= + =Stories of Italy.= + =Stories of the Army.= + +Illustrated. Each, 16mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, 75 cts.; half calf, +$1.50. + +"Only those who have regularly read Scribner's have any idea of the +delightful contents of these volumes, for they contain some of the +best stories written for that periodical. They are exquisitely bound, +clearly printed on fine paper, and admirably illustrated."--_Boston +Times._ + + +_Robert Louis Stevenson._ + +=Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.= 12mo, paper, 25 cts.; cloth, +$1.00. =Kidnapped.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, ill., $1.25. =The Merry +Men=, and Other Tales and Fables. 12mo, paper, 35 cts.; cloth, $1.00. +=New Arabian Nights.= 12mo, paper, 30 cts.; cloth, $1.00. =The Dynamiter.= +12mo, paper, 30 cts.; cloth, $1.00. =The Black Arrow.= ill. 12mo, paper, +50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. =The Wrong Box.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, +$1.00. =The Master of Ballantrae.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, ill., +$1.25. =The Wrecker.= 12mo, ill., $1.25. =Island Nights' Entertainments.= +12mo, ill., $1.25. =David Balfour.= 12mo, $1.50. + +"Stevenson belongs to the romantic school of fiction writers. He is +original in style, charming, fascinating, and delicious, with a +marvelous command of words, and with a manner ever delightful and +magnetic."--_Boston Transcript._ + + +_Charles Warren Stoddard._ + +=South Sea Idyls.= 12mo, $1.50. + +"Brimful of delicious descriptions of South Sea Island life. Neither +Loti nor Stevenson has expressed from tropical life the luscious, +fruity delicacy, or the rich wine-like bouquet of these +sketches."--_Independent._ + + +_T. R. Sullivan._ + +=Day and Night Stories.= First and Second Series. Each, 12mo, cloth, +$1.00; paper, 50 cts. =Roses of Shadow.= 12mo, $1.00. =Tom Sylvester.= +12mo, $1.50. + +"Mr. Sullivan's style is at once easy and refined, conveying most +happily that atmosphere of good breeding and polite society which is +indispensable to the novel of manners, but which so many of them +lamentably fail of."--_The Nation._ + + +_Frederick J. Stimson_ (_J. S. of Dale_). + +=Guerndale.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.25. =The Crime of Henry +Vane.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. =The Sentimental Calendar.= +Ill. 12mo, $1.00. =First Harvest.= 12mo, $1.25. =The Residuary Legatee.= +12mo, paper, 35 cts.; cloth, $1.00. =In the Three Zones.= 12mo, $1.00. + +"No young novelist in this country seems better equipped than Mr. +Stimson is."--_The Philadelphia Bulletin._ + + +_Frank R. Stockton._ + +=Pomona's Travels.= Illustrated by A. B. Frost. 12mo, $2.00. =Rudder +Grange.= 12mo, paper, 60 cts.; cloth, $1.25. Illustrated by A. B. +Frost. Sq. 12mo, $2.00. =The Late Mrs. Null.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; +cloth, $1.25. =The Lady, or the Tiger?= and Other Stories. 12mo, paper, +50 cts.; cloth, $1.25. =The Christmas Wreck=, and Other Stories. 12mo, +paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.25. =The Bee-Man of Orn=, and Other Fanciful +Tales. 12mo, cloth, $1.25. =Amos Kilbright=, with Other Stories. 12mo, +paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.25. =The Rudder Grangers Abroad=, and Other +Stories. 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.25. =Ardis Claverden=, new +edition. 12mo, $1.50. + +"Of Mr. Stockton's stories what is there to say, but that they are an +unmixed blessing and delight? He is surely one of the most inventive +of talents, discovering not only a new kind in humor and fancy, but +accumulating an inexhaustible wealth of details in each fresh +achievement, the least of which would be riches from another +hand."--W. D. HOWELLS. + + +_Stories by American Authors._ + + +_Cloth, 16mo, 50 cts. each; set, 10 vols., $5.00; cabinet edition, in +sets only, $7.50._ + +"The public ought to appreciate the value of this series, which is +preserving permanently in American literature short stories that have +contributed to its advancement."--_The Boston Globe._ + + +_Octave Thanet._ + +=Expiation.= Illustrated by A. B. Frost. 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, +$1.00. =Stories of a Western Town.= 12mo. Illustrated by A. B. Frost. +$1.25. + +"Good, wholesome, and fresh. The Western character has never been +better presented."--_Boston Courier._ + + +_John T. Wheelwright._ + +=A Child of the Century.= 12mo, paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00. + +"A typical story of political and social life, free from cynicism of +morbid realism, and brimming over with fun."--_The Christian at Work._ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Princeton Stories, by Jesse Lynch Williams + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43587 *** |