THE YALE CUP
BOOKS BY ALBERTUS T. DUDLEY
Phillips Exeter Series
Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth.
FOLLOWING THE BALL.
MAKING THE NINE.
IN THE LINE.
WITH MASK AND MITT.
THE GREAT YEAR.
THE YALE CUP.
A FULL-BACK AFLOAT.
THE PECKS IN CAMP.
THE HALF-MILER.
Stories of the Triangular League
Illustrated by CHARLES COPELAND. 12mo. Cloth.
THE SCHOOL FOUR.
AT THE HOME-PLATE.
THE UNOFFICIAL PREFECT.
* * * * *
THE KING’S POWDER.
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON.
[Illustration: SAM FORGED AHEAD, CLEARING EVERY OBSTACLE JUST IN FRONT
OF HIS RIVAL.--_Page 284._]
_PHILLIPS EXETER SERIES_
THE YALE CUP
BY
ALBERTUS T. DUDLEY
AUTHOR OF “FOLLOWING THE BALL,” “MAKING THE
NINE,” “IN THE LINE,” “WITH MASK AND
MITT,” “THE GREAT YEAR”
_ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLES COPELAND_
[Illustration]
BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
Published, March, 1908.
_All Rights Reserved_.
THE YALE CUP.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
TO THE MANY
PLEASANT YOUNG FRIENDS
WHO, CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY, HAVE
ASSISTED IN THE MAKING OF
THIS BOOK
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
AN EXPERT PACKER 1
CHAPTER II
ARCHER RECEIVES 9
CHAPTER III
FIRST IMPRESSIONS 21
CHAPTER IV
BRUCE GIVES ADVICE 29
CHAPTER V
SPORT FOR SPORT’S SAKE 38
CHAPTER VI
A BONE OF CONTENTION 47
CHAPTER VII
MR. WORLDLY WISEMAN 58
CHAPTER VIII
SLOW TO ANGER 68
CHAPTER IX
THE FURY OF A PATIENT MAN 76
CHAPTER X
DUNCAN’S DISGUST 86
CHAPTER XI
A REVELATION OF CHARACTER 95
CHAPTER XII
MR. ALSOP’S DIGNITY 105
CHAPTER XIII
THE CHALLENGE 115
CHAPTER XIV
AN AFFAIR OF HONOR 127
CHAPTER XV
SAM’S FIRST RACE 137
CHAPTER XVI
HE TRIES AGAIN 148
CHAPTER XVII
A FOOLHARDY ADVENTURE 162
CHAPTER XVIII
MR. ALSOP BARKS 174
CHAPTER XIX
UP THE WRONG TREE 188
CHAPTER XX
THE SOCIALIST 204
CHAPTER XXI
HONK! HONK! 216
CHAPTER XXII
HOW THE FISH WAS CAUGHT 226
CHAPTER XXIII
LESSONS IN HURDLING 237
CHAPTER XXIV
ROBERT OWEN, FRESHMAN 249
CHAPTER XXV
JUNE TO DECEMBER 263
CHAPTER XXVI
JANUARY TO MAY 273
CHAPTER XXVII
ARCHER _VERSUS_ KILHAM 282
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE YALE CUP 291
ILLUSTRATIONS
Sam forged ahead, clearing every obstacle just in front
of his rival (p. 284) _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
Donald caught the fastening at one end at the fourth attempt 4
“Referee! referee! they’re playing thirteen men!” 44
This spectacle of pitchers and streams of water and heads
greeted Mr. Alsop’s gaze 164
At the same moment Sam vaulted the barrier 228
“That’s Owen” 256
THE YALE CUP
CHAPTER I
AN EXPERT PACKER
“All packed?” inquired Robert Owen, inserting his head through the door
of Number 7 Hale and sweeping the scene of confusion with a curious
glance. Satisfied to accept the evidence of his eyes in lieu of a
definite reply, Owen was just closing the door again when one of the
Peck twins, who inhabited the room, sang out: “Hi there, Bobby! Come in
here a minute!”
Owen let himself in and set his back against the door.
“You call that packing, do you?” he asked, looking with a grin of
amusement at a big trunk which gaped at him with wide-distended jaws,
the whole front of the tray showing like a flaunting tongue. “Whose
trunk is that?”
“Don’s,” replied Duncan.
“Why don’t you take some of the things out and put them in yours?”
“Because he’s going straight home, and I’m not,” retorted Duncan.
“That lid will never go down,” said Owen, who had been examining the
overfed monster. “You’ll have to repack.”
“Repack! Why, what’s the matter with that packing? That wasn’t done
the way Blossom does his--fill a pillowcase and hammer it down with a
baseball bat--that’s all hand work.” He came nearer and whispered in
Owen’s ear: “I don’t want it repacked. I put in a couple of old bottles
that I picked up down back of Porter’s. There’ll be something doing
when mother unpacks them.”
Donald came out of his bedroom. “Do you think it will go?” he asked of
neither in particular, gazing doubtfully at the problem.
“Of course it will,” said Duncan, promptly, “if you put weight enough
on it. Try it, Bob, and see what your hundred and eighty will do.”
“Hundred sixty-eight,” corrected Owen, as he mounted the incline. The
lid sank to within four inches of its proper place.
“I’m afraid we’ve got to take some things out,” sighed Donald.
“If you take out anything, it will have to be that box of specimens,”
remarked Duncan, shrewdly. The box of specimens was the one thing which
Donald would not want to leave behind.
Donald meditated.
“Let’s try to snap it,” proposed Duncan. “Bob and I will get on one end
and jump it down. You try to catch the fastening when it comes right.
Then when we get one tight, we’ll down the other.”
This method actually proved effective. Donald caught the fastening at
one end at the fourth attempt; the weight of all three brought the
second fastening into place. The lid fortunately was strongly made and
the hinges held. Donald locked the trunk and put the key in his pocket,
while Owen and Duncan pulled the strap to a hole beyond the power of
any porter to loosen. Then they drew long breaths and contemplated the
work of their hands.
“It’s like a bale of hay,” said Duncan in triumph. Donald, however,
seemed not wholly satisfied.
“I wish it had iron bands round it. If the thing bursts, I shall be all
to the bad.”
“That strap’s as good as an iron band,” spoke his twin, reassuringly.
“Things go a great deal better when they’re packed tight; I’ve heard
mother say so often.”
“Why don’t you go together?” asked Owen, marvelling that the twins, who
belonged together like the two halves of a walnut, should actually be
at the point of separation.
“That’s a personal question, but I’ll condescend to answer it,”
returned Duncan, a little sheepishly. “Don, of course, has passed all
his exams. I only got recommended in three, and I believe I’ve flunked
’em all. So I’m going down to Uncle Will’s till after the Fourth, and
then I’m to tutor in Cambridge. If I get a decent number of points in
the fall, I’m coming back here. If I don’t, I’ve got to go to work.”
[Illustration: DONALD CAUGHT THE FASTENING AT ONE END AT THE FOURTH
ATTEMPT.--_Page 3._]
“Shall you keep your room?”
Duncan nodded. “It doesn’t cost anything to do that. They’ve given me a
room-mate too, a tall, bony fellow, named Archer. Upper middler. Hails
from Portland.”
“You’ve seen him, then?”
“No. He’s related to the Sedgwicks, and he was there the other day.
That’s his description as I got it from Wally. When are you going?”
“To-day. I may as well say good-by.” Owen held out a hand which Duncan
gripped.
“I don’t suppose you’ll ever be seen here again,” said the Peck,
ruefully. “You’ll have to come with the freshman teams, though, won’t
you?”
“If I can make any,” answered Owen, lightly.
“Make any!” Duncan sniffed. “If you call that modesty, I don’t. It’s
pure affectation. You know you could make the Varsity nine, if they’d
let freshmen play.”
“I shall come up anyway, whether I play with the freshmen or not,”
pursued Owen, disregarding Duncan’s flattering comment. “I shall want
to turn up here occasionally to see the old place and the profs and the
people I know.”
“Gee! wouldn’t it be sport when you’re all through and aren’t afraid of
anybody!” exclaimed Duncan, his tongue hurrying after his imagination.
“I’d walk up to Doc Rounder and say, ‘How-de-do, Doctor Rounder! How’s
that fine dog of yours?’ Doc would smile all over and begin to crack
the mongrel up. Then I’d tell him that the pup looked pretty well for
such an old dog, and ask if the police really did shoot at him for
snapping at people. I’d see Hayes and thank him for all he taught
me--he was always telling me that I was the only fellow he’d ever had
whom he couldn’t teach anything to--and josh him about his chickens.
I’d call on old Moore and get him going about the school spirit. I’d--”
“You’d better wait till you graduate before you plan to come back to
show yourself off,” interrupted Owen, laughing.
“That’s a fact,” returned Duncan, suddenly reduced to humility. “Most
likely I shall be doing the errand-boy stunt in my father’s office.
Don’ll have to be the one to come back.”
“I’m never coming back,” said Don, decidedly. “I’m down on the place.
They’re always looking for a chance to fire you, and they haven’t given
Dun a fair show. When he’s a great man, I hope he’ll be elected trustee
and cut down all their salaries.”
“That’s just what I’d do,” declared Duncan. “And what I took off from
the salaries of the profs I don’t like I’d give to those who are on the
square.”
“I can guess who’d get an increase,” Owen remarked.
“Not very hard to do that. I wish you’d guess how I’m going to get
twelve points this summer.”
“Buck up and work, you idiot!” cried Donald, impatiently.
“That’s what I’m going to do, isn’t it?” Duncan retorted. “I know what
I’m up against without your rubbing it in.”
At this juncture Owen, regardless of the fact that by staying five
minutes longer and using a little diplomacy he could involve the twins
in a first-class scrap, virtuously said good-by and returned, somewhat
depressed, to his packing. He liked Duncan Peck too well to hear of
his troubles with unconcern. He hoped sincerely that the boy would
get off a lot of points in September, and that the new room-mate would
prove to be of the right sort.