TREVOR IS COMFORTED
It was an hour short of sunset when Trevor awoke. The room was
darkened, but now and then the curtain at the open window was stirred
by the languorous breeze and admitted a broad bar of sunlight which
lengthened across the floor and was gone again as the curtain fell back
into place. The hotel was almost silent, though at intervals the hum of
voices came subduedly to the boy in the bed, and at times he caught the
clatter of dishes.
For many minutes he lay quiet. Everything was very peaceful and
soothing, and he closed his eyes once more, but only to reopen them as
his mind took up his work again. Where was he and how came he there?
It wasn’t his room at Hillton; this wasn’t his narrow iron bed; the
wall-paper was all wrong; the carpet was different, and the window
was entirely out of place. And then, too, it was much too big, this
high-ceilinged, square apartment. He raised himself on his elbow and
examined his surroundings. He was quite alone, but on a small table
beside him were two tumblers half full of something, a pitcher, two
silver spoons, and a watch.
He reached forth and drew the latter toward him. It was his own, and
its hands indicated twenty after six. His gaze roamed about the room
and fell upon a pair of canvas rowing shoes. Then memory returned,
and he sank back upon the pillow with a groan, closing his eyes and
moving his head restlessly from side to side as his thoughts went back
over the day’s events. He remembered the awful period in the boat; it
seemed now as he looked back upon it as though it must have been hours
and hours, though he knew that from the time of starting until he had
plunged into the river but five or six minutes could have elapsed; he
remembered a world of green, silent water about him, a brief glare of
blue sky and flashing sunlight, many faces bending above him, and then,
but very indistinctly, a man with gray mustaches who raised him up and
made him swallow something.
He was rather tired and listless now, but his headache was gone and
his fever had passed away, and--yes, he felt pretty well. Perhaps he
had best get up and dress himself; it would soon be time to return to
Hillton. If only some one would come and tell him. But of course no one
cared much about him now; how could they? It was natural that he should
be left alone, he who had lost the race for Hillton. He sighed and
clenched his hands above the white spread. What must they think of him?
His cheeks reddened at the thought of facing Dick and Kirk and all the
others. Of course, Dick would make light of it, and he was sure that
Kirk would carefully abstain from saying anything to hurt his feelings;
and perhaps the other fellows would be very decent about it. But in
their hearts they must hate him; it was only natural. He was glad that
the school year was almost over; perhaps next year it would be partly
forgotten; perhaps he needn’t return to Hillton at all!
Suddenly, from a little distance, came a sound of noisy laughter. He
frowned. How could any one laugh, he wondered indignantly. The thought
came to him that maybe some one down there had spoken his name, and he
felt his face burning hotly with shame. He turned over and laid his
head on his arm and closed his eyes wearily. He wished Muggins was
there. It was very still again. A long tremor shook him and he felt a
tiny scorching tear roll down his cheek. He brushed it away quickly,
but another took its place, and still another, and presently, while the
sunlight moved from the western window, he fell asleep again.
When next he woke the room was in twilight darkness, although the
curtain had been rolled away from the open window. There were two
figures by the little table, and he heard low voices:
“Is he awake?”
“I guess not. It’s time for his medicine, isn’t it?”
“Yes, shall I wake him?”
“I don’t know. Let’s wait a minute or two.”
The figures moved across the room and darkened the square of the
casement. Trevor laid very still; perhaps they would go away again if
he feigned sleep. He could hear them conversing softly, but couldn’t
distinguish their words because--because there was such a noise
outside! What was it? He could hear shouting and sometimes the blare
of a band. It must be at the front of the hotel. St. Eustace was
celebrating her victory probably, and Hillton’s defeat! He groaned and
tossed an arm despairingly. One of the figures turned and walked toward
him.
“Awake, Trevor?”
It was Dick’s voice. For a moment Trevor was silent; then he answered
with a sigh:
“Yes.”
The second figure came and leaned over him and he saw that it was Kirk.
“How are you feeling now, chum?” asked Dick, with all the old affection
in his voice. Trevor felt his eyes growing moist, and he had to gulp
twice before he could answer.
“All right, Dick; I think I can get up now.”
“Get up! Indeed, you’ll not. You’re to stay here to-night, and I’m
going to stay with you. The others are getting ready to go back now;
can you hear them?”
“Let’s see what the boy looks like,” said Kirk. “I’ll light the gas and
give him his medicine.”
“Don’t, please don’t!” cried Trevor. It was all so much easier in the
darkness.
“All right,” Kirk answered cheerfully. “I dare say it would hurt your
eyes. But here’s the stuff. Open your mouth.”
Trevor obeyed, and after several misadventures the medicine was
administered. Dick had seated himself on the side of the bed and had
taken one of the other lad’s hands in his own.
“Trevor.”
“Yes?”
“A length and a third, old chap!”
Trevor sighed, and then, “I--I suppose it might have been worse, Dick?”
“Worse?” cried Dick. “What are you talking about? Why, we’re awfully
proud of it, every one of us! Aren’t we, Mr. Kirk?”
“Yes, and we have good cause, I think. It was magnificent!”
“And, Trevor,” went on Dick in tones so full of happiness that Trevor
wondered, “all the fellows want you to hurry up and get well; and we
all cheered you at dinner till the plaster nearly fell on us!”
“Cheered me!” whispered Trevor. “Cheered me, Dick? Do you mean--do you
mean that they--that you all forgive me?”
“Forgive you? What for? Because you were the pluckiest of any of us and
did the brainiest sort of thing when you jumped overboard?”
“Because--oh, Dick, don’t you see? If I hadn’t been so bull-headed it
wouldn’t have happened; if I’d owned up that I wasn’t feeling well
you could have put another fellow in. But I heard Mr. Kirk telling
about some fellow who had the fever and how it left him at noon; and
I thought mine would, too; and so I went ahead, and--and it didn’t
go away, but got worse every minute; I was all silly in my head.
And--don’t you see, Dick, if I’d done right we wouldn’t have been
beaten?”
There was a moment’s silence. Then--
“He doesn’t know!” said Kirk softly.
“By Jove!” whispered Dick. “Of course he doesn’t; how could he?
Thunder, how stupid of me!” He laughed softly, happily. “Trevor, old
chap, we weren’t beaten! Don’t you understand? We won!”
There was a second brief silence. Then--
“Won!” breathed Trevor, incredulously.
“Yes, by a length and a third. I told you, don’t you remember? But you
didn’t understand.”
“You--you’re just saying it to--to make me feel better,” doubted Trevor.
“No, honestly, chum; we won. Mr. Kirk will tell you.”
“Yes, Nesbitt, we won finely; there’s no doubt about that. Listen.”
From below, through the open window, came the martial strains of a
band; Trevor recognized the tune; it was “Hilltonians.” And then,
faintly but distinctly, came a hoarse voice:
“Now, fellows! Once more! Three times three for Hillton!”
The music was blotted out by a mighty cheer that arose to the starlit
sky in a roar of triumph. Trevor was glad of the darkness, for there
were tears in his eyes that threatened every moment to overflow; but
they were tears of happiness, and somehow those didn’t count.
“And--and they don’t mind that I--that I did what I did?” whispered
Trevor. “They don’t hate me for it, Dick?”
“Hate you!” cried Dick. “Hark!”
Through the casement, a gray rectangle of twilight, the strained voice
of the leader again floated:
“Now, fellows! Fellows! Once more for Nesbitt, and all together!
One--two----”
And while the hoarse, joyful cheers responded, and the bass-drum
thumped triumphantly, Trevor, with his hand tightly clasped in Dick’s,
laid his head back very contentedly upon the pillow.
THE END
BY RALPH HENRY BARBOUR
The New Boy at Hilltop
Illustrated in Colors, Ornamental Cloth Cover with Inlay in Colors,
12mo, $1.50.
The story of a boy’s experiences at boarding school. The first chapter
describes his arrival and reception by the others. The remaining
chapters tell of his life on the football field, on the crew, his
various scrapes and fights, school customs and school entertainments.
His experiences are varied and cover nearly all the incidents of
boarding school life.
Winning His “Y”
Illustrated in Colors, 12mo, Decorated Cloth Cover, $1.50.
The scene of this story is Yardley Hall, the school made famous in
“Double Play” and “Forward Pass!”; and we meet again the manly,
self-reliant Dan Vinton, his young friend Gerald Pennimore, and many
others of the “old boys” whose athletic achievements and other doings
have been so entertainingly chronicled by Mr. Barbour. The new story
is thus slightly connected with its predecessors, but will be fully as
interesting to a boy who has not read them as if it were not.
Double Play
Illustrated in Colors, 12mo, Cloth, $1.50.
Further experiences of Dan Vinton--hero of “Forward Pass!”--at Yardley
Hall. He becomes in a way the mentor of the millionaire’s son, Gerald
Pennimore, who enters the school. There is the description of an
exciting baseball game, and the stratagem by which the wily coach,
Payson, puts some ginger into an overtrained squad and develops from it
a winning team will appeal to every boy.
Forward Pass!
Illustrated in Colors, 12mo, Cloth, $1.50.
In his new story, Mr. Barbour returns to the field of his earlier and
more successful stories, such as “The Half-Back,” “Captain of the
Crew,” etc. The main interest in “Forward Pass!” centers about the
“new” football; the story is, nevertheless, one of preparatory-school
life and adventures in general. The book contains several illustrations
and a number of diagrams of the “new” football plays. Mr. Barbour
considers this his best story.
The Spirit of the School
The Story of a Boy Who Works His Way through School. Illustrated in
Colors. Cloth, $1.50.
Four Afloat
Four Afoot
Four in Camp
A Series of Books Relating the Adventures of Four Boy Companions.
Illustrated in Colors, $1.50 each.
On Your Mark!
A Story of College Life and Athletics. Illustrated in Colors by C. M.
RELYEA. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
No other author has caught so truly the spirit of school and college
life.
The Arrival of Jimpson
Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
Stories of college pranks, baseball, football, hockey, and college life.
Weatherby’s Inning
A Story of College Life and Baseball. Illustrated in Colors by C. M.
RELYEA. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
A fascinating story of college life and sport.
Behind the Line
A Story of School and Football. Illustrated by C. M. RELYEA. 12mo.
Cloth, $1.50.
Captain of the Crew
Illustrated by C. M. RELYEA. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
A fresh, graphic, delightful story that appeals to all healthy boys and
girls.
For the Honor of the School
A Story of School Life and Interscholastic Sport. Illustrated by C. M.
RELYEA. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
The Half-Back
Illustrated by B. WEST CLINEDINST. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.
“It is in every sense an out-and-out boys’ book.”--_Boston Herald._
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK
BY JAMES SHELLEY HAMILTON
Junior Days
Illustrated in Colors. Inlay in Colors on Cover, 12mo, Cloth, $1.50.
A third story by the author of “Butt Chanler, Freshman,” and “The New
Sophomore,” in which the heroes of those stories are again in evidence
with other and new characters of equal interest. In his latest story,
Mr. Hamilton takes up the life of upper classmen. The story has all of
the close knowledge of life at college and in a small college town that
has marked Mr. Hamilton’s former books, and there is also a wider and
broader view befitting his older characters as they come in contact
with the bigger world outside.
The New Sophomore
Illustrated in Colors. Inlay in Colors on Cover, 12mo, Cloth, $1.50.
The story of Butt Chanler’s sophomore year, but with a new member of
Butt’s class for hero. Plot counts more than in the former story; for a
strong detective interest centers around a statue of a river goddess,
hidden by one class while the other attempts to find and capture it.
The hero, after accidentally putting the “enemy” on the trail of the
goddess, finally saves her by his ingenuity.
Butt Chanler, Freshman
Illustrated in Colors, 12mo, Decorated Cloth, $1.50.
“Butt” Chanler is a freshman, and the story begins with the first days
of fall term and extending through one of the most successful baseball
seasons the college has ever known. There are all the events of a
freshman’s life that a boy loves to look forward to and the graduate to
look back upon.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK
BIOGRAPHIES FOR YOUNG READERS
Lewis Carroll
By BELLE MOSES, author of “Louisa May Alcott.” A rare Portrait of Lewis
Carroll as a young man as Frontispiece. Small 12mo, Cloth, $1.25 net.
This is a very charming biography of the man who wrote “Alice in
Wonderland.” Miss Moses, whose “Louisa May Alcott” proved so remarkably
sympathetic an account of an interesting woman, has in her new book
written what is, perhaps, the best and most spontaneous account ever
published of a man of the most interesting personality and genius.
There is more here than has ever elsewhere appeared of the younger days
of Lewis Carroll, while Miss Moses’s imaginative sympathy has made a
most enthusiastic history of the better-known period of the career of
the author of “Alice in Wonderland.”
Louisa May Alcott
By BELLE MOSES. 12mo, Cloth, Illustrated, $1.25 net.
This is an admirable story of the childhood and womanhood of the
celebrated author of “Little Women,” told with especial reference to
girl readers. Miss Moses has excellently caught the beautiful home
spirit of the Alcotts’s family circle, and this biography is not only
charmingly written but is in every way an authoritative account of the
interesting life of Miss Alcott and the New England scenes in which her
days were spent. It has been Miss Moses’s desire to give an intimate
picture of the home life of her heroine, her development of character,
and the influence upon her of the famous band of New England men and
women who made Concord and Boston centers of intellectual growth.
Florence Nightingale
By LAURA E. RICHARDS. Illustrated with a Frontispiece Portrait of Miss
Nightingale. 12mo, Cloth, $1.25 net.
The life of this wonderful and justly beloved woman, “The Angel of
the Crimea,” told by one whose father was in part responsible for
confirming Miss Nightingale in her determination to devote her life
to nursing. While the name of Florence Nightingale is a household
word, the precise nature and scope of her work and the difficulties
and discouragement under which it was accomplished are unknown to many
children of the present generation.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK
BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER
The Riflemen of the Ohio
Illustrated in Colors, 12mo, Cloth, $1.50.
The fourth in the series, and the best of this author’s frontier Indian
tales. In this story Mr. Altsheler has again conducted his now famous
band of hunters and scouts over ground made historically celebrated
by warfare and ambuscades in the early days of our pioneer life. The
book is full of thrilling incidents and episodes, Indian seizure and
torture, Indian customs in war and peace, and the graphic narration of
decisive battles fought along the Ohio.
The Free Rangers
Illustrated in Colors, 12mo, Cloth, $1.50.
The exciting journey down the Mississippi to New Orleans of five young
woodsmen, some of whose adventures were told in “The Forest Runners,”
to interview the Spanish Governor-General. After many struggles with a
renegade, their old enemy, Braxton Wyatt, and a traitorous Spaniard,
Alvarez, they accomplish their object and are later largely responsible
for the safe voyage of a supply fleet from New Orleans to Kentucky.
The Forest Runners
Illustrated in Color, 12mo, Cloth, $1.50.
This story deals with the further adventures of the two young woodsmen
in the history of Kentucky who were the heroes of “The Young Trailers.”
The plot describes the efforts of the boys to bring a consignment of
powder to a settlement threatened by the Indians. The book is full of
thrills to appeal to every boy who loves a good story.
The Young Trailers
Illustrated, 12mo, Ornamental Cloth, $1.50.
A boys’ story, telling of the first settlers in Kentucky. Their
pleasures and hardships, their means of protection, methods of
obtaining food and ammunition are described in a way that makes the
reader live with them. The life led by the young hero--his fights with
Indians and his captivity among them--is vividly pictured.
The Last of the Chiefs
Illustrated in Colors, 12mo, Cloth, $1.50.
Two white boys join a caravan crossing the plains. After an ambuscade,
from which they alone escape through the good will of an Indian guide,
they establish themselves in the Montana hills, and live as trappers.
When returning to civilization to sell their furs they are captured by
Indians and witness the destruction of the tribes by Custer’s army and
his allies.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK
HISTORY AND ADVENTURE
On the Trail of Washington
By FREDERICK TREVOR HILL, author of “Lincoln the Lawyer,” “The Story
of a Street,” etc. Six Color Pictures by Arthur E. Becher, many other
Illustrations. Square 8vo. Ornamental Cloth Cover, $1.50 net.
Mr. Hill, who is known as an absolutely accurate, authentic writer
of American history and biography, has planned this book to give in
interesting, readable form, suitable for young boys and girls, an
accurate account of George Washington, not as a dignified President
of the United States, but first as a child in his home, then as a boy
in his adventurous surveying expeditions, and finally as a young man
fighting with and later commanding troops in the American Revolution.
The Red Caps of Lyons
By HERBERT HAYENS. Illustrated, 12mo, Cloth, $1.50.
The scene is Lyons at the outbreak of the French Revolution. The father
of the young hero is accused of being in sympathy with the aristocrats,
whence come innumerable perilous situations which are turned to the
boy’s advantage by his own ingenuity and coolness. An important
feature of the book is that any child who reads the story, while
being thoroughly interested in the plot, will also get an excellent,
authentic picture of the French Revolution.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK
Transcriber’s Notes:
--Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
--Except for the frontispiece, illustrations have been moved to
follow the text that they illustrate, so the page number of the
illustration may not match the page number in the List of
Illustrations.
--Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
--Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
--Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
--The Author’s em-dash and long dash styles have been retained.
End of Project Gutenberg's Captain of the Crew, by Ralph Henry Barbour