THE END OF IT
"Hello, here comes Deacon Young with a brand new orange-and-black blazer
on!"
"Yea-a-a," interrupted one fellow in a loud, shrill voice, and the
others all joined in and yelled, "Yea-a, Deacon!" and ran at him and
pounded him on the shoulders, jumped on his back and made other signs of
pleasure at seeing a classmate once more, while they asked him what kind
of a vacation he had had, and told him he looked as though he had been
training for football all summer. Will laughed and told how he had
trained.
"It must be great to work on a farm," said Lee, punching the Deacon's
shoulders.
"Come on," one of them shouted, "we're taking a walk about the old place
to see how everything looks. Let's gather a crowd--Ninety-blank this
way!"
They shouted the old cry in concert and started off together.
"What are you going to do this year, Deacon?" It was Todd who happened
to be marching next to Young.
"How do you mean?"
"Well, are you going to pole or loaf or be a dead-game or what?"
"Well," answered Young, "I'm going to do some of the first and combine
some football with it if I have good luck; but I am not going to try any
more of the last. I don't know as I need tell you that, Todd." He wanted
to say more, but only frowned as he thought of how hard it would be to
accomplish what he had resolved to accomplish with the club this year.
Todd said, "I'm glad you told me, though. I think the whole club made a
fool of itself last year. It needs to take a big brace."
Young turned and looked at him. Todd had spoken in his usual quiet,
careless manner, but Young thought his words implied something.
"Do you think--say, Todd, do you think there's much hope of its
bracing?"
"Not unless they're made to," laughed Todd. "Perhaps," he said, looking
the other way, "we can make 'em if we pull together. What do you say,
Deacon?"
"Let's try," said Young. He held out his hand.
Todd took it in an embarrassed manner, and then shouted: "Hi, there, you
fellows in front! Let's go down to meet the 2.17. There'll be a lot of
the class in on that train. Start up a song, somebody."
They all marched off across the campus singing, with loud happy voices:
"Here's to Ninety-blank--
Drink her down--drink her down."
Arms were thrown carelessly over shoulders and perhaps they swaggered a
little as they marched. But it feels very good to be a Sophomore,
especially the first day.
And all this fraternal joyousness, together with the superabundance of
orange and black, greatly impressed one of the very green Freshmen who
happened just then to be scurrying by with wonder in his eyes. And it
happened to be at about the same spot in the walk that another Freshman
had met another crowd of Sophomores and was called "Deacon" for the
first time in his life. But that was a whole year ago.
Young had learned a good deal in that year, he was thinking. "Not all of
what you are taught at college," he said to himself, "comes out of the
text-books--especially in Freshman year."
By Jesse Lynch Williams
* * * * *
The Stolen Story
And Other Newspaper Stories
_Illustrated. 12mo, $1.25_
* * * * *
Charles Scribner's Sons, Publishers
* * * * *
"Mr. Williams has had the good fortune--it really seems largely a matter
of luck in many cases--to treat his fresh material with a simplicity
which imparts a sense of strong reality. The newspaper life has a
lasting fascination for any one who has ever known it, and I think the
most ignorant must feel something of its charm in these tales."--W. D.
HOWELLS in _Literature_.
"This is not, however, a volume of moral essays on journalism; it is
first and last a collection of stories, told in a compressed, rapid
style that carries you along with something of the zest that took
possession of Billy Woods when he was on the track of a beat."--DROCH in
_Life_.
"Told with such fidelity and skill as to command the attention and
favorable comment of the men who make newspapers."--CHESTER S. LORD,
Managing Editor of the New York _Sun_, in the _Book Buyer_.
"Have not only taken the newspaper world by storm, but the reading world
in general are turning to bestow more than a second glance at the work
of this brilliant writer.... More than a quarter of the work is new
matter, now appearing for the first time."--_The Boston Courier_.
By Jesse Lynch Williams
* * * * *
Princeton Stories
_EIGHTH EDITION. 16mo, $1.00_
"Here is the evanescent charm, the touch of poetry and sentiment that
pervades a thousand unpoetic and rather reserved young men. You will
find here the good-fellowship depicted without any rant about it. There
isn't a prig in these stories ... that are well written and well
constructed, judged from the standard of good American short-story
writing."--DROCH in _Life_.
"Beside being well constructed and well told, they breathe a spirit of
commendable vigor and manliness. Princeton men are fortunate in having
the life of their college so favorably presented to the outside
world."--_Atlantic Monthly_.
"The stories are told with a naturalness and truthfulness that are very
charming. The author ... enables the reader to find the real Princeton
man of to-day, not as he ought to be, but as he is."--_Boston Home
Journal_.
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'Princeton Stories.'"--_The Golden Rule_.
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