A western college gave a high school tournament every spring.
Surrounding high schools were invited to assemble with their competing
candidates for athletic contests in the afternoon, followed by reading
and oratorical contests that night. Prizes were given to the winners
either by the college or individuals in the college town.
[Sidenote: Jealousy Between Schools]
This tournament was one of the big events of the year for the high
schools. They trained for it from September till May. The victors were
lionized in the typically enthusiastic high school manner, while the
citizens of the towns in which the schools were located talked of the
event for weeks and knew and honored not only the schools but the
individuals who had won the prizes.
For two years Eastman pupils had won in athletics, and now (1915) they
were reputed to have an excellent reader who was going up to the
oratorical contest. The slogan in more than one school had been “Beat
Eastman.”
The meet occurred on Friday. On Thursday evening Principal MacKenzie of
Dwight said to his contestants, “I believe we’ll win tomorrow. I believe
we have the kind of muscles and brains that will ‘Beat Eastman.’”
“Hurra-a-a!” sang out the boys—all but one, John Nealy.
An inscrutable look had come into his eyes when Mr. MacKenzie uttered
the words, “Beat Eastman,” and he had been too intently following up
some idea to join in the shout.
On the way to the college town the next morning he said to his
colleagues, “Boys, I’ve thought of a way to beat Eastman.”
“How?” they said, eagerly.
“We’ll take the boys to a ‘feed’ at noon. We’ll order everything eatable
for their runner and jumper and we’ll get them so filled up that they
can’t make good.”
“But will they go with us?”
“Sure, they’ll go. Their runner, Fernald, is a good friend of mine.”
“We won’t dare overeat.”
“Can’t we just pretend we’re eating everything?”
The details were arranged.
Now, Harmon Walsh, one of the Dwight boys, had a fine, upright character
and he could not be party to this foolish scheme of John’s. He finally
decided to tell Mr. MacKenzie about it.
The latter, astonished, took the Dwight boys under his special care,
forbade their inviting anybody to lunch with them, and never left them
until they were on the athletic field.
That year Eastman came out second and Dwight third.
When they returned to Dwight, Mr. MacKenzie called John into his office
and inquired why he had proposed his “lunch scheme” on the way to the
meet.
“I’m sick and tired of hearing Eastman’s praises,” said John. “I’d do
anything to beat them.”
Thereupon Prof. MacKenzie talked so harshly to John on the subject of
jealousy that he quit school, as he had begged to do before. So he
missed getting his high school education because his teacher was not
able to cultivate in him a spirit of competition without jealousy and
unfortunately was unable to handle properly a case of jealousy when it
appeared.