And while Kenneth looked back, he felt his prejudices melting away. Surely
one couldn't dislike for very long such a jolly, mischievous-looking youth
as this! Of Kenneth's own age was the newcomer, a little heavier,
yellow-haired and blue-eyed, at once impetuous and good-humored. But at
this moment the good-humor was not greatly in evidence. Merriment gave
place to surprise, surprise to resentment on the boy's countenance.
"Hello!" he challenged.
Kenneth laid the book face down on his knee and smiled politely.
"How do you do?" he responded.
The newcomer dragged a big valise into the room and closed the door behind
him, never for an instant taking his gaze off Kenneth. Then, apparently
concluding that the figure in the armchair was real flesh and blood and not
a creature of the imagination, he tossed his cap to the table, revealing a
rumpled mass of golden yellow hair, and looked belligerently at the
intruder.
"Say, you've got the wrong room, I guess," he announced.
"Here's where they put me," answered Kenneth gravely.
"Well, you can't stay here," was the inhospitable response. "This is my
room."
Kenneth merely looked respectfully interested. Joe Brewster slid out of his
ulster, frowning angrily.
"You're a new boy, aren't you!" he demanded.
"About an hour and a half old," said Kenneth. Somehow the reply seemed to
annoy Joe. He clenched his hands and stepped toward the other truculently.
"Well, you go and see the matron; she'll find a room for you; there are
lots of rooms, I guess. Anyway, I'm not going to have you butting in here."
"You must be Joseph Brewster," said Kenneth. The other boy growled assent.
"The fact is, Brewster, they put me in here with you because you are such a
fine character. Dr. Whatshisname said you were the pride of the school, or
something like that. I guess they thought association with you would
benefit me."
Joe gave a roar and a rush. Over went the armchair, over went Kenneth, over
went Joe, and for a minute nothing was heard in Number 12 but the sound of
panting and gasping and muttered words, and the colliding of feet and
bodies with floor and furniture. The attack had been somewhat unexpected
and as a result, for the first moments of the battle, Kenneth occupied the
uncomfortable and inglorious position of the under dog. He strove only to
escape punishment, avoiding offensive tactics altogether. It was hard work,
however, for Brewster pummeled like a good one, his seraphic face aflame
with the light of battle and his yellow hair seeming to stand about his
head like a golden oriflamb. And while Kenneth hugged his adversary to him,
ducking his head away from the incessant jabs of a very industrious fist,
he realized that he had made a mistake in his estimation of his future
roommate. He was going to like him; he was quite sure he was; providing, of
course that said roommate left enough of him! And then, seeing, or rather
feeling his chance, he toppled Joe Brewster over his shoulder and in a
trice the tables were turned. Now it was Kenneth who was on top, and it
took him but a moment to seize Joe's wrists in a very firm grasp, a grasp
which, in spite of all efforts, Joe found it impossible to escape. Kenneth,
perched upon his stomach--uneasily, you may be sure, since Joe heaved and
tossed like a boat in a tempest--offered terms.
"Had enough?" he asked.
"No," growled Joe.
"Then you'll stay here until you have," answered Kenneth. "You and I are
going to be roommates, so we might as well get used to each other now as
later, eh? How any fellow with a face like a little pink angel can use his
fists the way you can, gets me!"
Kenneth was almost unseated at this juncture, but managed to hold his
place. Panting from the effects of the struggle, he went on:
"Seems to me Dr. Randall must be mistaken in you, Brewster. You don't
strike me at all as a model of deportment. Seems to me he and you fixed up
a pretty lively welcome for me, eh?"
The anger faded out of Joe's face and a smile trembled at the corners of
his mouth.
"Let me up," he said quietly.
"Behave?"
"Yep."
"All right," said Kenneth. But before he could struggle to his feet there
was a peremptory knock on the door, followed instantly by the appearance of
a third person on the scene, a dark-haired, sallow, tall youth of fifteen
who viewed the scene with surprise.
"What's up?" he asked.
Kenneth sprang to his feet and gave his hand to Joe. About them spread
devastation.
"I was showing him a new tackle," explained Kenneth easily.
Joe, somewhat red of face, shot him a look of gratitude.
"Oh," said the new arrival, "and who the dickens are you, kid?"
"My name's Garwood. I just came to-day. I'm to room with Brewster."
"Is that right?" asked the other, turning to Joe. Joe nodded.
"So he says, Graft. I think it's mighty mean, though. They let me have a
room to myself all fall, and now, just when I'm getting used to it, what do
they do? Why, they dump this chap in here. It isn't as though there weren't
plenty of other rooms!"
"Why don't you kick to the doctor?" asked Grafton Hyde.
"Oh, it wouldn't do any good, I suppose," said Joe.
Grafton Hyde sat down and viewed Kenneth with frank curiosity.
"Where are you from?" he demanded.
"Cleveland, Ohio."
"Any relation to John Garwood, the railroad man?"
"Ye-es, some," said Kenneth. Grafton snorted.
"Huh! I dare say! Most everyone tries to claim relationship with a
millionaire. Bet you, he doesn't know you're alive!"
"Well," answered Kenneth with some confusion, "maybe not, but--but I think
he's related to our family, just the same."
"You do, eh?" responded Grafton sarcastically. "Well, I wouldn't try very
hard to claim relationship if I were you. I guess if the honest truth were
known there aren't very many fellows who would want to be in John Garwood's
shoes, for all his money."
"Why?" asked Kenneth.
"Because he's no good. Look at the way he treated his employees in that
last strike! Some of 'em nearly starved to death!"
"That's a--that isn't so!" answered Kenneth hotly. "It was all newspaper
lies."
"Newspapers don't lie," said Grafton sententiously.
"They lied then, like anything," was the reply.
"Well, everyone knows what John Garwood is," said Grafton carelessly. "I've
heard my father tell about him time and again. He used to know him years
ago."
Kenneth opened his lips, thought better of it and kept silence.
"Ever hear of my father?" asked Grafton with a little swagger.
"What's his name?" asked Kenneth.
"Peter Hyde," answered the other importantly.
"Oh, yes! He's a big politician in Chicago, isn't he?"
"No, he isn't!" replied Grafton angrily. "He's Peter Hyde, the lumber
magnate."
"Oh!" said Kenneth. "What--what's a lumber magnet?"
"_Magnate_, not magnet!" growled Grafton. "It's time you came to school if
you don't know English. Where have you been going?"
"I beg pardon?"
"What school have you been to? My, you're a dummy!"
"I haven't been to any school this year. Last year I went to the grammar
school at home."
"Then this is your first boarding school, eh?"
"Yes; and I hope I'll like it. The catalogue said it was a very fine
school. I trust I shall profit from my connection with it."
Grafton stared bewilderedly, but the new junior's face was as innocent as a
cherub's. Joe Brewster stared, too, for a moment; then a smile flickered
around his mouth and he bent his head, finding interest in a bleeding
knuckle.
"Well, I came over to talk about the team, Joe," Grafton said after a
moment. "I didn't know you had company."
"Didn't know it myself," muttered Joe.
Kenneth picked up his book again and went back to his reading. But he was
not so deeply immersed but that he caught now and then fragments of the
conversation, from which he gathered that both Joe and Hyde were members of
the Lower House Basket Ball Team, that Hyde held a very excellent opinion
of his own abilities as a player, that Upper House was going to have a very
strong team and that if Lower didn't find a fellow who could throw goals
from fouls better than Simms could it was all up with them. Suddenly
Kenneth laid down his book again.
"I say, you fellows, couldn't I try for that team?" he asked.
"Oh, yes, you can _try_," laughed Grafton. "Ever play any?"
"A little. We had a team at the grammar school. I played right guard."
"You did, eh? That's where I play," said Grafton. "Maybe you'd like my
place?"
"Don't you want it?" asked Kenneth innocently.
"Don't I want it! Well, you'll have to work pretty hard to get it!"
"I will," said Kenneth very simply. Grafton stared doubtfully.
"Candidates are called for four o'clock tomorrow afternoon," said Joe.
"You'd better come along. You're pretty light, but Jim Marble will give you
a try all right."
"Thanks," answered Kenneth. "But would practice be likely to interfere with
my studies?"
"Say, kid, you're' a wonder!" sneered Grafton as he got up to go. "I never
saw anything so freshly green in my life! You're going to have a real nice
time here at Hilltop; I can see that. Well, see you later, Joe. Come up
to-night; I want to show you some new snowshoes I brought back. Farewell,
Garwood. By the way, what's your first name?"
"Kenneth."
"Hey?"
"Kenneth; K, e, n, n, e--"
"Say, that's a peach!" laughed Grafton. "Well, bring little Kenneth with
you, Joe; I've got some picture books."
"Thank you," said the new junior gratefully.
"Oh, don't mention it!" And Grafton went out chuckling.
As the door closed behind him, Joe Brewster sank into a chair and thrust
out his legs, hands in pockets, while a radiant grin slowly overspread his
angelic countenance.
"Well," he said finally, "you're the first fellow that ever bluffed Graft!
And the way he took it!"
Kenneth smiled modestly under the admiring regard of his roommate.
"Gee!" cried Joe, glancing at his watch. "It's after six. Come on to
supper. Maybe if we hurry they'll give you a place at our table."
Kenneth picked up his cap and followed his new friend down the stairs. On
the way he asked:
"Is that chap Hyde a particular friend of yours?"
"N-no," answered Joe, "not exactly. We're on the team together, and he
isn't such a bad sort. Only--he's the richest fellow in school and he can't
forget it!"
"I don't like him," said Kenneth decidedly.
Hilltop School stands on the top of a hill overlooking the Connecticut
Valley, a cluster of half a dozen ivy-draped buildings of which only one,
the new gymnasium, looks less than a hundred years old. Seventy-six feet by
forty it is, built of red sandstone with freestone trimming; a fine,
aristocratic-looking structure which lends quite an air to the old campus.
In the basement there is a roomy baseball cage, a bowling alley, lockers,
and baths. In the main hall, one end of which terminates in a fair-sized
stage, are gymnastic apparatus of all kinds.
It was here that Kenneth found himself at four o'clock the next day. His
trunk had arrived and he had dug out his old basket-ball costume, a red
sleeveless shirt, white knee pants, and canvas shoes. He wore them now as
he sat, a lithe, graceful figure, on the edge of the stage. There were
nearly thirty other fellows on the floor amusing themselves in various ways
while they waited for the captain to arrive. Several of them Kenneth
already knew well enough to speak to and many others he knew by name. For
Joe had made himself Kenneth's guide and mentor, had shown him all there
was to be seen, had introduced him to a number of the fellows and pointed
out others and had initiated him into many of the school manners and
methods. This morning Kenneth had made his appearance in various class
rooms and had met various teachers, among them Mr. Whipple, who, Kenneth
discovered, was instructor in English. The fellows seemed a friendly lot
and he was already growing to like Hilltop.
Naturally enough, Kenneth found himself the object of much interest. He was
a new boy, the only new one in school. At Hilltop the athletic rivalry was
principally internal, between dormitory and dormitory. To be sure the
baseball and football teams played other schools, but nevertheless the
contests which wrought the fellows up to the highest pitch of enthusiasm
were those in which the Blue of Upper House and the Crimson of Lower met in
battle. Each dormitory had its own football, baseball, hockey, tennis,
track, basket ball, and debating, team, and rivalry was always intense.
Hence the arrival of a new boy in Lower House meant a good deal to both
camps. And most fellows liked what they saw of Kenneth, even while
regretting that he wasn't old enough and big enough for football material.
Kenneth bore the scrutiny without embarrassment, but nevertheless he was
glad when Joe joined him where he sat on the edge of the stage.
"Jim hasn't come yet," said Joe, examining a big black-and-blue spot on his
left knee. "I guess there won't be time for much practice today, because
Upper has the floor at five. They're going to have a dandy team this year;
a whole bunch of big fellows. But they had a big heavy team year before
last and we beat them the first two games."
"Don't you play any outside schools?"
"No, the faculty won't let us. Perfect rot, isn't it? They let us play
outsiders at football and baseball and all that, but they won't let us take
on even the grammar school for basket ball. Randy says the game is too
rough and we might get injured. Bough! I'd like to know what he calls
football!"
"I don't understand about the classes here," said Kenneth. "I heard that
big chap over there say he couldn't play because he was 'advanced' or
something. What's that!"
"Advanced senior," answered Joe. "You see, there's the preparatory class,
the junior class, the middle class and the senior class. Then if a fellow
wants to fit for college, he does another year in the senior class and in
order to distinguish him from the fourth-year fellows they call him an
advanced senior. See? There are five in school this year. Faculty won't let
them play basket ball or football because they're supposed to be too big
and might hurt some of us little chaps. Huh! Hello, there's Jim. I've got
to see him a minute."
And Joe slipped off the stage and scurried across to where a boy of about
sixteen, a tall, athletic-looking youth with reddish-brown hair was
crossing the floor with a ball under each arm. Joe stopped him and said a
few words and presently they both walked over to where Kenneth sat. Joe
introduced the captain and the new candidate.
"Joe says you've played the game," said Jim inquiringly in a pleasant voice
as he shook hands. Kenneth was somewhat awed by him and replied quite
modestly:
"Yes, but I don't suppose I can play with you fellows. Still, I'd like to
try."
"That's right. How are you on throwing baskets?"
"Well, I used to be pretty fair last year."
"Good enough. If you can throw goals well, you'll stand a good show of
making the team as a substitute. You'd better get out there with the others
and warm up."