Of all the Christmas vacations which Scott could remember he recalled
none that had left him such real sensations of pleasure as that three
weeks of hard labor in the old transfer shed. It formed almost the only
theme of conversation between the two boys for the next two weeks. A
month ago Scott would have laughed at the idea of his being able to
learn anything at such a place, yet hardly a day passed now that he did
not feel that he had been helped by his experience. Moreover, he took a
very different interest in the laboring men he saw and seemed to look at
everything from a different point of view.
He buckled down to his work with a better will than he could have done
after a period of idleness and had the satisfaction of seeing his extra
courses rapidly coming to a successful close. The mid-year examinations
came bringing terror to the unprepared, but Scott took his Saturday
afternoon and Sunday off as usual, and waded through the examinations in
the regular routine of his work. He came out of them with flying colors,
and found himself a full fledged junior with the privilege of taking
part in all the activities of the class.
The most important of these class activities at this time was the
formation of the famous Junior Corporation for the management of the
camp at Itasca. A camp meeting was called at which Ormand and Morgan,
the officers of the last year’s Corporation, explained its organization
and workings. Ormand explained the object of the Corporation.
“You see, fellows, it’s like this. That camp is twenty-seven miles from
the railroad. There is no boarding house within striking distance of the
place, so somebody has to run the cook shack. If an outsider came in to
run it he would have to charge big money in order to make any profit; if
the school ran it the fellows would always be kicking on the grub; if
the fellows run it themselves they can make it cost what they please and
have nobody but themselves to kick if they don’t like it. It has always
worked out first rate. We kept board down to two dollars and eighty
cents per week last summer, had good grub and entertained lots of
company.
“Of course it means some work. The school supplies a good cook shack and
all the equipment. You will have to elect some good man manager to
attend to all the business, and another good man secretary to keep the
books, pay the bills and help him out generally. Then the rest of you
must back them up in everything they do. Hire your own cook, buy your
provisions wholesale and buy your own cows.”
Morgan then explained the organization of the camp crews and the rules
of the game as well as he could.
With this information as a guide the new officers were quickly elected
and the organization completed. Merton was elected manager and Scott,
secretary. Before his experience at the shed Scott would have been
afraid of this responsibility, but he had more confidence in himself now
and welcomed the experience.
The next few weeks were indeed full ones for the new officers. They
levied an assessment of twenty-five dollars from each member of the
class to meet the immediate expenses, held long conferences with the
former officers, making up grocery lists and collecting details of
information which would aid them in handling the various contingencies
which might arise in the course of the summer. They signed a written
contract with the director of the College defining their duties and
privileges. They carried on an extensive correspondence in an effort to
locate a suitable cook and find two cows which would answer their
purpose. After holding a protracted meeting with the representative of a
wholesale grocery company they placed an order for what seemed to them
an inexhaustible supply of provisions.
In the bustle of preparation various lines of private enterprise were
brought to light. One man had constituted himself a special agent for a
certain shoe concern and took orders for all styles of boots, puttees
and moccasins. Another was appointed to purchase compasses and all other
needed equipment of a like nature; while still another canvassed the
class for sweaters, flannel shirts, mackinaws, and riding breeches.
Scott added to his official duties the selection and purchase of a canoe
which he paid for with the money he had earned at the shed. It was a
busy time for everyone and the fever of expectant excitement pervaded
the entire class. The tang of spring was in the air and these young
savages were yearning for the freedom of the woods.
Two days before the appointed day of departure came the annual banquet
of the Forestry Club to speed the parting juniors. It was regarded
somewhat as a sacred rite because it was the last meeting of the year
when all the classes could be together. By the time the juniors would
come down from the woods the seniors would be scattered to the four
corners of the country and there was no chance of getting them all
together again after that. It was also the time when the embryo orators
of the different classes aired their wit in after-dinner speeches. Men
had been known to keep jokes secret for a whole year for the sake of
springing them publicly at the banquet.
A committee of the Club had made all the arrangements. A hungry crowd
some forty strong assembled at the hotel and, as is customary on all
such occasions, starved for almost an hour waiting for the banquet to be
served. It was a very good banquet and tasted all the better for the
delay—maybe that is the reason all banquets are delayed—but everyone was
more interested in what was to come afterward than in the dinner itself.
The professor of engineering was in the chair as toastmaster, the
director of the College was present and so were all the popular
professors. It was rather an honor for a faculty member to be invited if
he was not a member of the Club—for it was an independent organization
and invited none out of mere politeness. This was pretty generally
understood and few who were invited failed to appear. One or two
outsiders who had earned the friendship of the Club were also there.
As the last waiter closed the door behind him the toastmaster arose and
solemnly proposed that they should all sing “Minnesota.” Every man was
on his feet in an instant, for it was traditional that the “Foresters
had more spirit than all the rest of the University put together,” and
they never neglected to show it at every opportunity. The song had the
desired effect; it struck fire which melted all formality and welded the
crowd into one homogeneous whole. There were no longer any class
distinctions; the faculty were stripped of their dignity. The
toastmaster grilled everyone unmercifully. The faculty told all the
jokes they could think of on the students and on each other; the
students “slammed” the faculty unrestrained. Everyone had the best kind
of a time. When the toastmaster finally resigned his seat it was close
to eleven o’clock, and there were many under classmen among those
present who were already looking forward to the meeting of the next
year. There was more than one senior who went home rather sadly thinking
that it was the last of its kind for him.
It had been a revelation to Scott. His relations with the faculty had
been wholly of the classroom, and he had formed the students’ usual
opinion of them as a type. That night he had seen them act like human
beings and he began to wonder if some of them were not almost human
after all.
The fifteenth of April, the day set for the departure, arrived at last.
The train left the Union Depot at nine in the morning, and the boys were
eager to reach the depot. The car stopped and they hurried into the
station where they found a wild and woolly looking group assembled in
the corner of the waiting room. They could not wait to get to the woods
and were nearly all attired in true lumberjack fashion, only the pallor
of their faces betraying them. They hailed the new arrivals with that
exaggerated hilarity that only a crowd of college boys can display. And
that hilarity instead of subsiding grew steadily with the arrival of
every new addition. They joked each other continually, riled the grouchy
baggage man almost to madness and “joshed” every porter who showed
himself.
When the train came in from St. Paul the crowd surged boisterously
forward sweeping everyone before it. Most of the people recognized the
joyous buoyancy of youth, and knowing how useless it was to oppose it,
yielded good naturedly enjoying it by a sort of reflected pleasure, but
a few resented it wrathfully, thereby making themselves ridiculous. On
they rushed across the platform and took possession of the smoking car.