_In which Clarence begins to admire Campion College, and becomes
the room-mate of a very remarkable young man, as the sequel will
clearly show._
“Do you know where you are going to sleep to-night, Clarence?” asked
John, as the two boys, after a long walk on the Bridgeport road, were
returning to Campion.
“No; where?”
“You’re going to have the finest room in the house.”
“Indeed! Where is it?”
“You see our new classroom building, don’t you?”
“It seems to me I do.”
“Well, they say that’s the finest building of its kind in the West. On
the fourth floor there are twenty-one or twenty-two rooms for a few boys
in the college department. All of those rooms are reasonably large, but
there is one big enough for two. There it is—at the south-eastern
corner. It has a window on the east and two looking south. Two brothers
live in it, Will and John Benton. John hasn’t come back to school yet;
he’s not well—and so Will has it to himself, and to-night you are going
to have John’s bed.”
“Is Will Benton all right?”
“All right! Say, he’s in the senior class, and he’s Prefect of the
Sodality, and the best all-round athlete, and the best pitcher on the
college team. All right! He’s the best boy in the college; and he goes
to Communion every day. That’s nothing out of the way here. Lots of our
boys do that. But Will Benton keeps it up in vacation time, too.”
“That’s funny,” mused Clarence. “In the last few days I’ve begun to meet
Catholics. The first one I met was that little girl, Dora. She began her
kidnaping story by telling me she used to go to Communion every day till
she fell into the hands of the gypsies. Then you yank me out of the
water, and when the Rector says he is going to punish you, up you speak
and tell him you’re going to Communion every day. And now, I suppose
you’re going to bring me up to introduce me to Will Benton, and _he_
goes to Communion every day.”
“Yes; we’re going up now, for it’s nearly bedtime. Most of us go to
Communion every day, you know, to help us keep from sin. And it does,
too. A boy who knows he’s going to Communion tomorrow is mighty careful
about what he says and what he listens to.”
“I am beginning,” said Clarence, “to be quite pleased with the Catholic
Church.”
“I’m sure the Church,” retorted John, “will be proud and happy to know
it has gained your approbation.”
“Seriously,” said Clarence, “I’ve changed my ideas completely since I
met Dora. If she’s a specimen of the Catholic Church, I want to join.”
“What! Aren’t you a Catholic?”
“No. Who knows but I may be some day?”
“I thought you were a Catholic all along. Here we are,” continued John,
as they entered the classroom building. “Let’s go up quietly. The boys
are in the study hall now. Say,” he added, gleefully, as they reached
the second story, “look in there; just see what I’m missing.”
“What a big hall!” exclaimed Clarence.
“Everything in this building is big,” said John with conscious pride;
“the playroom and the dormitory and the classrooms, and the science
department——they’re all big.”
“I think,” replied Clarence, “that, from your description, the place
will suit me perfectly. In fact, I’ve a mind to buy it. Name your
price.”
“For a fellow who arrives at Campion College in a bathing suit and
nothing else, you’ve got the most wonderful nerve. Ah! here we are. This
is your room for the night.”
“Come in,” said a rumbling voice in answer to John’s knock.
“I’ve brought him, Will. Here’s the boy who came to College down the
river, Clarence Esmond.”
“Welcome, Clarence. You’re to be my guest for to-night and so long as
you choose the room is yours. I’ve heard something of your story; in
fact, everybody knows how you got here. I hope you’ll enjoy every minute
of your stay.”
Will was a ruddy-cheeked young man of fully six feet, with tremendous
shoulders and chest, and a voice that would compete, not without hope of
victory, with a bass drum. His smile alone was enough to win him
friends.
“Glad to meet you, Will,” said Clarence. “John here has been telling me
all about you. He says you’re Prefect of the Senior Sodality. What does
that mean?”
“Aren’t you a Catholic?”
“No.”
“Well, the Sodality is organized to honor the Blessed Mother of God, by
getting its members to lead a good Catholic life and by doing good
works. The Prefect is the leading officer; and he’s supposed, though it
may not be always the case, to have special love for Mary and to show it
in his life.”
“By George,” said Clarence, “here it is again. The first Catholic I ever
met to talk with was a little girl with the gypsies, and almost as soon
as she and I got to talking together, she began telling me about the
Blessed Mother and singing her praises.”
“Was the girl a gypsy?” asked Will.
“No; she was captured in Ohio during the flood, last May.”
“Oh; that awful flood!” said Will, his cheerful grin deserting him. “I
lost my little sister in that flood, too.”
“Are you from Ohio?”
“Yes, and my sister’s body wasn’t recovered till two weeks after she was
drowned. Well, let’s change the subject. I hate to think of it.”
Within an hour Will Benton and Clarence had become fast friends. Within
another, the much-wandering youth, satisfied that his adventures were
over, had fallen into a dreamless sleep, little suspecting the amazing
events that the morrow was destined to bring.