CHAPTER X

A COOL RECEPTION

Professor Snodgrass had said his was a roomy house, and so it was as regards the house itself. But there was not much room in it, as the boys soon saw, for even the hall was filled with boxes, cases and other receptacles for holding what Ned, Bob and Jerry rightly guessed to be specimens of bugs, butterflies and other objects dear to the heart of the enthusiastic scientist.

“Make yourselves right at home, boys,” urged the professor, as they went in. He put away his butterfly net and the specimen box he carried over his shoulder, and then called:

“Mrs. Gilcuddy! Mrs. Gilcuddy!”

“Yes, yes! What is it?” asked a voice from the kitchen.

“We will have company to supper, Mrs. Gilcuddy,” went on the professor. “Put on three extra plates.”

A pleasant-faced woman came into the dining room.

“And you might take these,” the professor went on, holding out his wet shoes to her. “They’ll need drying.”

“Oh, if you haven’t been and done it again!” she cried, raising her hands in dismay. “You’ll catch cold, Professor.”

“Oh, I think not,” he said mildly. “These young gentlemen, friends of mine, made me take off my shoes and wrap my feet in a blanket. They are really quite warm now. Sit down, boys. Mrs. Gilcuddy will soon have supper ready. Sit down.”

“I’d like to know where they’re going to sit!” exclaimed the housekeeper. “Every chair in the place holds some of your specimens, Mr. Snodgrass.”

“We’ll clear some of them away,” offered Jerry. “We’ve been with the professor before.”

He started to lift an accumulation of boxes off one of the chairs, but the little scientist, dropping the shoes, which Mrs. Gilcuddy had not taken, cried:

“Look out, Jerry! Handle that gently. That contains some of my choicest specimens of _Argynnis atalantis_.”

“What’s that?” asked Jerry. “A new kind of fish?”

“It is the mountain silverspot butterfly,” the professor explained. “I was all day getting two specimens. I wouldn’t lose them for the world. Bring me my slippers, Mrs. Gilcuddy, and I’ll clear off the chairs myself,” and this he did after some confusion.

“Well, boys, now you’re here, let me say how glad I am to see you all,” said Professor Snodgrass, when the three chums had made themselves ready for the supper which could be smelled cooking in the kitchen. “I am very glad you came.”

“So are we,” echoed Bob, his eyes on the door leading to the kitchen.

During the meal there was much talk. The professor told what he had been doing since he had last seen the boys; while, on their part, they related their experiences and the doings which had led to their being sent to Boxwood Hall.

“You’ll like it here,” declared the scientist. “We have some of the most scholarly minds of the country at this college. You will gain knowledge that will be of unsurpassed value to you.”

“That’s all very well,” replied Ned, “but we came here to have a little fun, too, Professor. Are there any lively students here?”

“Why, yes, I believe so,” was the answer, given somewhat doubtfully though. “Some were too lively, I believe, for we had a faculty meeting yesterday to decide what had best be done about some of the young gentlemen who screwed shut the door of one of the instructor’s rooms so he could not get out in time to attend his classes.”

“That sounds encouraging.”

“That’s right,” echoed Ned.

“And speaking of lively students,” put in Mrs. Gilcuddy, who seemed to be more than an ordinary servant, “you might mention, Professor, that the boys put a cow up on your front porch where the poor creature couldn’t get down until part of the railing was cut away.”

“Did they do that?” asked Jerry eagerly.

“I--I believe they did,” admitted the scientist.

“Better and better!” murmured Ned. “I can see we are going to like it here. There are some live ones.”

“There’s one thing about it,” observed Bob in a low voice to his chums, after the meal, while the professor had gone to put on a dry pair of shoes, “she sure is some cook!”

“Who?” asked Jerry.

“The professor’s housekeeper, Mrs. Gilcuddy. I hope he invites us over often, in case we don’t find the commons good.”

“Oh, I guess the college food will be all right,” said Ned.

At Boxwood Hall, as at other colleges, some of the students ate in “commons,” or in the college dining rooms, the expense being added to their tuition bills. Others preferred to board in private families, while some formed “eating clubs.” Our friends had decided, for the time being at least, to dine at the college table.

“Now, if you’ll come with me,” the professor said as he came down stairs, “I’ll take you over to the proctor, Mr. Thornton, and introduce you, so that you may register and be shown to your rooms. Are you ready?”

“Yes, but--er--do you think you had better go that way?” asked Jerry, smiling at the instructor.

“What way? Why, is anything wrong?”

The professor looked at his hands. He was carrying his collar and necktie.

“Bless my soul!” he exclaimed. “I did forget to put them on; didn’t I? I was wondering where I had put my specimen of _Neonympha eurytus_, or little wood-satyr butterfly. I wanted to show it to Professor Axton. I must have mislaid it. But never mind now. I’ll look for it later.”

He put on his collar and tie and accompanied the boys out of doors. The clouds had somewhat cleared away now and the new moon illumined the campus and silvered the surface of Lake Carmona. The boys looked about them at the groups of college buildings.

“It is a dandy place!” murmured Jerry softly.

“It sure is,” agreed his chums.

The boys found Proctor Thornton to be a rather stern-looking gentleman, who seemed to be on the alert and with an air as if he were constantly saying, or thinking:

“Now it doesn’t make any difference how innocent you look, I know you have either been up to some mischief or are going to make some. I won’t accept any excuses. I know boys and you can’t deceive me.”

“But maybe he’s all right for all that,” said Bob to his chums, as they came away after registering.

“He doesn’t _look_ very promising,” declared Ned.

“But I guess we can make out as well as the rest of the boys,” came from Jerry.

Professor Snodgrass had left them in Mr. Thornton’s office, the scientist stating he had some work to prepare for the morrow, and would see the boys in the morning. The proctor had gone out to look for Mrs. Eastman, who was the matron in charge of the dormitory where the boys would sleep. Mr. Thornton wanted her to take Ned, Bob and Jerry to their rooms, and the discussion about him took place during his absence.

“This way, if you please, young gentlemen,” he called a little later. “You will be assigned to classes to-morrow.”

Mrs. Eastman proved to be a motherly-looking woman, and the boys took a liking to her at once.

“New students, eh?” she remarked pleasantly.

“Just arrived, after an all day try at getting here,” said Jerry.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Have you had supper?”

They told her of the professor’s hospitality.

“Here are your rooms,” she informed them, as she stopped in a corridor on the second floor. “You’ll find the rules on cards tacked to each door. The rooms connect.”

“Say, these are all right!”

“Couldn’t be better!”

“We’ll have good times here all right!”

Thus exclaimed Ned, Bob and Jerry as they were ushered into their new quarters. The rooms, though small, were tastefully furnished, and our heroes had materials in their trunks to decorate them as college rooms should be decorated, according to the accepted usage.

Mrs. Eastman had hurried away, after promising to have the boys’ baggage brought from their automobile by one of the porters, and while waiting for their trunks the trio walked through the three connecting rooms, making their selection. Jerry took the middle apartment, with Bob on the left and Ned on the right.

As the porter left, having deposited the trunks, Jerry saw a door on the opposite side of the corridor open, and a lad’s head was thrust out. His room was well lighted, and two other students could be seen in with him. He looked curiously across at the newcomers.

“Hello you over there!” he exclaimed. “What’re your names?”

Jerry informed him. There was a moment of silence, while the youth in the door seemed to be reporting to his friends. Jerry heard the words “motor boys.”

“Let’s go over and make friends with them,” suggested Ned. “They may be sophomores, but I guess they won’t haze us the first night.”

“All right,” Jerry agreed, while Bob nodded his assent.

The head of the lad looking out from the room across the hall was drawn in, and the door closed. Our heroes walked across the corridor, noting that on the portal was a card bearing the names Frank Watson, Bart Haley and William Hamilton. Jerry tapped on the door.

“Who’s there?”

“We just came in,” Jerry said. “We’re from across the hall. We were speaking to you a moment ago. We’d like to have a talk.”

Sounds of whispering could be heard, and then the voice that had first spoken said in no friendly tones:

“We’re too busy to talk now. You’ll have to wait. Come around some other time.”

Our three heroes looked at one another.

“Well, if this isn’t a cool reception I’d like to know what is,” said Ned in a low voice.