On Your Mark! A Story of College Life and Athletics
CHAPTER XXVI
“VALE”
Allan and Pete sat on the steps of McLean Hall. The yard was a fairyland of glowing lanterns and moving colors. Near at hand, in a bough-screened stand, the band was playing. Above their heads the old elms of Erskine rustled their leaves and whispered among themselves, comparing, perhaps, this class-day with the many that had gone before. On the gravel paths matrons and maids, in light gowns, accompanied by robed seniors or dress-suited undergraduates, passed and repassed. The scene was as fair a one as ever Allan had witnessed, while even Pete was forced to grudging admiration.
“You’ll come out in August, then,” Pete was saying.
“Yes,” answered Allan, “and don’t you be afraid I won’t turn up, for this is the biggest excursion I ever took. So far I’ve never been farther away from home than this, and Colorado seems like the other side of the world.”
Pete smiled in the half-light.
“Hope you’ll like us, Allan. We may seem rather a rough and unpolished lot at first, but we’re not so bad when you cotton to our way of life.”
“Of course I’ll like you,” said Allan, vehemently. “If it wasn’t for you and your father, Pete, where’d we be now?”
“Where you are, I guess,” laughed Pete. “Let me tell you something, Allan. When you get out to Blackwater, don’t you go to speaking pieces at the old man, and thanking him; that’s a line of talk he can’t stand.”
“But I’ve got to thank him,” objected Allan.
“No you haven’t; your mother’s done that already in her letter. Besides, there isn’t anything to make a fuss about. I gave the tip to dad, and he bought up enough stock in the Gold Beetle to get control. Then he called a meeting, voted to go ahead with the mine, and--did it. And he found a whole bunch of ore, just as I knew he would. He don’t need any thanks. Why, ginger, the old mine will make him richer than it will you folks!”
“Well, then, I’ll thank you again,” said Allan.
“If you do, I’ll punch you! Look, there’s Rindgely with his folks. Nice-looking woman, that mother of his. Say, maybe I ain’t glad I didn’t have to show that confession of him!”
“So’m I,” said Allan, heartily. “It would have been a shame to prevent him from graduating. After all, I don’t suppose he realized what he was doing.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” answered Pete. “Anyhow, I’m glad we caught on to him in time. And it was all Two Spot’s doing, too; did you ever think of that? If she hadn’t rolled that ball of paper to my feet I’d never have seen that chap’s name and asked about him. It was that that put me onto the game. I remembered Tommy’s telling about Rindgely and the St. Thomas Club. By the way, it’s time those fellows showed up.”
“Tommy and Hal? They’re always late. Have you heard Tommy’s voice? He cheered so hard at the ball game this afternoon that he can’t talk above a whisper. Hal’s trying to induce him to sing with the glee club.”
“There’s Hooker and Long. What sort of a captain do you suppose Long will make?”
“First rate, I should think. The fellows like him and he’s a hard-working, earnest sort of a fellow.”
“Well, just as long as they didn’t light on Monroe,” said Pete. “That man will be the death of me, he puts on so many airs. Next fall, when I get back, I’m going to start right in and learn how to throw the hammer, and keep at it until I can beat him at that, too.”
“You’ll be busy at football,” suggested Allan.
“Football? Oh--well, maybe; football isn’t a bad game, after all. But-- Here they are. O Tommy! Tommy Sweet!”
Tommy and Hal, attracted by Pete’s bellow, turned and joined them.
“Thought we’d never get here,” said Tommy, hoarsely. “Hal got mixed up with an ice-cream freezer and ate six saucerfuls before I could drag him away.”
“That’s so,” Hal confessed. “That’s the trouble with breaking training; things taste so good and it’s so jolly nice to be able to eat all you want to. I expect to be fine and sick to-night.”
“You have every right to,” said Allan. “When a little old freshman gets taken onto the varsity and makes a home run in the ninth inning, just when it’s needed, and lets in three men----”
“Oh, shut up! And come on up to the room and eat. We can hear the music finely from the windows. I’ve got some nice cold ginger ale up there, and Mr. and Mrs. Guild ought to be along about now. Come on.”
“Well, I never took much of a shine to ginger ale,” said Pete, drawing his big form erect; “the fizzy stuff always goes up my nose. But I’ll have some, for it sure is hot to-night.”
“We’ll drink Tommy’s health,” said Hal, as they moved across the turf under the swaying lanterns, “and we’ll get him to sing us ‘A Health to King Charles’ in his nice new voice.”
“Toast yourselves,” growled Tommy, hoarsely.
“We will!” cried Allan. “We’ll toast ourselves, and we’ll drink to next year, when we’ll all be jolly sophomores--except you, Tommy dear, who’ll be a disgustingly serious and dignified junior.”
Laughing, they crossed the yard, under the glow of the lanterns, and passed out of sight into the shadows of Elm Street. Against the front of College Hall appeared in sputtering purple flames the word
“VALE.”
BY RALPH HENRY BARBOUR.
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The Book of Knight and Barbara.
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The curious and fascinating tales and pictures of this unique book are introduced by Dr. Jordan with the following preface: “The only apology the author can make in this case is that he never meant to do it. He had told his own children many stories of many kinds, some original, some imitative, some travesties of the work of real story-tellers. Two students of the department of education in the Stanford University--Mrs. Louise Maitland, of San Jose, and Miss Harriet Hawley, of Boston--asked him to repeat these stories before other children. Miss Hawley, as a stenographer, took them down for future reference, and while the author was absent on the Bering Sea Commission of 1896 she wrote them out in full, thus forming the material of this book. Copies of the stories were placed by Mrs. Maitland in the hands of hundreds of children. These drew illustrative pictures, after their fashion; and from the multitude offered, Mrs. Maitland chose those which are here reproduced. The scenes in the stories were also subjected to the criticisms of the children, and in many cases amended to meet their suggestions. These pictures made by the children have been found to interest deeply other children, a fact which gives them a definite value as original documents in the study of the workings of the child-mind. At the end of the volume are added a few true stories of birds and of beasts, told to a different audience. With these are a few drawings by university students, which are intended to assist the imagination of child-readers.”
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A story for every week in the year. The very best present a girl could have. A constant reminder of the giver. Fifty-two stories by the best English writers, inculcating the love of honor, truth, and loyalty. These are such stories as it will do little girls good to read. They teach the love of home and many lovable qualities. Among the contributors are Margaret Watson, Jennie Chapman, Lucy Hardy, Alfred H. Miles, Lucie E. Jackson, and Thomas Archer.
Fifty-two Stories for Boys.
Edited by ALFRED H. MILES. Illustrated. 12mo. Ornamental Cloth, $1.50.
A story for every week in the year. The very best present a boy could have. A constant reminder of the giver. Fifty-two stories by the best English writers, inculcating the love of honor, manhood, truth, and patriotism. These are stories which stir the imagination and stimulate the reader to try to become a great man himself. Among the contributors are Alfred H. Miles, Robert Overton, Lieut.-Col. A. J. Macpherson, G. A. Henty, F. M. Holmes, and Grace Stebbing.
Fifty-two More Stories for Boys.
Fifty-two More Stories for Girls.
Edited by ALFRED H. MILES. Illustrated. 12mo. Each $1.50.
These two volumes are companions to the two “Fifty-two Stories” books published last fall. Each book will contain a story for every week in the year, particularly suited to the tastes of young boys and girls. The stories are by the best writers and cover a wide range of subjects.
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APPLETONS’ SUPPLEMENTARY READERS.
Uncle Robert’s Geography.
By the late FRANCIS W. PARKER and NELLIE L. HELM. A Series of Geographical Readers for Supplementary Use. Four volumes. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth.
1. Playtime and Seedtime 32 cents. 2. On the Farm 42 ” 3. Uncle Robert’s Visit 50 ” 4. A River Journey 60 ”
Uncle Robert teaches children how to read aright the great book of Nature. He makes study a pleasure. He teaches geography in the right way. He makes rural life and occupations attractive. He has a deep and loving sympathy with child-life. He believes in the education that strengthens the body as well as the mind. He tells children instructive stories to arouse their imaginations and stimulate their observing powers. He believes that every normal child may be made useful in the world. He has a boundless faith in human progress, and finds his greatest hopes in childhood and its possibilities.
=These extraordinarily suggestive little books by the late Colonel Parker--one of the most far-sighted students of child-life of our day--have approved themselves to thousands of primary teachers. They form one of the few successful attempts to incorporate that which is close by nature to child perception into the very warp and woof of the child mind. They give an intelligible meaning and vitality to the round of experiences that come to all normal children in our land.=
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
Transcriber’s Notes:
--Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_); text in bold by “equal” signs (=bold=).
--Except for the frontispiece, illustrations have been moved to follow the text that they illustrate, so the page number of the illustration may not match the page number in the List of Illustrations.
--Printer, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
--Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
--Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
--The Author’s em-dash and long dash styles have been retained.