Albertus T. Dudley

“ Roger had conceived a new ambition—to row on a school crew. Here again he stood at the foot of a ladder. To gain a place he must push ahead of a dozen others whose experience gave them a right to laugh at his pretensions.
Dunn cheered with the rest, but every “rah” which he forced himself to utter cost him as much effort as a line of Virgil dug out with a vocabulary. He had been badly frightened by the incident of the Newbury protest. ”

“ To dodge one’s work, outwit one’s teachers, and triumph at examination by luck and cleverness represented to Dunn the only truly desirable way of conquering school drudgery. The real thing was to be popular, to be in the important set, to play on the teams, and be talked about. When Stalkyism, as exemplified in Dunn’s recitation career, proved a flat failure, and the expected popularity turned out to be only a kind of contemptuous freedom to disregard him, he had consoled himself with assurances of a different experience on the baseball field, where he should shine with no uncertain light. ”

“ Sumner’s heart was like lead, as he saw the Trowbridge line open in wide gaps for a trick play. If the Westcott rushers lost their heads now, there was no hope for the team. But a line that sifts evenly through, with each man keeping well within his own territory, is a hard line to work tricks upon; and a strong, aggressive tackle is a dangerous obstacle to end plays. The Westcott line did sift evenly through, and Eaton was a good tackle—so good, indeed, that he burst straight into the Trowbridge interference, and, hooking the runner with a long reach, swung him directly into Hardie’s arms. ”

“ It was not easy for him to forgive Hardie for robbing him of his place and gaining the opportunity to achieve a triumph which Dunn felt sure he could have achieved just as well. Equally unpalatable was the fact that Hardie seemed to be established on good terms with the influential set, of which Talbot, Sumner, Wilmot, and Trask formed the solid centre. On the other hand, while there were many whom Dunn called his friends, no one showed any great liking for his society except Ben Tracy and Stover, neither of whom was able to help him along toward that popularity for which his heart yearned. ”

“ President John considered himself a sportsman; in fact he was only a partisan; rabid, narrow, unforgiving. He hated the crew that was vanquishing his own, that was stealing from him the triumph which he had confidently expected and in the prospect of which he had openly gloried.
The crews were close to the bridge now. Roger longed for the comfort of its shadow, longed for the word of the coxswain that the end was near. He felt now as he swung forward to his catch that he had but a half-dozen more strokes in his body. To row another hundred yards seemed absolutely impossible. ”

“ Every one worked intently with Caffrey’s eye upon him. Every stroke was a contest against one’s own treacherous faults, with the feel of the boat, the facility of the oar, the criticism of the coach as test of success. By this test Roger was satisfied that he had acquitted himself well. When, at the Cottage Farm bridge, the coach called, “Let her run,” he rested on his oars, with such a feeling of delight as he had not experienced even when Westcott’s won the Newbury football game, back in November. ”

“ Outside were the official amusements at Adams’s, skating at the Country Club, occasional dancing parties, lectures for the intellectual, theatre for the frivolous, and jolly visiting among friends for all. At school, some petty excitement was always to be found. A lively recitation has its interest for a keen-witted boy, especially if it exhibits a Dunn trying to palm off an old excuse or a Redfield to originate a new blunder. Some one was usually in trouble, and the trouble of a school-mate, if not too serious, is always interesting to the bystanders. ”

“ Westcott had robbed him of his opportunity. He felt like a soldier who at the critical moment of defence finds that his cartridges have been stolen and that he is at the mercy of the enemy.
Stover listened to his tale, deeply disgusted. Braggarts are usually liars or victims of delusion, but occasionally one is found to make good some of his boasts. Stover had investigated Dunn’s baseball career and believed in him.
“It’s a low-down trick!” he burst forth. “That’s the way they do here. If they find a fellow who can play something, they scare up some excuse to rule him out. ”

“ Without stopping to raise the question whether Mike had been one of the offenders, Dunn proceeded to the agreeable task of teaching the urchin a lesson. The boy resisted with hands, feet, voice, and teeth. The older fellows, hurrying forth at the shrill cries for help, found Mike lying on his back, like the arms of a hay tedder, squirming to keep his antagonist at bay and squawking like a hen in distress.
His feet going like the arms of a hay tedder.
The majority of the newcomers lined up in good positions, to enjoy the amusement which chance had thrown in their way ”

“ But as the exalted official did not present himself to be mobbed, and the school gong did ring, they filed obediently in, and taking their seats, brooded in sullen bitterness on the outrage. A boy’s sense of justice—or, as some one has better expressed it, sense of injustice—is always morbidly keen. The boys at Westcott’s were used to a life in which the good things flowed in on them naturally, with few questions as to whether they were deserved or undeserved. ”

“ A certain Mr. Henderson shared with him the responsibility of being judge at the finish, but the glory of office President John took to himself. In his eyes Henderson was but the zero which added to one makes ten. He himself was both the one and the ten.
On a heap of sweaters in a corner of the open room of the boat-house lay stretched the Westcott crews, awaiting, under pretence of calmness, the moment for carrying out their boats. They could not start until the arrival of the launch which was to bear the officials. ”

“ Alderman Skillen was a political power in President John’s district, with a son on the Newbury team. If only young Skillen would distinguish himself; if only Westcott’s would put up a stiff but not victorious game; if only the reporters could give the right turn to their laudatory phrases, and the alderman be properly impressed with the power and the influence and the potential value of the mainspring of it all,—the day might well mark the beginning of a strong upward twist in the life curve of John Smith. ”

“ The school athlete admires the member of a freshman team; the freshman adores the varsity captain who has so long worn the stately letter that it has quite lost its glamor. The varsity captain thinks chiefly of the task which he has taken upon his shoulders, and admires only some lucky captain before him who won his race or his Yale game, or some frail, pretty, unathletic girl whose weakness her schoolboy brother flouts. ”

“ With this bold assertion on his lips, Dunn made for his room. The door was just closing behind him when Roger called out, “Oh, Jason!”
Dunn returned, closed the door and backed against it.
“Aren’t you going to play ball at all?”
“No; what’s the use? If I can’t play on the team, I might as well cut the whole thing out and study.”
“You can’t study all the time. You might come out just the same and play on the second and pitch for batting practice. It would show the right spirit, and the fellows would appreciate it. You know how they all felt about Sumner.” ”

“ Thorne swung sharply round. “I’m not hiding from you, anyway,” he said coolly. “What have you got to say about it?”
“I say you’re a disgrace to the school. First you threw us by letting on that that tackle signal was a new one, and then you voted against us, against your own school!”
“I told the truth, and I voted for what I thought was right!”
“What you thought was right!” sneered Newbold. “You voted that way just to get in with those Westcott fellows, that’s what you did it for. But you won’t succeed. No one respects a traitor, least of all those who use him!” ”

“ Billy turned to find John Smith at his side, occupying the place of the Harvard captain who had gone aft to his crew. President John’s eyes were fixed upon the Westcott boat in a hostile glare, his hands tightly gripping the rail, his face drawn with suppressed emotion.
“Make it up!” answered the unsympathetic Billy. “How are they going to make up two lengths against that crew? Why, the more they try to spurt, the worse they row! Number Three there is about all in now. You can see it yourself.” ”

“ He was quietly dressed, his necktie subdued, his trousers—Dunn might perhaps have noticed—not absolutely fresh from the tailor’s goose. But Deering was one for whom clothes could do little. Such bigness, honesty, cleanness, determination, and withal such fresh unconquerable strength of youth, no smart costume could adorn. In some manner he suggested Talbot—Talbot as he might be four years hence, when his body had reached its growth and the maturing influences of college life had tamed his explosive violence. ”

“ The autos of the unimprisoned idle slid by in endless succession, bearing their fortunate occupants whithersoever fancy called. The new green leaves on the trees in the Garden quivered soothingly over the groups of nurses and perambulators and playing children, and the poverty-blessed loafers slouching in unambitious contentment on the benches. And this beautiful day Newbury could enjoy, care-free, on the rocks at Cohasset, while the Westcott fellows were mewed up in a stuffy schoolroom, grinding out loathsome lessons. ”

“ He continued to slide downhill with careless content, finding specious excuses to present to teachers for classroom failures, and flattering himself that he was playing a grand rôle in the eyes of his mates as a jaunty, devil-may-care loafer.
The winter term in all schools is sacred to work. The boys at Westcott’s, under pressure at home and in school, on the whole did their full stint with faithfulness and good-will. ”

“ Hutchins had not succeeded in getting into college in spite of an extra year, and two long summers of arduous slaving; but he was the jolliest, best-hearted chap that Westcott’s had ever failed to make a scholar of, and he couldn’t open his mouth without being entertaining. Eaton had just reminded him of his historic attempt to prove to the coach by argument that he wasn’t feathering under, when two harsh toots of a steam whistle cut his explanations short and sobered all faces.
“Trowbridge!” exclaimed Eaton and Pete, in unison.
“What’s ours?” asked Hutchins, quietly. ”

“ As he lay there assuring himself that nothing could be the matter with his heart and that he should certainly be quite well by night, reviling himself for being such a fool as to fall ill on the eve of a race and vowing that he would row anyway, Dunn came softly in on new rubber-soled shoes. He was going to Cambridge to see the Harvard-Princeton game, but before he went he wanted to express his sympathy and offer consolation. Dunn did not use these trite expressions nor did he talk like a phrase book of etiquette, but he meant well and Roger understood him. ”

“ Two active old Westcottites from across the Charles personated Trowbridge tackles, and another guarded right end. Yards practiced his linesmen in breaking straight through, with a spring and a dart and a slap of the open hand against the opponent’s headguard; he forced them to make gripping tackles on the slippery dummy; he taught them how to master, not to kill, the men in front of them; he furnished practicable plays adapted to the powers of the team, and drilled the players in signals until obedience was automatic—but it was Sumner who prepared them for Ricker and the deceptive end runs. ”

“ Of course they always beat the crews that come to row them because the visitors are not used to rowing that way. It is like putting a half-miler to run a hundred yards with a sprinter. Well, our crew pulled an awfully snappy race and came within a quarter of a length of winning. They would have won, too, Rust said (the cox) , if Pitkin had not got rattled with the fast stroke and caught a crab and lost a good half-length. He was all in, too, at the finish, while Pete and Jim Eaton and Bursley felt as if they were just beginning to row. The Suffolk fellows always row themselves out. ”

“ To the Varsity men in the bow of the Veritas, the race for second crews seemed a tame affair. Westcott’s got a lead of half a length at the start, increased it to a whole one at the quarter, doubled this advantage during the next half mile, and added still another length in a pretty display-spurt beyond the bridge. Hoarse and happy, Mike brought his boat in to the float past a crowd of yelling, dancing friends who were putting to an extreme test the boasted stability of the old Spanish cutter. ”

“ When the pistol-shot rang forth, Newbury’s oar-blades were already in the water. As the stroke lengthened out, after a hundred yards, Newbury and Bainbridge were neck and neck, half a length ahead of Westcott’s, which was rowing a steady, smooth stroke which looked like an exhibition of skill, yet carried with it the united heave of four straining bodies.
“Those Westcott fellows aren’t bad,” said Deering, who stood beside reporter Billy and watched the struggling oarsmen with the eye of an expert. “They move well, catch together, and get their hands away quickly.” ”

“ They knew it was their last time, so Wilmot and Weld got Trask for cox and came out, all three smoking cigarettes with a great air of superiority and rowing about as they liked. They came down to where we were practicing racing starts with the second, above the Harvard bridge, and watched us. They were in very good spirits and jollied the two boats, sitting in attitudes of ease in the pair-oar in the warm sun, and occasionally rowing. ”