Arthur Stanwood Pier

“ Ruth said. “I can see Lester play, and I can sit and talk with you. It will all be such fun. I’ve never seen a Harvard-Yale game. How nice of your mother to ask me down for it! And what luck to have such a heavenly day! Oh, David, I know I’m going to have the best time of my whole life!”
“If we lick Yale,” said David.
“I suppose that will be necessary. But I feel we shall; I feel that nothing will happen to spoil the good time that I’m going to have.”
On the way to Cambridge David tried to tell her about Lester—his brilliancy, his popularity, his magnificent success. ”

“ But after he had exchanged a few words with each of them, it was to Ruth that he turned and with Ruth that he talked, even though he intentionally allowed the magic of his smile and the glamour of his glance [217] to shine for other admiring eyes. He could not stop long; that evening the team were to dine together and celebrate their victory. But he would be round the next day with a motor car—if Ruth would go to drive with him?
Katharine Vance had been watching David perhaps no less than she had been observing Lester. She had noticed that his eyes were turned most of the time toward Ruth. ”

“ Yet, although David made all the excuses for Lester’s action that were possible and enlarged upon his penitence, Richard’s condemnation remained unqualified. There was in him an inherited strain of inflexibility in judging deviations from standards of integrity and truth.
“He simply did a thing that an honorable fellow wouldn’t have done,” insisted Richard. “And then he lied about it. He didn’t own up to it until he was cornered and couldn’t lie any longer. I don’t doubt that he’s sorry and all that; but when you can’t respect a fellow any more, what are you to do?” ”

“ In all the throng no one’s face was brighter, happier, more expectant than Ruth’s. And no one’s face was prettier, thought David.
She was too much excited to talk, except in exclamations, too much excited after they took their seats in the Stadium and looked down upon the empty field and across at the bank of spectators who were cheering for Yale and waving blue flags. ”

“ They ascended the stairs of the dormitory in silence. David threw open the door of his room, and Lester entered. Then David closed and locked the door. “Sit down, old man.” He looked at Lester for the first time and saw how ashen white he was, and pity overflowed in David’s heart. “Why, you poor old boy,” he said and put his arm affectionately inside Lester’s arm, “sit down and don’t look like that.”
Then Lester tried to smile, but failed utterly. Tears sprang into his eyes and began to run down his cheeks. “David,” he cried, “I’m ashamed, so ashamed! I hate myself!” ”

“ In David’s eyes she radiated charm and happiness and good will, and her least utterance sounded musical to his ears. He was sure that she must inevitably win the heart of every man and woman that she met. There was no question but that she won his mother’s. At luncheon Mrs. Ives beamed over the good report that Ruth brought about Ralph. He was such a nice boy; every one at St. Timothy’s liked him. Mr. Dean questioned her eagerly about the masters and the life at the school. She gave him lively answers filled with gay anecdotes. ”

“ All the preliminary cheering and singing, the figures of the bareheaded cheer leaders leaping about in front of the sections, brandishing megaphones and making every movement of arm and leg and body in a kind of fanatical, frenzied unison, one with another—all before a single athlete had put in an appearance—did not strike either Ruth or David as ridiculous. ”

“ THE RETURN The day of the 20th of November was one that David never forgot—a raw, windy, overcast day, somber and threatening. And yet it began happily enough. All through the school there ran a livelier current of interest and excitement, a keener thrill of expectancy, for in the afternoon the first elevens of the Pythians and the Corinthians were to meet in their championship encounter. ”

“ Dr. Wallace laughed. “I’m very glad to have met you; I wish you the best of success.” He shook hands again with David and again with David’s father, then stepped briskly into his limousine and was whirled away.
“That was a stroke of luck,” remarked Dr. Ives. “Now you won’t be going to St. Timothy’s as if you didn’t know anybody. Young Wallace will be friendly with you and help you to get started right.”
David accepted this as probable. He asked if Dr. Wallace was really so very remarkable as a surgeon.
“Oh, yes; he’s the ablest man we have,” replied Dr. Ives. ”

“ At the end Professor Worthington said: “That is the kind of theme I should like to get more often than I do. It deals with a subject that is of undergraduate interest and one on which you must all have done some thinking and talking. The reader feels that it is written with a certain authority, that the writer, either from his close observation of athletics or participation in them, knows what he’s talking about. The first requisite to writing well about a thing is to know the subject thoroughly. There is no doubt that the writer of this theme knows athletics thoroughly.” ”

“ David would go to the desk at the end of the hour and tell Professor Worthington that he was the author of the theme. Expulsion from college was the penalty for cheating in examinations; expulsion from college was probably the penalty for stealing another fellow’s theme. To be expelled for any misdeed was bad enough, but to be expelled for cheating and theft—what could be more terrible! Lester felt that his mother and his father could not bear it; he could not go home to them branded in such a way by the college. He must somehow keep David from telling Professor Worthington about that theme. ”

“ Ralph and David retraced their steps. Neither of them spoke for some time.
“You won’t tell any one,” David said.
“No, of course not.” Ralph’s tone was indignant. Then the schoolboy in him found expression. “Blatch and Manners will be all broken up. I bet they soak it to the fellows in Latin and mathematics when they learn. They’ll just have to take it out on somebody.”
“You don’t sound very sympathetic with them.”
“Well, it seems ridiculous to think of them or anybody else imagining that they had a chance when there was Wallace!”
“Yes,” said David, “it does seem ridiculous.” ”

“ He and Monroe practiced together daily and became proficient in feats of ground and lofty tumbling. David, going into the gymnasium one afternoon, was much impressed by the quickness, sureness, and rhythm of their performance—somersaulting over each other, snapping each other up from the mat, giving each other a hand at just the right moment. “Pretty slick,” was David’s admiring comment. “You make a great team.” ”

“ And for some time I wondered if it were altogether wise or fair to David to put him into a school where, financially, anyway, he would be at a disadvantage.”
“It all depends upon the boy,” said Mr. Dean. “Not all our boys are rich—though most of them are. The spirit of the place is to take a fellow for what he is. If your boy is the sort who is simple and straightforward—as I have no doubt he is—he has nothing to fear from association with the sons of the rich. Is he an athlete?”
“He runs—he’s a pretty good quarter-miler. And he plays baseball. ”

“ Although he was regarded as the most brilliant player on the varsity football team, he had not been elected captain. He talked about it freely with David, who felt that the prize should have been awarded to him.
“They think I’m not steady enough to be captain,” said Lester. “I’m not saying Farrar isn’t a better man for the job, but I don’t see why they think I’m unsteady. I’ve never yet in any big game lost my head or my nerve.”
“It isn’t that they think you’re unsteady,” David explained, “but that they have an idea you’re too temperamental; it’s a part of being brilliant. ”

“ After the Ivy orator had finished, Jim Farrar, the first marshal, led the cheering—for the president of the university, for the faculty, for the football team, the crew, the nine. Lester Wallace was in New Haven with the nine, battling against Yale at that very hour. The last and most appreciated cheer was for the ladies; when the applause occasioned by it had died away, the band struck up “Fair Harvard,” and the spectators rose and joined with seniors and graduates in the singing. ”

“ Biology was not a parlor subject; chemistry made the hands unattractive; physics was a thing in which no girl was ever interested. Now Lester Wallace—there was a fellow who could prattle like a man of parts! He knew how to talk to such a girl as Marion.
Nevertheless Lester was frank in commenting upon her to David. “She’s a nice girl, but awfully high-brow and intense. It’s a great strain for one who has just what you might call a quick intelligence.” ”

“ It hurt her terribly. But she believes in me in spite of all. She feels sure I can never be so weak again. You and she have been as splendid to me as any two human beings could be—far more so than I deserved.”
“She’s a brick,” said David. “And you don’t need to worry about the need of making a good showing in the game to-morrow. You’ll do that, anyway; but you could strike out every time you came to bat, and it couldn’t affect Ruth’s feelings for you in the least.”
“It mightn’t, except that she realizes I have a special responsibility to the college and the class, after what I did. ”

“ Dean, “I’ve had a good opportunity to note the careers of those who have passed through the school. And, generally speaking, those after lives have been most creditable have been the boys who while they were at school received from their fathers the most careful, sane, and intelligent interest—not those whose fathers felt that boarding-school had taken a problem off their hands. A good many fathers do feel that. It’s an extraordinary thing, the number of intelligent, successful, wide-awake Americans who do not seem to realize the importance of holding standards always before their sons.” ”

“ David himself was captain of his class eleven; he was not regarded as too temperamental. Nearly every day after he had put his team through their drill he would watch the last few minutes of the varsity eleven’s practice; he would follow Lester’s work with special interest. Lester was a picturesque player; he scorned the protection of a head guard, and his fair hair shone even in the feeble November light and made him recognizable for spectators who could not identify helmeted players. He was the fleetest of all the backs; there was no one who was his peer for running in a broken field ”

“ Richard suspected him of some queer work about David’s theme; that was evident. And probably Richard would go to [243] David and tell him of the discovery that he had made. Then there would have to be more lying, and in spite of it the suspicion would probably remain. And if David chose to reproduce the theme and hand it in, no further lying would avail. Lester would be convicted in spite of all his denials.
“If I had ever dreamed of what I was letting myself in for, I never would have done it,” he thought. “Nothing but one lie after another, getting in deeper all the time! ”

“ Overcome by the responsibility; yes, that was it, David knew, and he knew that Lester would interpret his failure in this game as another manifestation of incurable weakness. Of course Ruth would not so regard it, but David found himself concerned now with Lester’s own soul and the damage that would be done to it should that self-confidence which had been already so shaken be destroyed.
When Harvard came to bat in the last half of the ninth inning, Yale was leading by a score of 6 to 3. People were already leaving the stands, and moving languidly toward the gate, admitting defeat. ”

“ Ives suggested, “that the very successful and active men are too busy.”
Mr. Dean shook his head. “I don’t think it’s that. A physician like yourself is probably much more busy and active than many of those eager, money-making men. No; the trouble with them is their egotism and ambition. They feel that their offspring derived importance and distinction from them, and they expect vaingloriously to shine in light reflected from their offspring. ”

“ Ives, “I want my boys to have the best there is—and to be the best there are. From all that I can ascertain, St. Timothy’s is one of the best schools in the country. David already knows what he wants to be. He feels that he has a bent for surgery; he means to make that his profession. I should be glad to have him model his career on that of the best surgeon I know—Dr. Wallace. As far as I can I mean to give him every opportunity that Wallace had. Wallace went to [9] St. Timothy’s School, and to Harvard College, and to the Harvard Medical School. So shall David.” ”

“ Two days later, as David and Monroe were passing after breakfast from the dining-room into the outer hall, Henshaw thrust his way up to them.
“Ives,” he said, “we’ve all got mighty sick of that necktie. Is it the only one you have?”
“Oh, shut up, Hube!” It was Wallace, at Henshaw’s side, who spoke; even in the stupefaction of his anger David saw that on Wallace’s face a look of concern was overspreading its habitual good nature; Wallace was plucking at his cousin’s sleeve. “Shut up, Hube; you make me tired!” ”

“ It hurt him to find that Lester was reckoning his success in athletics as a business asset on which to realize later.
“You’ve given up all idea of studying medicine?” David asked.
“Yes. I’m tired of study and examinations. I want to get to work and make a pile of money. I feel I can do it, too, and I don’t feel I could ever do it being a doctor. Besides, as I said, a varsity football record that’s really good will give a man a great start in business, and I might as well take advantage of it. ”