Clarence Young

“ The day before the first of the Kenwell-Boxwood games Ned, Bob, Jerry and the other members of the scrub nine, played the Kenwell scrub, and beat them ten to five on the military academy grounds.
“Now let the varsity duplicate and we’ll say we’ve got a good team,” declared Tom Bacon.
“Oh, we’ll win; don’t worry!” prophesied Frank.
A big crowd of Boxwood Hall rooters went to Kenwell to see the first of the three contests. A big auto-stage conveyed the team, and in the automobile of our heroes as many of the scrubs as could find room went along to cheer for their team. ”

“ Blank looks replaced those of pleasant anticipation on the faces of Ned, Bob and Jerry. Slowly they glanced at one another, then Ned burst out with:
“Say, Dad, that’s all wrong! Don’t be so hard on us. If we have to go to college the best one in the world for us will be Boxwood Hall, because we’ll have such a good friend in Professor Snodgrass.” ”

“ Up and down the lake sailed the Petrel, and as the sun was declining, Bob called to Jerry:
“Head her down to Simpson’s and we’ll have something to eat.”
“That listens good,” laughed Bart.
“Oh, eating is my strong point!” Chunky confessed.
The ice-boat was skimming down the lake, when there suddenly sounded a boom like the report of a cannon.
“What was that?” called Ned.
“The ice cracked,” Jerry answered. “It often does that after a thaw. I guess——”
“Look out!” yelled Bill. “There’s open water just ahead!” ”

“ For an instant Bob, Ned and Jerry shrank back as they felt hot irons brought near their faces. There was a tingling sensation, and then a burning and itching. Jerry knew what had happened.
A warm iron had been brought near them that [127] they might feel the heat. Then they were touched with a piece of ice, and some cow-itch rubbed on them. Cow-itch is a powder which stings like nettles, and is painful while it lasts. The more one rubs it the worse it burns.
“Keep your hands away from it,” advised Jerry in a low voice to his chums. ”

“ Did you really go up in an airship and down in a submarine, the way Professor Snodgrass tells?”
“Why, yes, we did,” said Ned. “But that’s nothing. Any one could have done the same things we did.”
“Say, you sure have seen life!” exclaimed Ted admiringly. “But I guess that’s all that ails Frank. He thought you might try to lord it over us here, I guess.”
“He’s away off!” declared Jerry.
“I can see he is,” admitted Ted. “But, as I told you, Frank is headstrong. Once he gets a notion it’s hard to get it out of him.” ”

“ Baker had each expressed the idea that their sons were in need of a little taming down, “I feel about it as you do. I wish Jerry were not quite so lively and fond of such exciting adventures. But now we have arrived at that decision, what’s to be done?”
[18]
“The very question I asked!” exclaimed Mr. Slade.
“Send ’em to college!” proposed Mr. Baker, after a moment’s thought. “A good, strict, up-to-date college is the place for them. They’d have to buckle down to hard work, but there would be enough of athletic sport to give them an outlet for their energies. Send the boys to college! ”

“ Jerry said. “Let Chunky alone, Ned. He’s all right, even if he does eat five times a day.”
“Now you’re picking on me!” laughed Bob. “Well, go as far as you like, I can stand it if you can.”
“Say, I’ll tell you what we might do,” cried Ned, as he and his chums got into their car for a spin out into the country, as it was a day or so yet before they would depart for Boxwood Hall.
“What?” asked Jerry.
“We might write to Professor Snodgrass, and ask him what sort of duds the fellows wear there. Then we’d know what to get and save doubling up.” ”

“ The fathers of Ned Slade and Bob Baker, and the mother of Jerry Hopkins, in consultation one day, decided that the young men were getting a bit too wild and frivolous.
“It is time they settled down,” said their parents, “and began to think of growing up. Let’s send them to college!”
And to the college of Boxwood Hall our heroes were sent. It was a surprise to them, but it turned out to be a delightful surprise, and one of the reasons was that their old friend, Professor Snodgrass, now an enthusiastic collector of butterflies, was an instructor at Boxwood. ”

“ Some of the Boxwood Hall boys, especially those who liked Jerry and his chums, and who did not have much use for the high-handed methods of Frank Watson, added their voices to the din.
“Better put ’em in,” suggested Bart, nodding toward our heroes, who, in their uniforms, sat on the scrub bench, not a little embarrassed by the attention they were attracting.
“You mind your own——” began Frank angrily, when Oscar Durand, the captain of the Kenwell team, stepped forward.
“Say,” he remarked in his slow, good-natured drawl, “go on and put in all the new men you want to. We don’t care. ”

“ This was when George had been taken out for a motor boat ride.
“The Bang-Ups?” asked Ned. “Is that something good to eat?”
“It’s a secret fraternal society,” answered George, looking carefully about to make sure he was not overheard. “It’s the most exclusive in the college, but freshmen are eligible when voted in. I’ll propose you if you like.”
“Sure, we’d like it!” declared Bob.
“There’s one thing, though,” went on George. “The initiation is a pretty stiff one. Lots of the fellows get hurt—not badly, of course, but some.”
“You can’t scare us that way,” laughed Jerry. ”

“ I’m captain of the eleven, and I want to know if you play football?”
“We haven’t in some time,” admitted Ned.
Ted Newton shook his head.
“Then there’s no use putting you in at this stage,” he said. “I’m sorry, too, for you look husky. I need some experienced players. I’ve got enough candidates in the beginner’s class. Well, it can’t be helped. You know here we let freshmen play on the varsity.”
“So we’ve heard,” replied Jerry.
“We play baseball,” said Bob.
“That’s out of my line,” Ted replied. “I play a little, but Frank Watson is captain of the nine.”
“Frank Watson!” exclaimed Jerry. ”

“ The academy brought in five runs that inning and it looked to be all up with Boxwood Hall.
And then the rooters took a hand.
“Get a pitcher!”
“Put somebody in without a glass arm!”
“Get a new man on first!”
“Where’d that short stop learn to play ball?”
“Frank, you’ve got to do something!” cried Bart to his chum when Kenwell was finally put out.
“What can I do? The team’s playing rotten.”
“I know. But put in some fellows who can play. There’s Hopkins, Slade and Baker. You know they can play. They may pull us out of the hole and we might win with Ned’s pitching. Put ’em in!” ”

“ Not that you have done anything wrong or improper, but you haven’t done exactly what is right, either. You are getting on in years, in fact you are young men now, and boys no longer, so it is time you acted like young men.”
“If that race just now——” broke in Ned.
“Oh, it isn’t altogether that!” his father made haste to say. “That is only one straw that shows which way the wind is blowing. You are entirely too frivolous, and when I say that I include you, Jerry, and you, Bob, with the permission of your parents.”
“Yes, I agreed with Mr. Slade,” murmured Mrs. Hopkins. ”

“ 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!” ”

“ No one has brought a cow, or even a goat, into a class room.”
“I was a goat in French to-day,” declared Ned. “I couldn’t get a single verb right. But go on.”
“Merely this,” said Jerry. “Let’s do something.”
“What?” asked Bob.
“You know the Boxwood picture that hangs in chapel; don’t you?”
“That big oil portrait of Ebenezer Boxwood, founder of the college?” Ned inquired.
“Yes,” nodded Jerry. “That’s the sacred cow I refer to. Now what is the reason we can’t take that picture and hang it where all who wish may admire it? Say hoist it up on the flagpole, where it can be seen. ”

“ But in spite of this Ned, Bob and Jerry were finding life at Boxwood Hall very much to their liking. It is true they had enemies, principally those of Frank’s set, and they had rivals, as might be expected. But they also made many friends. What boys would not who were as manly and as jolly as the Cresville chums, and who had, moreover, a fine car and a motor boat? ”

“ We have not quite made up our minds which one to choose. We want you all to go to the same one.”
“I should say, yes!” cried Jerry.
“We don’t want to be impertinent,” added Ned, “but we couldn’t think of going to separate colleges. We must be together.”
“Sure!” echoed Bob.
“Well, we are very glad we can give in to you on that point,” said Mr. Slade, smiling.
“Now we will proceed to the further discussion, which you interrupted with your strenuous foot race,” said Mr. Baker, “and we will let you help us decide which college you will attend. ”

“ Seldom before had there been such a baseball [244] team at Boxwood. Ned, Bob and Jerry seemed to fit right in the places of the lads who were deposed, at least temporarily, to make room for them. And the best of it was that there was no ill feeling. The lads who were not allowed to play rooted just as hard for the team as before.
Kenwell, it was said, was strengthening her nine, and the final game was likely to prove an exciting and hard one. Meanwhile, the talk of the college, when it was not about baseball, was about the reconciliation between Frank Watson and the chums. ”

“ Hopkins thoughtfully. “The boys have a pretty good education as it is from the Academy and from their private studies, but of late they have been allowed to run a little too freely. I should say college would be the best thing in the world for them. Some difficult studies would give their too active brains something more than adventures to feed on, and I have faith enough in the boys to be sure they would strive to do well—to excel in their studies as they have excelled in quests, races and other things in which they have taken part.” ”