Jesse Lynch Williams

“ He was a man of maturity and character, a staunch friend, a good fellow to go to for advice, "a decent enough sort of chap, to be sure, but"—well, for instance, they discovered that he had been silent and inscrutable at first not because thinking great mysterious thoughts, but because, as in the case of most "reserved" people, he couldn't talk. He had been somewhat abashed and ill at ease, at a loss to understand all this college custom and class spirit business which every one seemed to consider the most momentous things in life. ”

“ Professor Newton had edged his way into the centre of the crowd. He was followed by four special policemen from Trenton.
"Shall we arrest them, sir?" the sergeant asked.
"No, officer, spare them," cried Jeremiah Henderson. "They are only boys—it is merely what they call a leg pull." ”

“ On the way across the campus they smiled understandingly at seeing little groups of undergraduates talking and grinning. And if they saw Henderson hurrying by with his brows knit as if the safety of his young classmates and the honor of the university were resting upon his shoulders they laughed outright. ”

“ He had earned his own living—in fact, he had earned considerably more than his living in the four or five years he had seen life and known men as a contractor in Tucson, Arizona; and he came East to buy a college education with it. This is undoubtedly a respectable way of spending one's savings, and he was duly respected for it by his young classmates; but he had not seen much of the campus world, naturally, and his knowledge of "college men" was vastly inferior to that of the mere boys who entered with him. So Jeremiah Henderson was taught a great deal not mentioned in the annual catalogue. ”

“ But time and familiarity gradually wore off all the imagined things, and, as with all heroes when seen within touching distance and without the glass of romance, he was found to be about as full of human nature as the rest of us. ”

“ But the pall-bearers did not join in. They had found Lengthy Ferris, and were demanding an explanation. "Oh, don't get so hot," said Ferris, grinning; "it isn't so much fun to pull one leg as it is to pull several hundred. The old man got on to me the time he stuck me. And we thought it was a shame to spoil the fun for the whole college. You fellows will feel better to-morrow."
I may add, however, that Jeremiah profited by the hint contained in their attempt upon him, so that it was just as well, perhaps, that it happened as it did. But it annoyed Preston Brown to be called "the corpse." ”

“ LEG PULL
Jeremiah Henderson came to college late in life, and was vastly superior in knowledge of the world to the mere boys who made up the bulk of his class-roll. He "knew men." He had "seen life." ”

“ Jeremiah had organized a relief expedition to return the corpse to its resting-place. The question was how to get it.
VI
The next afternoon the gang happened, by design, to be sitting under a tree by Jeremiah's open window.
Preston Brown was saying, in a voice almost trembling with emotion: "Fellows, I tell you there's no use trying to bluff it out any longer. We can't do it! As the old man says, the loss will be discovered by the widow sooner or later; then there will be the deuce to pay! I don't want to end my college course in prison." ”

“ But he told Reddy that he had 'a friend on the Faculty to whom he could go like a brother——'"
"Yes," said Preston Brown, "he meant Newton, the new art professor. I saw the old man talking earnestly to him to-day, standing there beside one of those papier-mâché Apollos that the fool Freshmen are always stealing—heard him say: 'They are only boys ”