Wolcott

“ With a surreptitious glance at his watch, he fell into step beside Mr. Wolcott.
"Your quiet neighborhood has made itself rather notorious," he began, at a safe distance from his objective point. "I suppose you first learned of the murder through the papers this morning. Or did you hear the excitement last night?"
"I heard the grocer boy telling Eliza this morning," Mr. Wolcott answered. "I don't read the paper very much. My eyesight is all right,--my faculties are all as good as ever,--but they print the papers in such fine type nowadays, I don't care to read them." ”

“ Thus, in a word, you are now the only known human being to whom my measliest Scout can turn, and I earnestly urge that you continue to be as human as is Bostonly possible!
Dean Wolcott had made up his mind to leave Elmer Bunty in the best California outdoor school he could find—somewhere near Santa Barbara, perhaps, or in the Santa Cruz mountains—whichever climate was best for him, and at holiday time—but his mind refused to function coolly on plans for the future. That instant’s yielding of Ginger to his insistent arms—who could say where he would be himself at holiday time? ”

“ Brayton began to speak, and the formal phrase on Wolcott’s lips took flight.
“Yes, as players they may not—I say may not—have been the equals of the football heroes of to-day; but your heroes of to-day will have to be something more than football players to match the work some of these little fellows are doing now.” ”

“ A heartening person, Margaret Golinda; across a continent and an ocean, down the long corridor of the years, her house would always be “King’s X!” to Dean Wolcott.
They rode on together, the Ranger and the Scout on Snort and the Mabel horse with the Airedale plodding sturdily behind, and soon there was tangible evidence of the red demon in the distance. The boy was stout-heartedly ready for action and the young man considered him with warm and possessive pride. Air and exercise and good food had nourished his meager little body and comradely appreciation had fed his starved soul. ”

“ It seemed to Dean Wolcott as if he must walk on without pausing, past Golindas’, through the doctor’s camp, to Monterey, to San Francisco, bearing the small, broken body in his arms until he found the Scout Master, and said—“See, I have brought him back to you, Elmer Bunty, the boy you sent me, the one I ordered especially—to whom I could boast and brag of my woodcraft and wisdom. I said I would make a man of him. ”

“ THE CONCERT AT EASTHAM “Had a hot time at your class meeting, I understand,” said Tompkins, who was killing a quarter of an hour in Wolcott’s room. “I wish I’d been there. Which side were you on, the kickers or the kicked?”
“I voted for Butler,” replied Wolcott, with dignity.
“Oh, you belong to that bunch! What’s the matter with Laughlin? Isn’t he good enough for you?”
“He’s all right in his place. I don’t think he ought to be president of the class. He isn’t enough of a gentleman.”
“Oh, isn’t he? Who is, then? Marchmont?” ”

“ And Dean Wolcott perceived that there was before him a task of extreme delicacy which must wait for a less crowded hour. It was going to [243] be a difficult thing to save his Scout’s self-esteem alive for him, and to make his joy in the new world opening up before him outweigh his bleak sense of uselessness; the Ranger’s rage rose in him at the thought of Aunt Lizzie and Edna ... crossing the continent smugly in a tourist sleeper with food in a greasy shoebox and complacency in their hearts. ”

“ The exclamations which this interruption 189called forth in Whitely’s company, Wolcott did not notice.
“What are you up to with those fellows?” demanded Laughlin, earnestly.
“We’re going over to get a rise out of John Drown,” replied Wolcott, innocently.
“Who are they?”
“Oh, Whitely and Reeves, and Marchmont, I think, is with them. Want to come along?”
Laughlin laid his hand on Wolcott’s arm. “Wolcott, don’t do it. You’ll get into trouble or do something you’ll be everlastingly ashamed of when you wake up to-morrow. They aren’t out to-night on any good errand. Don’t go with them!” ”

“ Wolcott snapped back a single word. It was neither a pretty word nor a refined one; the mildest significance one could attach to it was that Wolcott was scarcely in sympathy with Ellis or anything that was his.
“The Prospect Union,” explained Haydock, in the deliberate way that was so often taken seriously, “is a most admirable educational institution, carried on in Cambridgeport by the Harvard undergraduate. It is elaborately designed to make the lower classes—the labouring man—dissatisfied with his station in life. ”

“ And while Wolcott trotted slowly away toward the Hillbury gymnasium, the trainer continued, as if his interruption needed excuse: “It’s risky for ’em to be hanging round in sweaty clothes after a game like that; but they will do it. You have to watch ’em all the time, if you want to keep ’em up to the mark. They’re boys, not men, and it’s sometimes pretty hard to make ’em take proper care of themselves.” ”

“ One of these persons was Sears’s eldest sister, another of them was Haydock.
Miss Wolcott was the sort of Boston girl that dresses like a penwiper, and becomes absorbed in associated charities after a second lugubrious season. In the patois of her locality, she was called a “pill;” a girl whom Harvard men carefully avoid until it is rumoured that her family shortly intends to “give something” in the paternal pill-box. Whereas, prior to her renunciation, dozens of Harvard men had been part of Miss Wolcott’s responsibility, her concern was now centred upon one, namely, her brother Sears. ”

“ His name was Harry Wolcott; he lived on the farm now owned by Gardner Rider on the Franklin road in Sidney and was a bachelor living with an invalid maiden sister. Whenever I met him his encouraging words were “stick doctor; you will finally succeed.” No one but he who is similarly situated can realize and appreciate the value of such a friend as he was. He held a high position in the community as an intelligent, thorough-going business man. ”

“ Wolcott grasped his arm.
“Dave!” he cried in despair, “you aren’t fit 293to play. Go off and let us finish the game. You aren’t yourself at all. Do what I say, please!”
But Laughlin snatched his arm away and turned toward the line.
Wolcott threw himself before him. “Answer me one question, and I won’t say another word. Where are you going to college, Harvard or Yale? Just answer me that.”
With stupid eyes Laughlin gazed into his friend’s face. “Harvard or Yale? Harvard or Yale?” ”

“ Wolcott came in contact{160} with men of many tastes at his clubs; but the club ideal was, after all, the placid, unimaginative ideal of fifteen or twenty pleasant young men with plenty of money, it was only too easy to live up to. Haydock had no misguided veneration for the Signet as a learned or even a very clever institution; an undergraduate literary society could hardly be one or the other. ”

“ When he came to the cleats, however, and the boards which were to cover the hole in the closet ceiling, the house resounded with the blows of the hammer. Laughlin was just fitting in his last board when Wolcott, turning round, saw Marchmont peering over his shoulder into the closet.
“What’s going on here?” demanded the newcomer, in the tone which might be used by a householder who had suddenly come upon unauthorized workmen busy on his premises. ”

“ Pending your father, General Wolcott's consent, I trust you are able to perceive the advantages of this match, for Captain Geoffrey Yorke is a son of Lord Herbert Yorke, and grandson of the Earl of Hardwicke. It is an exceptionally good offer, in my opinion, for any colonist, as in this country, alas, we have no rank. Moreover, Betty, when the war ends it will be wise to have some affiliation with the mother country, and by so doing be in a position to ask protection for your unhappy and misguided relatives who now bear arms against the King. ”

“ If anybody thinks I’m going to play a poor man in that game when I can get a good one, he’s mistaken. The best we can scare up may not be good enough to beat Hillbury.”
Wolcott smiled feebly. “Of course I’ll try it, but I don’t expect anything to come of it.”
That night he arranged by telephone for an interview with Dr. Brayton, and on Saturday took the early train for Boston. ”

“ As a matter of fact, Haydock liked Wolcott as he liked very few people. But even if one wasn’t fond of The Magnificent One, he thought, there were so many people all over the college who spent a generous portion of their time in cursing him,—men to whom “Sears Wolcott” was the eponym of snob, and purse-proud arrogance,—that in not sticking up for him, or, at least, in not knowing what was really fine in him, one missed a rare chance of judging by standards other{87} than those of Thomas, Richard, and Henry. Wolcott was a snob, of course ”

“ Oh, Ranger, can I?”
Dean Wolcott thought that perhaps the girl would speak—he remembered her hot convictions on the subject of captive wild things—but she did not; perhaps she was likewise thankful for this instant of shelter.
“You can put your rope around his neck and see how he takes it, Scout,” he said. “See if you can get him to drink, first of all. He’s too weak to run away, yet.” Then he turned back to Ginger. “Will you dismount?” ”

“ When at last the stethoscope went back into the drawer, Wolcott asked eagerly, “Am I the right man?”
But Dr. Brayton, instead of answering, started a series of questions as to how long he had played, what injuries he had received, whether he had gained or lost in weight during the season, how he felt at the present time, whether listless and tired, or elastic and eager for the game; whether the coach and trainer were capable 259and trustworthy men, what kind of a game was played at Seaton, and between Seaton and Hillbury ”

“ When one man’s got enough of me, they turn me over to another. Well, here goes! My work’s cut out for me this time all right.” 223And he went to his place with the spirit of battle burning like a fire within him.
There was fierce struggling that day between right guard on the first and left guard on the second. Wolcott early found that the methods used with success against Butler would not all serve against Laughlin. Sometimes the captain lifted him up and threw him over; sometimes he simply swept him back by his immense strength and weight. ”

“ That’s the trouble with a second eleven: as soon as you develop a good man, they steal him.”
“Well, they won’t steal me,” returned Wolcott, laughing. “I’m more useful to them where I am.”
On the next day there was a “shake-up” on the second. Milliken was put on the first, and Lindsay was transferred to left guard, opposite Laughlin.
“You see I was right,” he said to Durand, as the players shifted positions. “I’m the animated tackling dummy for the first to practise on. ”

“ I never expect to get beyond the second, anyway.”
Wolcott’s attention wandered in the recitation that afternoon, and he went to his room after dinner in distinctly low spirits. He had dreamed of making the eleven. Indifferently 214as he had spoken to Jackson, he could not deny that the hope had been in his heart daily for the last six months. All the labor and training of the summer had been undergone with this prize before his eyes. If Dave was disappointed in him, he was still more disappointed in himself; but in any case he must bear his fate like a man, not whine over it like a child. ”

“ He slipped, and struggled to catch himself, battled for an instant while Dean Wolcott sprang toward him, toppled over the edge of the slippery trail into the black cañon.
He screamed as he fell. It seemed to the young man that the long, thin scream of terror would never stop, but when it stopped suddenly, utterly, as if it had been turned off by machinery, it was worse.
“Scout! Oh, Scout! Are you all right? I’ll come after you, Scout! Scout! Can you call, so I can find you? Oh, Scout!”
The Airedale, whining, terrified, flung himself against him. “Find, Rusty! Find!” he said. [273] “Find Scout! ”

“ It was lift and smash, and smash and lift, regardless of time or distance. He did not know whether one touchdown had been made or four; whether he was doing well or ill: he merely played his man to the limit of his powers. And when the whistle finally sounded, and he gave a last look into Laughlin’s face before turning to hunt up Ware and his sweater, he noticed for the first time how the perspiration was pouring down the 224captain’s face and the big body shook with panting.
Wolcott went to bed that night at eight o’clock, completely tired out, but supremely content. ”

“ The poor tacklers go high, and the fumblers juggle the ball, and the linesmen get interested in their men and don’t watch the ball, and break for the wrong bunch. It’s about then that the new man who has got the elements so sure that he does them right automatically elbows the old player off the field.”
206“I think I’ve learned the elements,” said Wolcott, cautiously.
“Learn them over again, then,” returned Laughlin, “and keep learning them till you’d no more do them wrong than you’d walk backward over to recitation. It’s one thing to do a thing right when your mind is on it ”

“ Whose wit had yielded him so much delight."
Wolcott was a little restricted by a due re [Pg 152] gard for religion or social decorum. He reminds us of Sterne, often atoning for a transgression by a tender and elevated sentiment. The following from the "Tales of a Hoy," supposed to be told on a voyage from Margate gives a good specimen of his style—
Captain Noah. ”