Produced by David Edwards, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) STOVER AT YALE By Owen Johnson _Lawrenceville Stories_ THE PRODIGIOUS HICKEY THE VARMINT THE TENNESSEE SHAD SKIPPY BEDELLE STOVER AT YALE THE WASTED GENERATION BLUE BLOOD CHILDREN OF DIVORCE [Illustration: "TOGETHER THEY WENT CHOKING THROUGH THE CROWD"--_Page 137._] STOVER AT YALE BY OWEN JOHNSON AUTHOR OF "THE VARMINT," "THE TENNESSEE SHAD," ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. R. GRUGER [Illustration: Logo] BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1931 _Copyright, 1911, by_ THE S. S. MCCLURE CO. _Copyright, 1911, 1912, by_ THE MCCLURE PUBLICATIONS, INC. _Copyright, 1912,_ BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_ PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ILLUSTRATIONS "Together they went choking through the crowd" _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE "'Hello,' said Rogers' quiet voice. 'Well, what do _you_ want?'" 20 "'I come not to stultify myself in the fumes of liquor, but to do you good'" 90 "The period of duns set in, and the house became a place of mystery and signals" 202 "Oh, father and mother pay all the bills, and we have all the fun" 230 "'Life's real to those fellows; they're fighting for something'" 254 "Regan was his one friend" 286 "'Curse the man who invented fish-house punch'" 292 STOVER AT YALE CHAPTER I Dink Stover, freshman, chose his seat in the afternoon express that would soon be rushing him to New Haven and his first glimpse of Yale University. He leisurely divested himself of his trim overcoat, folding it in exact creases and laying it gingerly across the back of his seat; stowed his traveling-bag; smoothed his hair with a masked movement of his gloved hand; pulled down a buckskin vest, opening the lower button; removed his gloves and folded them in his breast pocket, while with the same gesture a careful forefinger, unperceived, assured itself that his lilac silk necktie was in snug contact with the high collar whose points, painfully but in perfect style, attacked his chin. Then, settling, not flopping, down, he completed his preparations for the journey by raising the sharp crease of the trousers one inch over each knee--a legendary precaution which in youth is believed to prevent vulgar bagging. Each movement was executed without haste or embarrassment, but leisurely, with the deliberate _savoir-faire_ of the complete man of the world he had become at the terrific age of eighteen. In front of him spasmodic freshmen arrived, struggling from their overcoats in embarrassed plunges that threatened to leave them publicly in their shirt sleeves. That they imputed to him the superior dignity of an upper classman was pleasurably evident to Stover from their covert respectful glances. He himself felt conscious of a dividing-line. He, too, was a freshman, and yet not of them. He had just ended three years at Lawrenceville, where from a ridiculous beginning he had fought his way to the captaincy of the football eleven and the vice-presidency of the school. He had been the big man in a big school, and the sovereign responsibilities of that anointed position had been, of course, such that he no longer felt himself a free agent. He had been of the chosen, and not all at once could he divest himself of the idea that his slightest action had a certain public importance. His walk had been studiously imitated by twenty shuffling striplings. His hair, parted on the side, had caused a revolution among the brushes and stirred up innumerable indignant cowlicks. His tricks of speech, his favorite exclamations, had become at once lip-currency. At that time golf and golf-trousers were things of unthinkable daring. He had given his approval, appeared in the baggy breeches, and at once the ban on bloomers had been lifted and the Circle had swarmed with the grotesqueries of variegated legs for the first time boldly revealed. He had stood between the school and its tyrants. He had arrayed himself in circumstantial attire--boiled shirt, high collar, and carefully dusted derby--and appeared before the faculty with solemn, responsible face no less than three separate times, to voice the protest of four hundred future American citizens: first, at the insidious and alarming repetition of an abhorrent article of winter food known as scrag-birds and sinkers; second, to urge the overwhelming necessity of a second sleighing holiday; and, third and most important, firmly to assure the powers that be that the school viewed with indignation and would resist to despair the sudden increase of the already staggering burden of the curriculum. The middle-aged faculty had listened gravely to the grave expounder of such grave demands, had promised reform and regulation in the matter of the sinkers, granted the holiday, and insufficiently modified the brutal attempt at injecting into the uneager youthful mind a little more of the inconsequential customs of the Greeks and Romans. The Doctor had honored him with his confidence, consulted him on several intimate matters of school discipline--in fact, most undoubtedly had rather leaned upon him. As he looked back upon the last year at Lawrenceville, he could not help feeling a certain wholesome, pleasant satisfaction. He had held up an honest standard, he had played hard but square, disdained petty offenses, seen to the rigorous bringing up of the younger boys, and, as men of property must lend their support to the church, he had even publicly advised a moderate attention to the long classic route which leads to college. He had been the big man in the big school; what new opportunity lay before him? In the seat ahead two of his class were exchanging delighted conjectures, and their conversation, coming to his ears clearly through the entangled murmur of the car, began to interest him. "I say, Schley, you were Hotchkiss, weren't you?" "Eight mortal years." "Got a good crowd?" "No wonder-workers, but a couple of good men for the line. What's your Andover crowd like?" "We had a daisy bunch, but some of the pearls have been side-tracked to Princeton and Harvard." "Bought up, eh?" "Sure," said the speaker, with the profoundest conviction. "Big chance, McNab, for the eleven this year," said Schley, in a thin, anemic, authoritative sort of way. "Play football yourself?" "Sure--if any one will kick me," said McNab, who in fact had a sort of roly-poly resemblance to the necessary pigskin. "Lord, I'm no strength-breaker. I'm a funny man, side-splitting joker, regular cut-up--didos and all that sort of thing. What are you out for?" "A good time first, last, and always." "Am I? Just ask me!" said McNab explosively; and in a justly aggrieved tone he added: "Lord, haven't I slaved like a mule ten years to get there! I don't know how long it'll last, but while it does it will be a lulu!" "My old dad gave me a moral lecture." "Sure. Opportunity--character--beauty of the classics--hope to be proud of my son--you're a man now--" "That's it." "Sure thing. Lord, we'll be doing the same twenty-five years from now," said McNab, who thus logically and to his own satisfaction disposed of this fallacy. He added generously, however, with a wave of his hand: "A father ought to talk that way--the right thing--wouldn't care a flip of a mule's tail for my dad if he didn't. And say, by gravy, he sort of got me, too--damned impressive!" "Really?" "Honor bright." A flicker of reminiscent convictions passed over McNab's frolicking face. "Yes, and I made a lot of resolutions, too--good resolutions." "Come off!" "Well, that was day before yesterday." The train started with a sudden crunching. A curious, excited thrill possessed Stover. He had embarked, and the quick plunge into the darkness of the long tunnel had, to his keenly sentimental imagination, something of the dark transition from one world into another. Behind was the known and the accomplished; ahead the coming of man's estate and man's freedom. He was his own master at last, free to go and to come, free to venture and to experience, free to know that strange, guarded mystery--life--and free, knowing it, to choose from among it many ways. And yet, he felt no lack of preparation. Looking back, he could honestly say to himself that where a year ago he had seen darkly now all was clear. He had found himself. He had gambled. He had consumed surreptitiously at midnight a sufficient quantity of sickening beer. He had consorted with men of uncontrollable passions and gone his steady path. He had loved, hopelessly, madly, with all the intensity and honesty of which he was capable, a woman--a slightly older woman--who had played with the fragile wings of his boy's illusion and left them wounded; he had fought down that weakness and learned to look on a soft cheek and challenging eye with the calm, amused control of a man, who invincibly henceforth would cast his life among men. There was not much knowledge of life, if any, that could come to him. He did not proclaim it, but quietly, as a great conviction, heritage of sorrow and smashing disillusionments, he knew it was so. He knew it all--he was a man; and this would give him an advantage among his younger fellows in the free struggle for leadership that was now opening to his joyful combative nature. "It'll be a good fight, and I'll win," he said to himself, and his crossed arms tightened with a quick, savage contraction, as if the idea were something that could be pursued, tackled, and thrown headlong to the ground. "There's a couple of fellows from Lawrenceville coming up," said a voice from a seat behind him. "McCarthy and Stover, they say, are quite wonders." "I've heard of Stover; end, wasn't he?" "Yes; and the team's going to need ends badly." It was the first time he had heard his name published abroad. He sat erect, drawing up one knee and locking his hands over it in a strained clasp. Suddenly the swimming vista of the smoky cars disappeared, rolling up into the tense, crowded, banked arena, with white splotches of human faces, climbing like daisy fields that moved restlessly, nervously stirred by the same expectant tensity with which he stood on the open field waiting for his chance to come. "I like a fight--a good fight," he said to himself, drawing in his breath; and the wish seemed but a simple one, the call for the joyful shock of bodies in fair combat. And life was nothing else--a battle in the open where courage and a thinking mind must win. "I'll bet we get a lot of fruits," said Schley's rather calculating voice. "Oh, some of them aren't half bad." "Think so?" "I say, what do you know about this society game?" "Look out." "What's matter?" "You chump, you never know who's around you." As he spoke, Schley sent an uneasy glance back toward Stover, and, dropping his voice, continued: "You don't talk about such things." "Well, I'm not shouting it out," said McNab, who looked at his more sophisticated companion with a little growing antagonism. "What are you scared about?" "It's the class ahead of you that counts," said Schley hurriedly, "the sophomore and senior societies; the junior fraternities don't count; if you're in a sophomore you always go into them." "Never heard of the sophomore societies," said McNab, in a maliciously higher tone. "Elucidate somewhat." "There are three: Hé Boulé, Eta Phi, and Kappa Psi," said Schley, with another uneasy, squirming glance back at Stover. "They're secret as the deuce; seventeen men in each--make one and you're in line for a senior." "How the deuce did you get on to all this?" "Oh, I've been coached up." Something in the nascent sophistication of Schley displeased Stover. He ceased to listen, occupying himself with an interested examination of the figures who passed from time to time in the aisle, in search of returning friends. The type was clearly defined; alert, clean-cut, self-confident, dressed on certain general divisions, affecting the same style of correct hat and collar, with, as distinguishing features, a certain boyish exuberance and a distinct nervous energy. At this moment an abrupt resonant voice said at his side: "Got a bit of room left beside you?" Stover shifted his coat, saying: "Certainly; come on in." He saw a man of twenty-two or -three, with the head and shoulders of a bison, sandy hair, with a clear, blue, steady glance, heavy hands, and a face already set in the mold of stern purpose. He stood a moment, holding a decrepit handbag stuffed to the danger point, hesitating whether to stow it in the rack above, and then said: "Guess I won't risk it. That's my trunk. I'll tuck it in here." He settled in the vacant seat, saying: "What are you--an upper classman?" Something like a spasm passed over the well-ironed shoulders of Schley in front. "No, I'm not," said Stover, and, extending his hand, he said: "I guess we're classmates. My name's Stover." "My name's Regan--Tom Regan. Glad to know you. I'm sorry you're not an upper classman, though." "Why so?" said Stover. "I wanted to get a few pointers," said Regan, in a matter-of-fact way. "I'm working my way through and I want to know the ropes." "I wish I knew," said Stover, with instinctive liking for the blunt elemental force beside him. "What are you going to try?" "Anything--waiting, to start in with." He gave him a quick glance. "That's not your trouble, is it?" "No." "It's a glorious feeling, to be going up, I tell you," said Regan, with a sudden lighting up of his rugged features. "Can hardly believe it. I've been up against those infernal examinations six times, and I'd have gone up against them six more but I'd down them." "Where did you come from?" "Pretty much everywhere. Des Moines, Iowa, at the last." "It's a pretty fine college," said Stover, with a new thrill. "It's a college where you stand on your own feet, all square to the wind," said Regan, with conviction. "That's what got me. It's worth everything to get here." "You're right." "I wonder if I could get hold of some upper classman," said Regan uneasily. That this natural desire should be the most unnatural in the world was already clear to Stover; only, somehow, he did not like to look into Regan's eyes and make him understand. "How are you, Stover? Glad to see you." Dink, looking up, beheld the erect figure and well-mannered carriage of Le Baron, a sophomore, already a leader of his class, whom he had met during the summer. In the clean-cut features and naturally modulated voice there was a certain finely aristocratic quality that won rather than provoked. Stover was on his feet at once, a little embarrassed despite himself, answering hurriedly the questions addressed to him. "Get your room over in York Street? Good. You're in a good crowd. You look a little heavier. In good shape? Your class will have to help us out on the eleven this year." Stover introduced Regan. Le Baron at once was sympathetic, gave many hints, recommended certain people to see, and smilingly offered his services. "Come around any time; I'll put you in touch with several men that will be of use to you. Get out for the team right off--that'll make you friends." Then, turning to Stover, he added, with just a shade of difference in his tone: "I was looking for you particularly. I want you to dine with me to-night. I'll be around about seven. Awfully glad you're here. At seven." He passed on, giving his hand to the right and left. Stover felt as if he had received the accolade. Schley ahead was squirmingly impressed; one or two heads across the aisle turned in his direction, wondering who could be the freshman whom Le Baron so particularly took under his protection. "Isn't he a king?" he said enthusiastically to Regan, with just a pardonable pleasure in his exuberance. "He made the crew last year--probably be captain; subtackle on the eleven. I played against him two years ago when he was at Andover. Isn't he a king, though!" "I don't know," said Regan, with a drawing of his lips. Stover was astounded. "Why not?" "Don't know." "What's wrong?" "Hard to tell. He sizes up for a man all right, but I don't think we'd agree on some things." The incident momentarily halted the conversation. Stover was a little irritated at what seemed to him his companion's over-sensitiveness. Le Baron had been more than kind in his proffer of help. He was at a loss to understand why Regan should not see him through his eyes. "You think I'm finicky," said Regan, breaking the silence. "Yes, I do," said Stover frankly. "I guess you and I'll understand each other," said Regan, approving of his directness. "Perhaps I am wrong. But, boy, this place means a great deal to me, and the men that are in it and lead it." "It's the one place where money makes no difference," said Stover, with a flash--"where you stand for what you are." Regan turned to him. "I've fought to get here, and I'll have a fight to stay. It means something to me." The train began to slacken in the New Haven station. They swarmed out on to the platform amid the returning gleeful crowd, crossing and intercrossing, caught up in the hubbub of shouted recognition. "Hello, Stuffy!" "There's Stuffy Davis!" "Hello, boys." "Oh, Jim Thompson, have we your eye?" "Come on." "Get the crowd together." "All into a hack." "Back again, Bill!" "Join you later. I've got a freshman." "Where you rooming?" "See you at Mory's." Buffeted by the crowd they made their way across the depot to the street. "I'm going to hoof it," said Regan, extending his hand. "Glad to have met you. I'll drop in on you soon." Stover watched him go stalwartly through the crowd, his bag under one arm, his soft hat set a little at defiance, looking neither to the right nor left. "Why the deuce did he say that about Le Baron?" he thought, with a feeling of irritation. Then, obeying an impulse, he signaled an expressman, consigned his bag, and made his way on foot, dodging in and out of the rapidly filled hacks, where upper classmen sat four on the seat, hugging one another with bearlike hugs. "Eh, freshman, take off that hat!" He removed his derby immediately, bowing to a hilarious crowd, who rocked ahead shouting back unintelligible gibes at him. Others were clinging to car steps and straps. "Hello, Dink!" Some one had called him but he could not discover who. He swung down the crowded street to the heart of the city in the rapid dropping of the twilight. There was a dampness underfoot that sent to him long, wavering reflections from early street-lamps. The jumble of the city was in his ears, the hazy, crowded panorama in his eyes, at his side the passing contact of strangers. Everything was multiplied, complex, submerging his individuality. But this feeling of multitude did not depress him. He had come to conquer, and zest was in his step and alertness in his glance. Out of the churning of the crowd he passed into the clear sweep of the city Common, and, looking up through the mist, for the first time beheld the battlements of the college awaiting him ahead, lost in the hazy elms. Across the quiet reaches of the Common he went slowly, incredibly, toward these strange shapes in brick and stone. The evening mist had settled. They were things undefined and mysterious, things as real as the things of his dreams. He passed on through the portals of Phelps Hall, hearing above his head for the first time the echoes of his own footsteps against the resounding vault. Behind him remained the city, suddenly hushed. He was on the campus, the Brick Row at his left; in the distance the crowded line of the fence, the fence where he later should sit in joyful conclave. Somewhere there in the great protecting embrace of these walls were the friends that should be his, that should pass with him through those wonderful years of happiness and good fellowship that were coming. "And this is it--this is Yale," he said reverently, with a little tightening of the breath. They had begun at last--the happy, care-free years that every one proclaimed. Four glorious years, good times, good fellows, and a free and open fight to be among the leaders and leave a name on the roll of fame. Only four years, and then the world with its perplexities and grinding trials. "Four years," he said softly. "The best, the happiest I'll ever know! Nothing will ever be like them--nothing!" And, carried away with the confident joy of it, he went toward his house, shoulders squared, with the step of a d'Artagnan and a song sounding in his ears. CHAPTER II He found the house in York Street, a low, white-washed frame building, luminous under the black canopy of the overtowering elms. At the door there was a little resistance and a guarded voice cried: "What do you want?" "I want to get in." "What for?" "Because I want to." "Very sorry," said McNab's rather squeaky voice--"most particular sorry; but this house is infected with yellow fever and the rickets, and we wouldn't for the world share it with the sophomore class--oh, no!" A light began to dawn over Stover. "I'm rooming here," he said. "What's your name and general style of beauty?" "Stover, and I've got a twitching foot." "Why didn't you say so?" said McNab, who then admitted him. "Pardon me. The sophomores are getting so fidgety, you know, hopping all up and down. My name's McNab--German extraction. Came up on the train, ahead of you--thought you were a sophomore, you put on such a beautiful side. Here, put on that chain." "Hazing?" "Oh, no, indeed. Just a few members of the weakling class above us might get too fond of us; just must see us--welcome to Yale and all that sort of thing. I hate sentimental exhibitions, don't you?" "Is McCarthy here?" said Stover, laughing. "Your wife is waiting for you most anxiously." "Hello, is that Dink?" called down McCarthy's exuberant voice at this moment. Stover went up the stairs like a terrier, answering the joyful whoop with a war-cry of his own. The next moment he and McCarthy were pummeling each other, wrestling about the room, to the dire danger of furniture and crockery. When this sentimental moment had exhausted itself physically, McCarthy bore him to the back of the house, saying: "We don't want to show our light in front just yet. We've got a corking lot in the house--best of the Andover crowd. Come on; I'll introduce you. You remember Hunter, who played against me at tackle? He's here." There were half a dozen loitering on the window-seat and beds in the pipe-ridden room. Hunter, in shirt sleeves, sorting the contents of his trunk, came forward at once. "Hello, Stover, how are you?" "How are you?" No sooner did their hands clasp than a change came to Dink. He was face to face with the big man of the Andover crowd, measuring him and being measured. The sudden burst of boyish affection that had sent him into McCarthy's arms was gone. This man could not help but be a leader in the class. He was older than the rest, but how much it would have been hard to say. He examined, analyzed, and deliberated. He knew what lay before him. He would make no mistakes. He was carried away by no sentimental enthusiasm. Everything about him was reserved--his cordiality, the quiet grip of his hand, the smile of welcome, and the undecipherable estimate in his eyes. "Will you follow me or shall I follow you?" each seemed to say in the first contact, which was a challenge. "How are you?" said Stover, shaking hands with some one else; and the tone was the tone of Hunter. There were three others in the room: Hunter's room-mate, Stone, a smiling, tall, good-looking fellow who shook his hand an extra period; Saunders, silent, retired behind his spectacles; and Logan, who roomed with McNab, who sunk his shoulders as he shook hands and looked into Stover's eyes intensely as he said, "Awful glad; awful glad to know you." "Have a pipe--cigarette--anything?" said Hunter over his shoulder, from the trunk to which he had returned. "No, thanks." "Started training?" "Sort of." "Take a chair and make yourself at home," said Hunter warmly, but without turning. The talk was immediately of what each was going to do. Stone was out for the glee club, already planning to take singing lessons in the contest for the leadership, three years off. Saunders was to start for the _News_. Logan had made drawings during the summer and was out for the _Record_. Hunter was trying for his class team and the crew. Only McNab was defiant. "None of that for me," he said, on his back, legs in the air, blowing rings against the ceiling. "I'm for a good time, the best in life. It may be a short one, but it'll be a lulu!" "You'll be out heeling the _Record_, Dopey, inside of a month," said Hunter quietly. "Never, by the Great Horned Spoon--never!" "And you'll get a tutor, Dopey, and stay with us." "Never! I came to love and to be loved. I'm a lovely thing; that's sufficient," said McNab, with a grimace to his elfish face. "I will not be harnessed up. I will not heel." "Yes, you will." Hunter's tone had not varied. Stover, studying him, wondered if he had marked out the route of Stone, Saunders, and Logan, just as he felt that McNab would sooner or later conform to the will of the man who had determined to succeed himself and make his own crowd succeed. Reynolds, a sophomore, an old Andover man, dropped in. Again it was but question of the same challenge, addressed to each: "What are you trying for?" The arrival of the sophomore, who installed himself in easy majesty in the arm-chair and addressed his questions with a quick, analytical staccato, produced somewhat the effect of a suddenly opened window. Even McNab was unwillingly impressed, and Hunter, closing the trunk, allowed the conversation to be guided by Reynolds' initiative. He was a fiery, alert, rather undersized fellow, who had been the first in his class to make the _News_, and was supposed to be in line for that all-important chairmanship. Inside of five minutes he had gone through the possibilities of each man, advising briefly in a quick, businesslike manner. To Stover he seemed symbolic of the rarefied contending nervousness of the place, a personality that suddenly threw open to him all the nervous panorama of the struggle for position which had already begun. On top of which there arrived Rogers, a junior, good-natured, popular, important. At once, to Stover's amused surprise, the rôle was reversed. Reynolds, from the enthroned autocrat, became the respectful audience, answered a few questions, and found a quick opportunity to leave. "Let's go in front and have a little fun," said Rogers. Somewhat perplexed, Stover led the way to their room. "Light up," said Rogers, with a chuckle. "There's a sophomore bunch outside just ready to tumble." Rogers' presence brought back a certain ease; they were no longer on inspection, and even in his manner was a more open cordiality than he had showed toward Reynolds. That under all this was some graduated system of authority Stover was slowly perceiving, when all at once from the street there rose a shout: "Turn down that light!" "Freshmen, turn down that light!" "Turn it down slowly," said Rogers, with a gesture to McNab. "Faster!" "All the way down!" "Turn it up suddenly," said Rogers. An angry swelling protest arose: "Turn that down!" "You freshmen!" "Turn it down!" "The freshest of the fresh!" "Here, let me work 'em up," said Rogers, going to the gas-jet. Under his tantalizing manipulation the noise outside grew to the proportions of a riot. "Come on and get the bloody freshmen!" "Ride 'em on a rail!" "Say, are we going to stand for this?" "Down with that light!" "Let's run 'em out!" "Break in the door!" "Out with the freshman!" Below came a sudden rush of feet. Rogers, abandoning the gas-jet, draped himself nonchalantly on the couch that faced the door. "Well, here comes the shindy," thought Stover, with a joyful tensity in every muscle. The hubbub stormed up the hall, shot open the door, and choked the passage with the suddenly revealed fury of angry faces. "Hello," said Rogers' quiet voice. "Well, what do _you_ want?" [Illustration: "'HELLO,' SAID ROGERS' QUIET VOICE, 'WELL, WHAT DO YOU WANT?'"--_Page 19._] No sooner had the barbaric front ranks beheld the languid, slightly annoyed junior than the fury of battle vanished like a flurry of wind across the water. From behind the more concealed began to murmur: "Oh, beans!" "A lemon!" "Rubber!" "Sold!" "Well, what is it?" said Rogers sharply, sending a terrific frown at the sheepish leaders. At this curt reminder there was a shifting movement in the rear, which rapidly communicated itself to the stammering, apologetic front ranks; the door was closed in ludicrous haste, and down the stairs resounded the stampede of the baffled host. "My, they are a fierce lot, these man-eating sophomores, aren't they?" said Rogers, giving way to his laughter. And then, a little apologetically, but with a certain twinkle of humor, he added: "Don't worry, boys; there was no one in that crowd who'll do you any harm. However, I might just as well chaperon you to your eating-joint." "Le Baron is going to take me out with him," said Stover, as they rose to go. "Hugh Le Baron?" said Rogers, with a new interest. "Yes, sir." "I didn't get your name." "Stover." "Oh! Captain down at Lawrenceville, weren't you?" "Yes, sir." "Well, wish you good luck," said Rogers, with a more appraising eye. "You've got an opening this year. Drop in and see me sometime, will you? I mean it." "See you later, Stover," said Hunter, resting his hand on his shoulder with a little friendly touch. "Bully you're with us," said Stone. "Come in and chin a little later," said Logan. Saunders gave him a duck of the head, with unconcealed admiration in his embarrassed manner. McCarthy went with them. Stover, left alone, measured the length of the room, smiling to himself. It was all quite amusing, especially when his was the fixed point of view. In a few moments Le Baron arrived. Together they went across the campus, now swarming like ant runs. At every step Le Baron was halted by a greeting. Recognition was in the air, turbulent, boyish, exaggerated, rising to the pitch of a scream or accomplished in a bear dance; and through it all was the same vibrant, minor note of the ceaseless activity. It was the air Stover loved. He waited respectfully, while Le Baron shook a score of hands, impatient for the moment to begin and the opportunity to have his name told from lip to lip. "I'm going to be captain at Yale," he said to himself, with a sudden fantastic, grandiloquent fury. "I will if it's in me." "We'll run down to Heub's," said Le Baron, free at last, "get a good last meal before going into training. You look in pretty fit shape." "I've kept so all summer." "Who's over in your house?" Stover named them. "They weren't my crowd at Andover, but they're good fellows," said Le Baron, listening critically. "Hunter especially. Here we are." A minute later they had found a table in the restaurant crowded with upper classmen, and Le Baron was glancing down the menu. "An oyster cocktail, a planked steak--rare; order the rest later." He turned to Stover. "Guess we'd better cut out the drinks. We'll stand the gaff better to-morrow." There was in his voice a quiet possession, as if he had already assumed the reins of Stover's career. "Are you out for the eleven again?" said Stover respectfully. "Yes. I'll never do any better than a sub, but that's what counts. We're up against an awfully stiff proposition this year. The team's got to be built out of nothing. There's Dana, the captain, now, over at the table in the corner." "Where?" said Stover, fired at the thought. Le Baron pointed out the table, detailing to him the names of some of the coaches who were grouped there. When Stover had dared to gaze for the first time on the face of the majestic leader, he experienced a certain shock. The group of past heroes about him were laughing, exchanging reminiscences of past combats; but the face of Dana was set in seriousness, too sensitive to the responsibility that lay heavier than the honor on his young shoulders. Stover had not thought of his leader so. "I guess it's going to be a bad season," he said. "Yes; we may have to take our medicine this year." Several friends of Le Baron's stopped to shake hands, greeting Stover always with that appraising glance which had amused him in Reynolds who had first sat in inquisition. He began to be conscious of an ever-widening gulf separating him and Le Baron, imposed by all the subtle, still uncomprehended incidents of the night, which gradually made him see that he had found, not a friend, but a protector. A certain natural impulsiveness left him; he answered in short sentences, resenting a little this sudden, not yet defined sense of subjection. But the hum of diners was about him, the unknown intoxication of lights, the prevailing note of joy, the free concourse of men, the vibrant note of good fellowship, good cheer, and the eager seizing of the zest of the hour. The men he saw were the men who had succeeded--a success which unmistakably surrounded them. He, too, wished for success acutely, almost with a throbbing, gluttonous feeling, sitting there unknown. All at once Dana, passing across the room, stopped for a handshake and a word of greeting to Le Baron. Stover was introduced, rising precipitately, to the imminent danger of his plate. "Stover from Lawrenceville?" said Dana. "Yes, sir." The captain's eye measured him carefully, taking in the wiry, spare frame, the heavy shoulders, and the nervous hands, and then stayed on the clean-cut jaw, the direct blue glance, and the rebellious rise of sandy hair. "End, of course," he said at last. "Yes, sir." "About a hundred and fifty-four?" "One hundred and fifty, sir, stripped." "Ever played in the back field?" "No, sir." "Report with the varsity squad to-morrow." "Yes, sir." "There's a type of man we're proud of," said Le Baron. "Came here from Exeter, waited at Commons first two years; every one likes him. He has a tough proposition here this year, though--supposing we dig out." In the room the laughter was rising, and all the little nervous noises of the clash of plate and cutlery. Stover would have liked to stay, to yield to the contagion, to watch with eager eyes the opposite types, all under the careless spell of the beginning year. The city was black about them as they stepped forth, the giant elms flattened overhead against the blurred mists of the night, like curious water weeds seen from below. They went in silence directly toward the campus. Once or twice Le Baron started to speak and then stopped. At length he said: "Come this way." They passed by Osborne Hall, and the Brick Row with the choked display of the Coöp below, and, crossing to the dark mass of the Old Library, sat down on the steps. Before Stover stretched all the lighted panorama of the college and the multiplied strewn lights against the mysteries of stone and brick--lights that drew him to the quiet places of a hundred growing existencies--affected him like the lights of the crowded restaurant and the misty reflections of the glassy streets. It was the night, the mysterious night that suddenly had come into his boyish knowledge. It was immense, unfathomable--this spectacle of a massed multitude. It was all confounded, stirring, ceaseless, feverish in its brilliant gaiety, fleeting, transitory, mocking. It was of the stage, theatric. It brought theatric emotions, too keenly sensitized, too sharply overwhelming. He wished to flee from it in despair of ever conquering, as he wished to conquer, this world of stirring ambitions and shadowy and fleeting years. "I'm going to do for you," said Le Baron's voice, breaking the charm--"I'm going to do what some one did for me when I came here last year." He paused a moment, a little, too, under the spell of the night, perhaps, seeking how best to choose his words. "It is a queer place you're coming into, and many men fail for not understanding it in time. I'm going to tell you a few things." Again he stopped. Stover, waiting, heard across from the blazing sides of Farnam a piano's thin, rushing notes. Nearer, from some window unseen, a mandolin was quavering. Voices, calling, mingled in softened confusion. "Oh, Charley Bangs--stick out your head." "We want Billy Brown." "Hello, there!" "Tubby, this way!" Then this community of faint sounds was lost as, from the fence, a shapeless mass beyond began to send its song towards him. "_When freshmen first we came to Yale_ _Fol-de-rol-de-rol-rol-rol._ _Examinations made us pale_ _Fol-de-rol-de-rol-rol-rol._" "What do you know about the society system here?" said Le Baron abruptly. "Why, I know--there are three senior societies: Skull and Bones, Keys, Wolf's-Head--but I guess that's all I do know." "You'll hear a good deal of talk inside the college, and out of it, too, about the system. It has its faults. But it's the best system there is, and it makes Yale what it is to-day. It makes fellows get out and work; it gives them ambitions, stops loafing and going to seed, and keeps a pretty good, clean, temperate atmosphere about the place." "I know nothing at all about it," said Stover, perplexed. "The seniors have fifteen in each; they give out their elections end of junior year, end of May. That's what we're all working for." "Already?" said Stover involuntarily. "There are fellows in your class," said Le Baron, "who've been working all summer, so as to get ahead in the competition for the _Lit_ or the _Record_, or to make the leader of the glee club--fellows, of course, who know." "But that's three years off." "Yes, it's three years off," said Le Baron quietly. "Then there are the junior fraternities; but they're large, and at present don't count much, except you have to make them. Then there are what are called sophomore societies." He hesitated a moment. "They are very important." "Do you belong?" asked Stover innocently. "Yes," said Le Baron, after another hesitation. "Of course, we don't discuss our societies here. Others will tell you about them. But here's where your first test will come in." Then came another lull. Stover, troubled, frowning, sat staring at the brilliant windows across which passed, from time to time, a sudden shadow. The groups at the fence were singing a football song, with a marching swing to it, that had so often caught up his loyal soul as he had sat shivering in the grand-stand for the game to begin. It was not all so simple--no, not at all simple. It wasn't as he had thought. It was complex, a little disturbing. "This college is made up of all sorts of elements," said Le Baron, at last. "And it is not easy to run it. Now, in every class there are just a small number of fellows who are able to do it and who will do it. They form the real crowd. All the rest don't count. Now, Stover, you're going to have a chance at something big on the football side; but that is not all. You might make captain of the eleven and miss out on a senior election. You're going to be judged by your friends, and it is just as easy to know the right crowd as the wrong." "What do you mean by the right crowd?" said Stover, conscious of just a little antagonism. "The right crowd?" said Le Baron, a little perplexed to define so simple a thing. "Why, the crowd that is doing things, working for Yale; the crowd--" "That the class ahead picks out to lead us," said Stover abruptly. "Yes," said Le Baron frankly; "and it won't be a bad judgment. Money alone won't land a man in it, and there'll be some in it who work their way through college. On the whole, it's about the crowd you'll want to know all through life." "I see," said Stover. His clasp tightened over his knees, and he was conscious of a certain growing uncomfortable sensation. He liked Le Baron--he had looked up to him, in a way. Of course, it was all said in kindness, and yet-- "I'm frankly aristocratic in my point of view"--he heard the well-modulated voice continue--"and what I say others think. I'm older than most of my class, and I've seen a good deal of the world at home and abroad. You may think the world begins outside of college. It doesn't; it begins right here. You want to make the friends that will help you along, here and outside. Don't lose sight of your opportunities, and be careful how you choose. "Now, by that I mean don't make your friends too quickly. Get to know the different crowds, but don't fasten to individuals until you see how things work out. This rather surprises you, doesn't it? Perhaps you don't like it." "It does sort of surprise me," said Stover, who did not answer what he meant. "Stover," said Le Baron, resting a hand on his knee, "I like you. I liked you from the first time we lined up in that Andover-Lawrenceville game. You've got the stuff in you to make the sort of leader we need at Yale. That's why I'm trying to make you see this thing as it is. You come from a school that doesn't send many fellows here. You haven't the fellows ahead pulling for you, the way the other crowds have. I don't want you to make any mistake. Remember, you're going to be watched from now on." "Watched?" said Stover, frowning. "Yes; everything you do, everything you say--that's how you'll be judged. That's why I'm telling you these things." "I appreciate it," said Stover, but without enthusiasm. "Now, you've got a chance to make good on the eleven this year. If you do, you stand in line for the captaincy senior year. It lies with you to be one of the big men in the class. And this is the way to do it: get to know every one in the class right off." "What!" said Stover, genuinely surprised. "I mean, bow to every one; call them by name: but hold yourself apart," said Le Baron. "Make fellows come to you. Don't talk too much. Hold yourself in. Keep out of the crowd that is out booze-fighting--or, when you're with them, keep your head. There are a lot of fellows here, with friends ahead of them, who can cut loose a certain amount; but it's dangerous. If you want to make what you ought to make of yourself, Stover, you've got to prove yourself; you've got to keep yourself well in hand." Stover suddenly comprehended that Le Baron was exposing his own theory, that he, prospective captain of the crew, was imposing on himself. "Don't ticket yourself for drinking." "I won't." "Or get known for gambling--oh, I'm not preaching a moral lesson; only, what you do, do quietly." "I understand." "And another thing: no fooling around women; that isn't done here--that'll queer you absolutely." "Of course." "Now, you've got to do a certain amount of studying here. Better do it the first year and get in with the faculty." "I will." "There it is," said Le Baron, suddenly extending his hand toward the lighted college. "Isn't it worth working for--to win out in the end? And, Stover, it's easy enough when you know how. Play the game as others are playing it. It's a big game, and it'll follow you all through life. There it is; it's up to you. Keep your head clear and see straight." The gesture of Le Baron, half seen in the darkness, brought a strange trouble to Stover. It was as if, at the height of the eager confidence of his youth, some one had whispered in his ear and a shadowy hand had held before his eyes a gigantic temptation. "Are there any questions you want to ask me?" said Le Baron, with a new feeling of affection toward the unprotected freshman whom he had so generously advised. "No." They sat silently. And all at once, as Stover gazed, from the high, misty walls and the elm-tops confounded in the night, a monstrous hand seemed to stretch down, impending over him, and the care-free windows suddenly to be transformed into myriad eyes, set on him in inquisition--eyes that henceforth indefatigably, remorselessly would follow him. And with it something snapped, something fragile--the unconscious, simple democracy of boyhood. And, as it went, it went forever. This was the world rushing in, dividing the hosts. This was the parting of the ways. The standards of judgment were the world's. It was not what he had thought. It was no longer the simple struggle. It was complex, disturbing, incomprehensible. To win he would have to change. "It's been good of you to tell me all this," he said, giving his hand to Le Baron, and the words sounded hollow. "Think over what I've said to you." "I will." "A man is known by his friends; remember that, Stover, if you don't anything else!" "It's awfully good of you." "I like you, Dink," said Le Baron, shaking hands warmly; "now you know the game, go in and win." "It's awfully good of you," said Stover aimlessly. He stood watching Le Baron's strong, aristocratic figure go swinging across the dim campus in a straight, undeviating, well-calculated path. "It's awfully good of him," he said mechanically, "awfully good. What a wonder he is!" And yet, and yet, he could not define the new feeling--he was but barely conscious of it; was it rebellion or was it a lurking disappointment? He stood alone, looking at the new world. It was no longer the world of the honest day. It was brilliant, fascinating, alluring, awakening strange, poignant emotions--but it was another world, and the way to it had just been shown him. He turned abruptly and went toward his room, troubled, wondering why he was so troubled, vainly seeking the reason, knowing not that it lay in the destruction of a fragile thing--his first illusion. CHAPTER III Tough McCarthy was in the communal rooms, busily delving into the recesses of a circus trunk, from which, from time to time, he emerged with the loot of the combined McCarthy family. "Dink, my boy, cast your eye over my burglaries. Look at them. Aren't they lovely, aren't they fluffy and sweet? I don't know what half of 'em are, but won't they decorate the room? And every one, 'pon my honor, the gift of a peach who loves me! The whole family was watching, but I got 'em out right under their noses. Well, why not cheer me!" He deposited on the floor a fragrant pile of assorted embroideries, table-covers, lace pincushions, and filmy mysteries purloined from feminine dressing-tables, which he rapidly proceeded to distribute about the room according to his advanced theories on decoration, which consisted in crowding the corners, draping the gas-jets, and clothing the picture-frames. Stover sat silently, out of the mood. "Here's three new scalps," continued McCarthy, producing some cushions. "Had to vow eternal love, and keep the dear girls separated--a blonde and two brunettes--but I got the pillows, my boy, I got 'em. And now sit back and hold on." He made a third trip to the trunk, unaware of Stover's distracted mood, and came back chuckling, his arms heaped with photographs to his chin. "One thousand and one Caucasian beauties, the pride of every State, the only girls who ever loved me. Look at 'em!" He distributed a score of photographs, mustering them on the mantelpiece, pinning them to the already suspended flags, massing them in circles, ranging them in crosses and ascending files, and announced: "Finest I could gather in. Only know a third of 'em, but the sisters know the rest. Isn't it a beauty parlor? Why, it'll make that blond warbler Stone, downstairs, feel like an amateur
{'title': 'Stover at Yale by Owen Johnson', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}