Winning his degree

Front matter

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Preface

In this story, as in its predecessors, I have endeavored to give the records of a student neither preternaturally good nor unnaturally bad. Freshman year has usually been made the basis of college stories. The pranks and escapades of that time of trial have provided well-nigh unending subjects in which many have been interested. The work, struggles, and experiences of an upper classman, however, have been seldom recorded, and in this tale I have gone into pathways largely left by most writers of school and college stories. The life of a college junior (and senior) contains so much that is interesting, the experiences are so attractive, that I have ventured in this book to enter into some of them. If the lesson of the lessons, and the unwritten, but no less real problems faced and grappled with shall lead my young readers into a little clearer perception of “what it is all for,” the writer will feel that his labor has not been in vain.

Everett T. Tomlinson.

Elizabeth, N. J.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

‘ Who is Splinter ?’ inquired his friend quietly .” Frontispiece 29

1 Have some cream , Mr. Phelps t ’ called Mott from his place on the table” 79

* I dcm’J see why you say that,’ replied Mott reproachfully” . 102

1 But — but — but — my dear woman, I haven’t any butter for sale ’ ” 124

I My second point,’ he continued after a brief and effective

pause , ‘ is this ’ ” . * 168 .

‘ Yes, now I understand just what a touchdown is,’ continued Miss Stone ” 178

I I took it out of my vest when I put on my sweater this

afternoon ’” 196

‘ You can take Miss Stone back, anyway, and that’s the main thing ’ ” 221

‘ That’s the end of that,’ he said to himself grimly as he watched the paper curl” 280 -

When it once more came Will’s turn to receive he stepped farther back ” 258

Out in the canoe ... the interest of either did not flag” . 285 y

‘ I see what you mean. Thank you for your good words. Goodnight ’”

SOI /

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Return 11

II. A New Acquaintance 21

CHAPTER I I TELL you, Foster, this is great ! ”

" So I have heard you remark something like ninety and nine times.”

"Well, one more won’t count, will it? But it is great, now isn’t it, Foster ? ”

“ It certainly is. I think you’ve heard me say so often enough to believe that I mean it.”

" There isn’t a place in the world like Winthrop ! ” " Do you mean that as a startling piece of information ? ”

"Ho. But you don’t get as enthusiastic as you ought to, you know.”

" You mean I don’t show it in the same way that you do.”

" If you felt it, you’d show it. You couldn’t help yourself.”

Foster Bennett turned to the young man in the carseat beside him, and the smile on his face betrayed the deep affection he felt for his classmate and roommate, Will Phelps. For two years they had been students together in Winthrop College, and now they were returning after the long summer vacation to resume their tasks and enter upon their life as juniors in the college that had become so dear to their hearts. Even in the preparatory school they had been classmates and intimate friends, their homes were in the same little city, and throughout their young lives they had shared their experiences and possessions after the manner of boys. And now they were juniors ! The very name of the class to which they belonged brought a thrill to Will’s heart, for he was ever impulsive, warm-hearted, enthusiastic, and the more self-contained manner of his roommate he well knew concealed a feeling as deep as that within his own heart, though it seldom manifested itself in the exuberant manner with which Will Phelps was ever wont to display the impulses that swayed him. “ He wore his h°art upon his sleeve,” as he laughingly declared ; but the greater dignity of his friend seldom prevented him from displaying his enthusiasm over whatever appealed to his feelings. The dignity of being an upper-classman rested with all due weight upon Will, and he looked forward to the coming experiences with almost as much enthusiasm as that with which he had first come to Winthrop just two years before. It was now about the middle of the afternoon. Early that morning they had left their homes in Sterling, and would be due in Winthrop within an hour. At Peter’s Junction there would doubtless be a large number of students to join them and, as they would arrive at the Junction within a half-hour, Will found himself looking forward with eagerness to the time when he would behold the familiar faces of his classmates and college friends.

The conversation was maintained for the most part by Will, for Foster had listened smilingly to the words of his enthusiastic chum, replying only when occasion seemed to demand. From the windows of the car Will could look out upon the region through which they were passing — a region that had become so familiar to him that he looked upon the sloping hillsides and fertile valleys, and even upon the weather-beaten abodes of the farmers, as he did upon the features of the friends he had made thus far in his college course. They were all a part of his life; in a sense they all belonged to him.

Perhaps unconsciously Will Phelps was beginning to appreciate the truth that all a man can ever truly call his is that which he possesses with his inner life. The deeds to the fertile farm-lands might be recorded in other names, but the sunlight on the summits of the hills, the coloring of the golden grain, the peacefulness of the entire scene were his, though not bought with money. A man may own a library of ten thousand volumes, but all of it that he really possesses is that which he has appropriated by his own reading. Will Phelps had learned many things that had not been outlined in the prescribed course of study, and it may have been that as he gazed from the window of the car, as he was swiftly borne through the familiar region, that he was dimly aware of some things which he had attained that he could not have explained even to his closest friend, Foster Bennett.

In a moment, however, his meditations were broken in upon by the nasal call of the trainman, “Peter’s Junction! Peter’s Junction! All out for Peter’s Junction ! Change cars for Mesopotamia, Paris, Conkling’s Four Corners.” An indescribable jargon of the names of other towns was added to the list, and at last, as the rumbling train came to a standstill, breathless he returned to his first declaration : “Peter’s Junction! Peter’s Junction! All out for Peter’s Junction. This train for Ten ton, Winthrop, Bakersville and J ordan ! ”

Will waited to hear no more, but leaping into the aisle, with a call to his friend to hold his seat for him, he swiftly made his way toward the platform. Already he had obtained a glimpse of the thronging crowd of college boys that was to be seen there waiting for the arrival of the incoming train, and the noisy shouts and cheers had sounded like music in his ears.

With a rush the horde boarded the train, shouting their words of welcome as some classmate was recognized, and Will Phelps, after he had grasped the outstretched hand of many whom he loudly greeted, quickly returned to his seat beside Foster. Some of the students were standing in the aisle, and directly beside the seat in which the two juniors were was a tall, heavy, powerful young man whom Will instantly recognized as Wilkins, the captain of the baseball nine a year before. A member of the same fraternity to which both Will and Foster belonged, they had come to know him well, and a shout of greeting went up as they reached forth and dragged him down to a seat on the rail beside them.

Wilkins, phlegmatic, good-natured, imperturbable, laughingly responded to their demonstrations and at once took the place to which they had dragged him.

“ Why, Wilkins, old man, how did you happen to be here?” demanded Will. “ It is as good as a prescription to set eyes on you again. Better, I’ve no doubt, than any prescription you could write.” Wilkins for the past year had been a student in a famous medical school, which explained to those who knew, the reference the enthusiastic junior made in his greeting.

“I’d like to prescribe once for you, Will. Just once. One would be enough,” responded the hero. There was a drawl in his words that was at once a characteristic of the young man and the delight of his friends.

“ I’d almost be willing to take it if you were only to be back in Winthrop with us.”

“Ho. I’ve put away childish things. I’ve finished my course. I’ve just come up for a day or two to see how you kids will run things.”

“ You stay and you’ll see, all right ! ” laughed Will.

“How’s Splinter?” inquired Wilkins, his eyes twinkling as he referred to one of the professors by the name by which the teacher was known among the students , 1 though it must be acknowledged that this “ title” did not appear on the pages of the college catalogue. As Will Phelps had had troubles of his own with the man referred to, he understood at once the implication in his friend’s query.

“He’s all right,” responded Will lightly. “At least he was last June. I haven’t seen him since, and I don’t correspond with him. I’ve done with him, but I sha’n’t hold any grudge against him. He can’t help himself, so I don’t blame him.”

“ Good of you, Will,” drawled Wilkins.

“ Of course it’s good of me. I can’t help that, either. It’s the way I was born.”

“ I want to tell you, though, you kid junior, that you’ll think his work was play, just play, when you get into the medical school.”

“ I sha’n’t get in there unless some of you sharks drag me in to find out with your knives and things what my lungs are made of and if my nervous system is built on the proper plan.”

“ Speaking of nerves ” drawled Wilkins.

“Yes. What of them?” demanded Will.

“ Would you fellows say I had any nerves? ”

“Nerves? Nerves? You’re all nerves, Wilkins, a huge nerve. You’re just nerve and praeterea nihil ”

“ Listen to the kid ! ” laughed Wilkins. “ Is that supposed to be Latin ? ”

“ You wouldn’t know if I told you. But it is Latin, and good Latin too ! ”

1 See “ Winning His * W.’ ”

“ I’ll take your word for it. But honestly, do you fellows think I have any nerves ? ”

" Why ? ” said Foster.

" Because some of the fellows in the medical school say I haven’t/’

“ They don’t know you, then. Send them up here to Winthrop and we can give them a point or two,” said Will.

"I might have done that, but they took another way to find out,” said Wilkins slowly. His round face was expressionless, but both boys knew at once that he had some experience to relate, and so Will said quickly, "Tell us about it, Willie.” As Wilkins weighed two hundred and thirty pounds, the pet name by which the giant had been known among his fellows became almost ludicrous. But the names "Willie” and "Little Willie” had tenaciously clung to him throughout his college days.

"Why, all there is of it is that some of the boys declared I hadn’t a nerve in my body, but some didn’t appear to agree with them, so one night they decided to put it to a test and find out.”

" Did they find out ? ” inquired Foster.

"They did,” replied Wilkins soberly.

" What did they do ? How did they find out ?”

" Oh, I was doing some extra work in the dissecting room ”

" Horrible ! ” interrupted Will.

"What’s horrible?” demanded Wilkins sharply. " If you mean the way some of the fellows did it, why,

B it certainly was. If you mean the dissecting itself, why, I can tell you it’s the most wonderful, the most beautiful thing in the world.”

“ I’ll take your word for it,” said Will quickly. “ Go on with your story.”

“ We’d had a fresh subject sent in. It was the body of a chap who had pulled too hard on the end of a rope and overdone the matter, so to speak.”

“ Do you mean he had been hanged f ” demanded Will, aghast.

“ That’s what some people vulgarly term it, I understand. At any rate, there was the subject on the table, and I received special permission to do some work on it the evening after it came.”

“You wanted to do it? You don’t mean to say you wanted to do it ? ”

“ Of course I did. That’s what I was there for, wasn’t it? I tell you, my kid friend, men don’t go to a medical school to shirk. They go there to work. And they have to work too ! Well, some of my friends found out what was going on, and they thought they’d test my nerve.”

“You didn’t know anything about it?” inquired Foster.

“ Not a word. They got into the room before I did and they rigged up some wires on that subject. ’Twas a shame. I don’t believe in treating even the corpse of a man that had been hanged in such a way as that.”

“ But you’d cut it up.”

“ Why, yes. Surely I would ! That’s what I was there for, wasn’t it? Well, those fellows rigged their wires just as they wanted to and then they all left just before I came, all except one, and he crawled under a table in the room to stay and find out about my nerves. I put on my uniform and got to work right away; but before I’d fairly begun, all at once the right arm of the poor fellow shot right up from the table and then fell back with a thud.”

“ What did you do, then ? ”

“ I took the arm and put it back in place, and when I began again the other arm shot right up just as the other one had done.”

“ Didn’t you quit then? ” demanded Will.

“ ‘ Quit ’ ? No. Why should I quit ? I put it back where it belonged and then I began again. In about a minute — I think the fellow under the table was beginning to get a trifle impatient, for he gave the wire such a jerk — the arm went up again, and when it fell it dropped right on the back of my neck and stayed there.”

“ Quit, Wilkins ! You’ve told enough,” said Will hastily. >

“ Go on, Willie ! I want to hear it all,” suggested Foster. “ What did you do ? ”

“ I was bending over the table, of course, when the thing happened; but I reached up and put the arm back in its place. I believe too, that I indulged in some remarks. At least that’s my recollection,” said Wilkins, not a muscle of his impassive face moving as he spoke.

“ What did you say ? ” inquired Will, whose interest had again been aroused.

“ To the best of my belief and recollection, I delivered an apostrophe to the late departed. I said, ‘ Look here, old man, don’t you know that isn’t any way to act in here? You’re the worst-behaved subject I’ve ever carved yet. I don’t wonder that you were hanged. I’d help do it myself. Now will you be good or shall I be compelled to resort to corporal punishment ? ’ ”

“ Was it good?”

“ Quiet as a mouse. You see, I’d found the wire, and then I understood what was going on. I didn’t pretend to let on that I knew, but I saw it led to the place under the table. I happened to know the table had been broken that day and wouldn’t stand much, so I sauntered over to it and sat down upon it.”

“What happened then?” said Foster.

“Why, it went down with a bang, and I found myself sitting on something or somebody that was squirming and yelling good. < Hello ! ’ I said. ‘ Here’s another one of those live dead men. I’ll put you on the table with your friend here and see if you’ll not behave better than he did when I begin/ But do you know, before I could get my hands on him he let out a yell you could have heard half a mile away and bolted out the door. Do you know,” Wilkins added soberly, “ I’ve had my suspicions that that second chap wasn’t really dead? He was really more alive than he thought he was. But he wouldn’t wait for me to find out.”

Chapter II

T HE gruesome story which Wilkins had related without a change in the expression of his stolid face at another time might have aroused a different feeling in the heart of Will Phelps, but the boyish laughter and the shouts of the college boys, who appeared to have taken possession of the car as if it was theirs by divine right, created an atmosphere in which it was impossible for any one to take a morose or despondent view of life. Both Foster and Will laughed heartily at the tale, and the latter said :

“ They won’t try it again, Willie ! Did you have to operate on the poor chap you sat upon ? ”

“ Hot yet. My time will come, though. I’ve learned to wait. ‘ Everything comes to him who waits/ you know.”

“ He won’t wait for you,” laughed Will.

“ Oh, yes, he will,” responded Wilkins. “ He knows I’m waiting for him and he’ll just have to wait for my time. He can’t do anything else, you see.”

“Do you really enjoy the work?” inquired Foster seriously.

“ It’s the greatest work in all the world,” replied

Wilkins. “ Why, just take the human hand ”

“ Whose hand ? ” demanded Will demurely.

“ Mine. Yours. Anybody’s. It’s the most wonderful piece of mechanism in all the world. I’ve got a lance in my pocket, and if you’ll kindly place your hand in mine I’ll show you a thing or two.”

“ Take Foster’s,” suggested Will with a laugh, as he hastily drew his own hand back. “ I’ll be as generous with him as Artemas Ward was with all his wife’s relations when there was a call for men to enlist.”

“ I won’t hurt you,” persisted Wilkins soberly.

“ Not if the court understands itself,” replied Will.

“ Say, Will,” said Wilkins, abruptly changing the subject, “ wasn’t Mott a close friend of yours when he was in college ? ”

“You mean Jack Mott that left college last year, at the invitation of the faculty ? ”

“ Yes. I met him last night in New York, and he told me he was one of the closest friends you had when he was here.”

“ He certainly was ‘ close,’ ” said Will with a laugh. “ I asked him to lend me the loan of five dollars once, and the way in which he said ‘ No ’ made me believe he certainly was ‘ close,’ if that’s what you mean.”

“ Not exactly,” replied Wilkins. “ He said ”

“ Oh, I know what he said,” interrupted Will. “ I can give you the whole story just as he told it to you. Yes, he was a ‘ close ’ friend. He couldn’t put it too strongly, either. Why, do you know, he not only wouldn’t lend me five dollars that time when I asked for it, but he even got Peter John Schenck to go down to Tommie’s and have a lot of pies and cakes charged up to my account. And once he and Peter John even had the nerve to come up to my room and treat me with some of the pies he had just got at Tommie’s and had had charged to me. Oh, yes, he was a ‘ close ’ enough friend.”

“ He’d have done almost as well as you, Willie, in the dissecting room,” suggested Foster, laughing loudly as he spoke.

“ Oh, you could have put him on the table and not been able to cut through his epidermis. The fellow was so f close ’ he’d never give up even in a quarrel. He wouldn’t give up anything.”

“ Yes, he would,” suggested Foster.

“What, I’d like to know?” inquired Will sharply, turning to his roommate.

“Well, if I recollect aright, he had an elongated lingual appendage, and there wasn’t a fellow in college freer with it than he was.”

“ An abnormal labial development too ? ” said Wilkins soberly.

“ Precisely. He was generous with it too, to a fault,” replied Foster.

“ What about him ? ” inquired Will. “ What made you speak of him? Was it just because he declared he was one of my ‘ closest’ friends? He certainly was, if that’s all there was to it.”

“That wasn’t all,” said Wilkins, standing up in the aisle and fumbling in his pockets as he spoke. “ Ah, yes, here it is. As I told you, I met him last night in New York, and when I told him I was coming up to Winthrop for a day or two, to be here when the year opened, he told me about you. He really seemed to have a good warm feeling for you too, as far as I could judge. At all events, he went into the library of the house where we were, and pretty soon he came out with a letter which he wanted me to give to you. Here it is,” added Wilkins as he held forth the missive to which he had referred.

“ Thank you. Fm highly honored,” laughed Will as he thrust the envelope in his own pocket. " Fll read it later when my nerves are stronger.”

“ He wasn’t all bad,” suggested Foster.

" I didn’t say he was, did I ? ” retorted Will. “ My sole remark was about his e close ’ friendship. Ditto the development of his nerve. I say, Willie, what’s the scientific term for nerve ? ”

"I haven’t got as far as that yet,” drawled Wilkins.

“ Well, when you do, then let me know. You have to learn all the Latin terms, don’t you ? ”

"We’re supposed to.”

“ And some are in Greek too, aren’t they ? ”

" Yes. Some of them are ‘ all Greek ’ to me.”

" Same here,” laughed Will. "I’d shake if I wasn’t afraid to put my hand in that capacious receptacle of yours, even for a minute. But I never could see for my part what the old fellows wanted to give names in Latin or Greek to such trifling little matters as our bones or nerves for.”

“ It’s so that all the world can know.”

“That must be it,” laughed Will. “‘ Language was devised to conceal thought/ ”

“No, it's all right,” persisted Wilkins soberly. “ You see, Latin is a sort of universal language, and the American and Englishman, the Frenchman and the German can all understand what’s meant if it’s in Latin.”

“ Oh, I see. I see perfectly. I had some botany last spring. Oh, not enough to hurt me,” Will hastily added with a laugh, as an expression of mock seriousness appeared on the face of Wilkins. “We had a lot of scientific terms to learn, mostly Latin, I think, though a few were in Choctaw and some in Portuguese. When we had done up the term’s work and looked back over the wreck of time, I confess that I felt a little like Bud Willoughby — you know him, don’t you? He’s a junior now.”

“ Yes, I remember him. What was it he said ? ”

“ Oh, yes. I’d almost forgotten about that. Well, Bud fell in with me on our way to the exam, last spring, and he was fearfully down too. He said he’d been up almost all the night trying to fix a few of those botanical terms in his mind, but for the life of him all that he could recall were the aurora borealis and the delirium tremens

“ He passed all right, didn’t he? ” inquired Wilkins soberly.

“ Yes. He just got through.”

“ How was it with you, Will ? ”

“ Will got a B.,” said Foster promptly. “ One might think to hear Will talk that he didn’t do any work, but he’s going to be one of the high-stand men in the class before we graduate.”

“ ‘ Future conditional sentence, less vivid form/ as my distinguished preceptor, Doctor Splinter, would remark,” laughed Will, though his face flushed slightly at the words of his friend.

“ That’s all right, Will. You’re not such a fool — ”

“As I appear to be?” interrupted Will with a laugh.

“ You’re not such a fool as not to understand what you’re in Winthrop for,” said Wilkins. “ You may well remember the advice of one of the alumni — that’s me, I’d have you know — that the fellow who doesn’t learn to work when he is in college is the fellow who doesn’t learn afterwards. Oh, I know what you’re going to say,” Wilkins added hastily as he perceived that Will was about to interrupt him. “I know all about the stuff that’s talked, but you mark my words, my youthful friend ! When you arrive at my exalted position, and look back and look down on the various and varied permutations and combinations of undergraduate life, you too will understand what I am saying. A fellow is here for business. That’s what I mean.”

“We’re here, anyway,” retorted Will quickly, as he perceived that the train was slowly approaching the station at Winthrop.

In a moment the car was filled with confusion as the entire student body arose and every boy, his hands filled with bags or bundles, made a rush for the exit. Almost as if it had been the work of magic the cars were emptied and a noisy body of students was shouting, calling, saluting on the crowded platform of the little station.

“ Come on, fellows ! ” called Will to his two friends. “ Let’s walk up.”

“ That’s right,” responded Wilkins. “ Here, take my baggage checks, will you, and have my bags sent up to the house along with your trunks ? ”

“ All right,” responded Will hastily, taking Foster’s checks as well as those of Wilkins and his own, and rushing toward an expressman he discovered in the crowd.

In a brief time he returned to the spot where his friends were awaiting him, and as he elbowed his way to them he called out, “ That’s one of the things a fellow has to be thankful for.”

“ What thing ? ” inquired Wilkins.

“ That he’s a junior and has learned how to get his baggage up to the house. See the poor freshmen.” As he spoke Will pointed derisively at the mob of students, many of whom seemed to be at a total loss as to what they were to do or where they were to go.

“ Stop and help them, Will. You’re a junior now and must stand by the freshmen.”

“ I’ll stand by them. Lucky if I don’t have to be sat on for them too. Come on.”

As they turned into the street that led toward the colleges Will for the first time was aware that there had been an addition to their party. The fourth member of the group was a smooth-faced, rosycheeked young man, short and thick-set in figure and with an expression of extreme good nature upon his round face. Will had been introduced to him, but had failed to understand what his name was. As the two fell in behind Foster and Wilkins, Will turned to his companion and said pleasantly:

“ I didn’t understand what your name was.”

“ Brown,” responded his companion.

“Yes. I’ve heard that name before,” laughed Will. “ I think there were twenty-one fellows in college last year named Brown.”

“ Then one more won’t count,” laughed the stranger.

“ Oh, it’ll count all right,” said Will lightly. “ That is,” he added magnanimously, “ it will if you make it count. Everything depends, in college life, you know, on what you make yourself worth to the college.” The full sense of his own position and dignity as a junior in Winthrop was upon Will Phelps, but he was minded to be helpful to the newcomers, and the unconscious condescension in his manner and tone toward his companion was marked, though he himself was not aware of it.