DEERING OF DEAL [Illustration: LOGO] THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO [Illustration: “DON’T HAVE A FIT, DEERING, IT’S ONLY MACLAREN”] DEERING OF DEAL OR THE SPIRIT OF THE SCHOOL BY LATTA GRISWOLD “_Toujours fidèle et sans souci_” New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1914 _All rights reserved_ COPYRIGHT, 1912 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1912. Reprinted July, 1913, July, 1914. PRESS OF T. MOREY & SON GREENFIELD, MASS., U. S. A. To JOHN GLENOE WRIGHT LEE HALL JONES ROBERT GROSVENOR LUCIUS SCOTT LANDRETH, JR. HARRY L. FENNER SAMUEL M. SHOEMAKER, JR. in warm friendship and in memory of many happy days at school FOREWORD The Author desires to state that none of the characters in this story, either boys or masters, are portraits. The incidents are entirely fictitious, and Deal School, though it shares certain topographical features with the school with which the Author is connected, exists only in his imagination. ST. GEORGE’S SCHOOL, NEWPORT: _18 April, 1912_. [Illustration: MAP OF DEAL SCHOOL] CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. DEAL SCHOOL 1 II. A HAZING BEE 10 III. “PAX” 24 IV. MICHAELMAS TERM 35 V. THE BOXFORD GAME 47 VI. AFTERMATH 61 VII. LOVEL’S WOODS 71 VIII. A MIDNIGHT LARK 87 IX. AN ENDING 107 X. FINCH 120 XI. THE DISCOMFITURE OF DUCKY THORNTON 130 XII. A GATING AND A GAME 146 XIII. THE NIGHT OF THE BONFIRE 159 XIV. THE SPECTACLE 169 XV. TONY PLAYS THE PART OF A GUARDIAN ANGEL 188 XVI. A RIFT IN FRIENDSHIP 204 XVII. LEAVE-TAKING 216