Merriwell, Frank (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction; Yale University -- Juvenile fiction
"Perhaps you don't all know it," he said, "but some of you will remember
that there was an incident connected with my initiation that was not on
the programme."
The room became very quiet. All the seniors had been informed of
Miller's attempt to do Frank an injury, and the only ones there who did
not know it were the graduates and a few members of the faculty.
"I think my friends know me well enough," Frank continued, "to believe
me when I say that I haven't the slightest desire to be revenged upon
the man who put me in such danger of my life. It was a low-down,
dastardly trick and the work of a coward."
There was a low murmur of assent at this.
"A man who would do such a thing as that," Frank went on, "is really
unworthy the contempt of a Yale student and so from one standpoint it
might be well enough to let the matter drop.
"On the other hand, we are bound to consider the possibility of such a
thing happening again. If the man who did the trick escapes without any
sort of punishment, he may attempt it again, or he may boast of it to
some companion as cowardly and mean as himself, and the result may be
that at some future time a student may be treated in a similar way and
not have the luck to come out of it as well as I did."
Frank paused a moment, for the deathly silence with which his hearers
listened was a little embarrassing.
"I have said that I didn't care for revenge," he said, in a moment, "but
now that I am a full-fledged member of Pi Gamma, I feel that I have a
right to look at it as an offense against the society rather than
against me as an individual."
"Right!" exclaimed one of the seniors, in a low tone. Others nodded
approval.
"I think it would be dignified and proper," Frank continued, "for the
society to take some kind of action on the matter, and if it is
allowable I should like to make a suggestion."
"Go ahead," said Baker, promptly; "there is no member from whom a
suggestion on this matter would be more fitting. What do you think we
should do?"
"I'm not thinking," Frank answered, "of passing any vote to do one thing
or another, but it strikes me that in a perfectly harmless way we can
take the law into our own hands a bit and fix Miller, for there's no
doubt that he was the guilty one, so that he will never molest a student
again as long as he lives.
"You see," and he smiled good-humoredly, "I'm fresh from my experience
with the tortures of Pi Gamma."
All the listeners smiled broadly.
"It is one thing," he added, "to endure these tortures with a feeling
that you are in the hands of your friends, but quite another, I should
think, to go through such an ordeal with a feeling that the fiends and
demons surrounding you are hostile.
"I can tell you frankly that for my own part, during the worst parts of
the initiation, I felt always that you were friends of mine and that I
was perfectly safe to trust myself in your hands no matter what
extravagant things you seemed to be doing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account