College stories, American; Princeton (N.J.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Princeton University -- Fiction
But Hill was enjoying everything. He thought the colored lights were
"pretty," and he considered it good fun, loafing in this large,
luxurious room. He glanced approvingly at the water-colors and
examined the photographs and knocked down a few of them, and looked
over the mugs and the foils and the antlers and the usual dust
collectors of a well-furnished room. Then, because he approved of what
he saw, he grinned.
He had grinned at the staring crowd when, half an hour before, it had
stood to one side for him and the other spreers to pass by on the way
back from weighing at the gymnasium. He thought lots of things were
funny. He grinned broadly when, before the spree began, an excitable
junior approached him in the corner where he was sitting alone and
said, in jerky, tremulous tones, "Say, which do you think will win?"
This was before the crowd was put out. That was the funniest thing of
all--the way Cunningham put the crowd out. "Dash it! I wish to dash
you fellows would dash quickly get to dash out of here. This is my
room and, dash it all, I loaned it to the dash freshmen spreers and
not to the whole dash college, dash it!" That was so funny that Hill
let loose his huge laugh and filled up the room with it. This caused
the other freshmen to look at one another and smile pityingly. But
Hill did not notice it.
The other freshmen had little in common with Hill. It was not so much
because he was uncouth as that he had no class spirit. He had entered
college two days late, and those two days are like two years in some
respects. He had missed the class meeting, where freshmen get a first
sight of one another which lasts always, and he had missed the class
rush about the cannon, where freshmen are so closely pressed together
that they never after get quite apart. But the farmer should have
wakened up by this time. Lack of class spirit is never pardonable.
This is the way Hill happened to be here this evening.
One day early in the term, as he was pushing his big chest across the
campus to recitation, he heard someone call: "Hold up, there, you big
freshman!" So he smiled and took off his ugly derby hat.
"No, I'm not a sophomore; I'm a junior," said the stranger, who then
explained that he wanted to talk to him. "You come to my room at one
o'clock, and don't forget about it," said the junior. "Run along, now;
the bell is stopping."
Hill came, and found several other freshmen there. "Take hold of this
stick," said the junior.
He put his big fists about it and found himself flying across the
room. He landed against the door and beside him lay a table, which
never arose.
"Now, that is cane-spreeing," said the junior casually, as one would
say, "Down there is the new Art building," "and I want all you fellows
to meet me at eight o'clock back of chapel."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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