The Eternal Boy: Being the Story of the Prodigious HickeyJohnson, Owen
General
The Eternal Boy: Being the Story of the Prodigious Hickey
Johnson, Owen
Preparatory schools -- Fiction
friendships or anything beyond the admiration of his mates.
The sympathy of the Big Man startled him, then made him uncomfortable.
He had no intention of crying out, and he did not like or understand
the new emotion that rose in him as he wondered when his sentence would
come.
"Well, youngster," he said, gruffly, "had enough? Have another round?"
"I've had enough," said the Big Man, heaving a sigh. "Let me treat,
Butcher."
"Not to-day, youngster."
"Butcher, I--I'd like to. I'm awfully flush."
"Not to-day."
"Let's match for it."
"What!" said the Butcher, fiercely, "Don't let me hear any more of that
talk. You've got to grow up first."
The Big Man, thus rebuked, acquiesced meekly. The two strolled back to
the campus in silence.
"Suppose we have a catch," said the Big Man, tentatively.
"All right," said the Butcher, smiling.
Intrenched behind a gigantic mit, the Big Man strove valorously to hold
the difficult balls. After a long period of this mitigated pleasure
they sat down to rest. Then Cap Kiefer's stocky figure appeared
around the Dickinson, and the Butcher went off for a long, solemn
consultation.
The Big Man, thus relieved of responsibility, felt terribly alone. He
went to his room and took down volume two of The Count of Monte Cristo,
and stretched out on the window-seat. Somehow the stupendous adventures
failed to enthrall him. It was still throughout the house. He caught
himself listening for the patter of Hickey's shoes above, dancing a
breakdown, or the rumble of Egghead's laugh down the hall, or a voice
calling, "Who can lend me a pair of suspenders?"
And the window was empty. It seemed so strange to look up from the
printed page and find no one in the Woodhull opposite, shaving
painfully at the window, or lolling like himself over a novel, all the
time keeping an eye on the life below. He could not jeer at Two Inches
Brown and Crazy Opdyke practising curves, nor assure them that the
Dickinson nine would just fatten on those easy ones. No one halloed
from house to house, no voice below drawled out:
"Oh, you Great _Big Man_! Stick your head out of the window!"
There was no one to call across for the time o' day, or for just
a nickel to buy stamps, or for the loan of a baseball glove, or a
sweater, or a collar button, scissors, button-hook, or fifty and one
articles that are never bought but borrowed.
The Great Big Man let The Count of Monte Cristo tumble unheeded on
the floor, seized a tennis ball, and went across the campus to the
esplanade of the Upper House, where for half an hour he bounced the
ball against the rim of the ledge, a privilege that only a fourth
former may enjoy. Tiring of this, he wandered down to the pond,
where he skimmed innumerable flat stones until he had exhausted the
attractions of this limited amusement.
"I--I'm getting homesick," he admitted finally. "I wish I had a
dog--something living--around."
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