Boarding schools -- Juvenile fiction; Football stories; School sports -- Juvenile fiction; Teenage boys -- Juvenile fiction
To reach the assembly hall, which occupied the entire first floor
rear section of East Hall, just as the dining hall occupied the same
location on the other side, Clif had to go the length of Middle Hall,
pass into the wider corridor of the newer building beyond, turn left
and follow the main corridor to the staircase. East Hall, save for a
dozen rooms on the third floor, was devoted principally to the use of
the Junior School, composed of boys between the ages of eleven and
fourteen. Mr. Clendenin, known as “Wim” because of his invariable
custom of signing himself “Wm. Clendenin,” was at the head. The Juniors
had their own parlor, recreation room, library, reading room, game room
and office on the ground floor. They ate, however, in the dining hall
in West and shared the class rooms in Middle with the older students.
Middle, once containing all there was of the school, had long since
been remodeled into class rooms only.
Doctor Wyndham, the Principal, occupied a suite of three rooms and
bath on the second floor of East Hall. Other suites, smaller, similar
to Mr. McKnight’s, were situate in each of the newer buildings, and
accommodated fourteen faculty members.
Clif descended the stairway to the first floor corridor. At the far
end the vicinity of the assembly hall entrance was crowded with boys
who, waiting outside until the last moment, had now begun to crowd
through the wide doorway. Clif concluded that he was the last one to
arrive, but he wasn’t, since, as he passed the open door of a room
beyond Mr. Clendenin’s office, he was obliged to step quickly aside
to avoid collision with a wheel chair which, emerging noiselessly on
rubber tires, had given him no warning. The chair was occupied by a boy
a year or so Clif’s senior. A dark plaid rug covered the lower part of
his body. On a shelf stretched between the chair arms lay a book and
a fountain pen. The occupant of the chair propelled it by the wheels,
turning it deftly to avoid Clif and directing it along the corridor
toward assembly hall. He smiled an apology as he did so. Noting that he
was obliged to lean forward slightly to grasp the wheels, or, rather, a
rim that projected from them for the purpose of propulsion, Clif said
impulsively:
“Let me be chauffeur, won’t you?”
The boy in the chair looked back and smiled again. “Why, thanks. I’m
just going to the assembly hall, and it really isn’t hard, but if you
don’t mind giving me a shove――”
“Glad to,” said Clif heartily.
By the time they had reached the door the throng had thinned to a few
embarrassed, giggling juniors, and, at the other’s request, Clif
wheeled the chair just inside the portal. Doctor Wyndham was already on
the platform and the fellows were clapping loudly. The boy in the chair
smiled his thanks and Clif tiptoed across to Tom, who had saved a seat
for him in the rear row.
“Who’s that fellow?” asked Tom in whispers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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