From morning until night he kept them on the move, taking them to all
his favorite haunts in the town and out in the country, introducing to
them whole flocks of his friends, with whom they had tea and lunch;
guiding them into the strange quiet chapels that were filled with the
aroma of dead years like a bowl of dry rose-leaves; going with them into
the sweet, quiet, sacred, stately seclusion of New College Garden and
into the echoing cloisters of Magdalen. They were good days, memorable
days, giving them all mental pictures that even time would not blur nor
age rub out. To Peter the best of all the afternoons was the one when he
looked up at the St. John's barge as he paddled out into the river in
the College Eight and caught the eager and excited eyes of all the
people who meant so much to him, and especially those of Betty. He rowed
that afternoon as he had never rowed before, carrying with him all along
the stream the raucous shouts of the members of his college who tore
along the tow-path almost demented with enthusiasm, firing pistols,
turning rattles and screaming "St. John's! St. John's! Give her ten!
Give her ten! Up! Up!" And finally, when he staggered out of the boat
almost sick from exertion, his knees shaking under him, the thought that
came to him as he heard the incessant cries of "Good old Peter!" was
"Thank God for this! The Governor will get something back for all he has
done for me." He just waved his hand to his people, felt his way into
the barge, laid himself flat on the floor and underwent the soothing
process of being rubbed and sponged down--and all the while he smiled
and was very happy.
He didn't catch the look of maternal agony in his mother's eyes nor her
remarks--which was perhaps just as well. Seeing her great big boy
crumpled up over his oar before he was assisted out of the boat, seeing
him stand rocking like a drunken man with his great chest heaving and
his face the color of a green apple, she leaned over the rail and cried
out: "Oh, my dear, what _have_ they done to you? Oh, Hunter, you must
_not_ let him do these things, he'll kill himself! Oh, Peter, Peter!"
As a matter of fact, no one heard her. There was too much good solid
roar going on. Every lusty-throated St. John's man was shouting at the
full capacity of his lungs. Oh, but it was a good scene! And for the
quiet, studious Doctor who had sat day after day for the greater part of
his life watching bacteriological experiments, with the most intense
interest, it was one that caused his blood to move almost dangerously
through his veins and make him shout for the first time in his life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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