THE GOLDEN HOUR SERIES _A new series of books for young people, bound in extra cloth, with illuminated designs, illustrations, and title-pages made especially for each volume_ A LITTLE DUSKY HERO. By Harriet T. Comstock. THE CAXTON CLUB. By Amos R. Wells. THE CHILD AND THE TREE. By Bessie Kenyon Ulrich. DAISIES AND DIGGLESES. By Evelyn Raymond. HOW THE TWINS CAPTURED A HESSIAN. By James Otis. THE I CAN SCHOOL. By Eva A. Madden. MASTER FRISKY. By Clarence W. Hawkes. MISS DE PEYSTER’S BOY. By Etheldred B. Barry. MOLLY. By Barbara Yechton. THE WONDER SHIP. By Sophie Swett. WHISPERING TONGUES. By Homer Greene. PRICE PER VOLUME, NET, 50 CENTS THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. NEW YORK [Illustration: “WILL YOU ALWAYS STRIVE TO UPHOLD THE DIGNITY OF OUR MOST NOBLE ORDER?”] [Illustration: title page] WHISPERING TONGUES BY HOMER GREENE _New York Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. Publishers._ Copyright, 1902, By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. TO Prof. William Wells, LL.D. KNOWN AND LOVED BY MANY GENERATIONS OF UNION COLLEGE STUDENTS AS “BILLY WELLS,” THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED “_Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth; And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny and youth is vain; And to be wroth with one we love Doth work like madness in the brain._” _SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE._ CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. THE MOONLIGHT RUSH 9 CHAPTER II. THE GAMMA QUESTERS 21 CHAPTER III. BEFORE THE FACULTY 35 CHAPTER IV. THE QUARREL OF FRIENDS 49 CHAPTER V. A COWARDLY REVENGE 61 CHAPTER VI. ALMOST A TRAGEDY 74 CHAPTER VII. THE WELCOME HOME 87 WHISPERING TONGUES. CHAPTER I. THE MOONLIGHT RUSH. It’s a way we have at Old Concord; It’s a way we have at Old Concord; It’s a way we have at Old Concord; To drive dull care away.