The Andover Way

iiL; ni'Aii I I M l ill I I 1 1 H 111m 1111111111111111111m 1 'llH I m l a iiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiii M M ' IImi III!! | I| Class f" V Book -FbS - ‘ COPYRIGHT DEPOSm GPO THE ANDOVER WAY Broke the tape a foot in front of his gallant Exeter RIVAL. —Page 210. THE ANDOVER WAY CLAUDE MOORE FUESS Author of 11 All for Andover ” ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN GOSS 5 BOSTON LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. Copyright, 1926, By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. All rights reserved The Andover Way Printed in U. S. A. IRorwoofc lpress Norwood, Mass. © Cl A891540 'Vvtf Affectionately Dedicated to my son JOHN CUSHING FUESS My Severest and Most Helpfid Critic CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Hero Appears .... 11 II. The Hero Displays His Ignorance 39 III. The Hero Makes a Friend 59 IV. The Hero Discovers His Muscles . 80 V. The Hero Learns by Experience . 113 VI. The Hero Becomes a Good Samar- itan . • ••••• 134 VII. The Hero Wins His Spurs 156 VIII. The Hero Widens His Horizon 179 IX. The Hero Is Under Suspicion . 202 X. The Hero Is Tried by Fire 221 XT. The Hero Reaches His Goal .' 245 XII. The Hero Amazes His Mother 279 XIII. The Hero Closes the Year 306 XIV. The Hero Says His Farewells 329 7 ILLUSTRATIONS Broke the tape a foot in front of his gallant Exeter rival (Page 270) Frontispiece FACING PAGE Obviously a new student . .16 Staggering and exhausted, Oscar let Bull take up his inert burden . 230 Mrs. Harris stopped patting her dress and turned to look at her son ....... 298 9 THE ANDOVER WAY CHAPTER I THE HERO APPEARS It was a gloriously warm and hazy morning in mid-September on Andover Hill. Four perfectly healthy young men were stretched out lazily on the grass in front of the new George Washington Hall, in attitudes which expressed disdain for all forms of mental and physical exertion. Every¬ where around them frenzied people were hurrying to and fro, shouting vague questions and consult¬ ing mysterious documents. Not far away, on the massive granite portico of the great Main Build¬ ing, were little clusters of bewildered youngsters, evidently hoping that some one would soon come along to tell them what to do. Now and then a huge truck would rumble up to Phillips or Bartlet Halls and disgorge a load of miscellaneous bag¬ gage. Indeed, these four idlers were the only ones in the immediate vicinity who looked com¬ pletely at peace with the world. 11 12 THE ANDOVER WAY They happened to be close friends who were slowly getting reacquainted after the three months of summer vacation,—friends so inti¬ mate that they were often known as the “ Four Musketeers,” Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D’Ar- tagnan. Very different in character and person¬ ality, they had certain fundamental ideas on which they were agreed, and among them they represented nearly all the important phases of Andover school life. Suddenly the chimes in the imposing Memorial Tower struck eleven, and one of the group rose on his elbow to listen attentively. “ Say, those bells do sound good to me,” he ex¬ claimed, when the last echo had died away. “ Over in Day Hall last year I used to hate them, espe¬ cially when ‘ Doc ’ Schleiermacher would wake us up by playing them early on holidays. But this summer out in Montana, off on the plains where there wasn’t any noise at all, I used to feel mighty lonely without them. The ‘ Doc’ can rattle away as much as he likes for all of me.” The speaker was a muscular, square-jawed chap, with curly auburn hair, piercing blue eyes, and a look of independence on his handsome face. His stolid indifference to the bustle near him was a THE HERO APPEARS 13 positive indication that he had been through it all before. As a matter of fact, he was a senior, “ Steve ” Fisher by name, who, as halfback on the eleven and captain of the baseball team, was a personage in the academy. But the honors which he had won did not seem to fill his companions with awe. “ That’s all piffle, you know! ” burst out a tall, dark-complexioned fellow, with a haughty manner and a somewhat cynical expression hovering over his lips. “You talk like a sweet young thing! After you’ve been back a week or two you’ll be cursing at those clanging bells like all the rest of us.” It was “ Hal ” Manning, editor of the school paper, a highly sophisticated gentleman, who liked to boast that he had tasted life and found it ashes. He resembled the Athos of Dumas’s romance, and had even been known to wear a carnation in his buttonhole. “ Oh, dry up, Hal! ” growled a burly hulk of a boy, with a neck like a Roman gladiator and yel¬ low pompadour hair. “You make me tired! Just because you dwell in Boston’s Back Bay and your Pilgrim ancestors stole Cape Cod from a tribe of helpless Indians, you consider yourself privileged to laugh at all sentiment. You really 14 THE ANDOVER WAY love Andover as much as any of us.” These re¬ marks came from “ Joe ” Watson, a genial giant, who was captain of the track team and uni¬ versally popular because of his skill as a shot- putter, his football prowess, and his good nature. He was the Porthos of the group. “ Yes,” added Steve, “ all this place has done for Hal is to teach him to conceal his unselfish impulses behind a sinister sneer. He has devel¬ oped into a model movie villain, who ought to stalk up and down gnawing his nether lip and blowing clouds of smoke into the air.” “ Well, when you come right down to it, Steve, what has Andover done for you? ” This query, in a sarcastic tone, came from the last member of the quartette, a thin youth with a rather discon¬ tented countenance, whose fondness for the spec¬ tacular was shown by his bright blazer and loud flannel knickerbockers. He was “ Ted ” Sher¬ man, manager of the football team and a very active and shrewd politician,—Aramis, beyond a doubt. “ What do you want me to answer? ” replied Steve, undisturbed by the insinuation. “ It has knocked a little sense into my bony cranium, I hope. It has made me understand that I don’t THE HERO APPEARS 15 know quite everything. That’s what it does for nearly everybody.” “ Righto! ” put in Joe, coming to Steve’s de¬ fense. “ It takes the conceit out of us. And it still has a lot to do in some cases I know.” He glanced significantly in Hal’s direction. “At last I feel at home again,” commented Hal. “ I’ve been waiting for that courteous retort. It’s the same gang that we had last year. Rave on, will you, and get it out of your systems. I’m willing to admit, if it will do any good, that I’m glad to be back, even if I do have to associate with low company once more.” The repartee was about to become more spir¬ ited, but just then Ted, rising to a sitting posture, interrupted by crying out, “ Say, what’s this com¬ ing? It’s a 4 knock-out,’ by George! You say that Andover improves men! What do you sup¬ pose even this school can do to develop stuff like that? ” Following the line of Ted’s extended finger, his companions saw what were evidently a mother and son, the latter obviously a new student. He was fully six feet in height and had a big frame, but he had a pronounced stoop forward and was very thin, so that he seemed about to float off 16 THE ANDOVER WAY at any moment in the light south breeze. His broad forehead bulged out over his eyes, which were hidden behind tortoise-shell spectacles of unusually large circumference. On his head was a wide-brimmed white fedora hat, of a type never worn in Andover except by octogenarians, and his cravat was so conspicuously crimson that it flamed in the sunlight. Little patches of hair, growing down his cheeks in the shape of “ side¬ burns/’ gave him an oddly foreign look. His tweed suit, which was tight and closely-fitted in the European style, allowed his bony wrists to project into space, like those of the famous Icha- bod Crane. He resembled nothing so much as a comic-paper caricature of little Rollo from Beacon Hill. All four boys sat up straighter to have a better view of this unexpected apparition. “What do you call it?” asked Joe in amaze¬ ment, as his eyes travelled over the strange figure. “ Name it yourself,” answered Hal. “ It looks for all the world as if the keeper of the zoo had been careless.” “ No, you’re wrong,” said Joe, who had a literal mind. “ It’s really a ‘ prep,’ and he is bringing his mother to see that he gets started right. See how he’s banging on her arm.” I <4* Ctoj) Obviously a new student .—Page 15. THE HERO APPEARS 17 “ If that is a sure-enough ‘ prep/ we’re going to have a strong candidate for Joe’s place in the line. Gase upon those legs! Wouldn’t he shine in a scrimmage? ” “ Yes,” mused Ted, “ I suppose you fellows think that this school is going to transform that kind of raw material into a finished product worth having, don’t you? ” “ I’m not so sure,” replied Steve.

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