An hour after the meeting, as he was puzzling over a Greek verb in his room, he stopped and thought. It was not a conceited thought that had flashed across his mind; but it was this: He might be here for something after all! He could see that his experience was bound to help him. He had felt somehow that these lads, so much younger than himself, were looking to him to help them through, for he had come to regard the freshman year as a very difficult term of service. He longed in truth for the comforts that upper-class men seemed to possess in being able to mind their own business, if nothing else. Yet, although a great deal of the hubbub appeared froth and foolishness to him, he had ceased to hold it all in such contempt.
Since his first night in college no one had attempted to haze or interfere with him. A few whistlings and remarks upon the campus he had ignored entirely. But he was to indulge in one little escapade (which was long afterwards remembered, by the way), and as this makes a story in itself, it may be brought in without really being a digression, before we go deeply into any one's personal history.
Congreve, Golatly, and L. Putney Betts, who
