“I can guess who’d get an increase,” Owen remarked.
“Not very hard to do that. I wish you’d guess how I’m going to get twelve points this summer.”
“Buck up and work, you idiot!” cried Donald, impatiently.
“That’s what I’m going to do, isn’t it?” Duncan retorted. “I know what I’m up against without your rubbing it in.”
At this juncture Owen, regardless of the fact that by staying five minutes longer and using a little diplomacy he could involve the twins in a first-class scrap, virtuously said good-by and returned, somewhat depressed, to his packing. He liked Duncan Peck too well to hear of his troubles with unconcern. He hoped sincerely that the boy would get off a lot of points in September, and that the new room-mate would prove to be of the right sort.
CHAPTER II
ARCHER RECEIVES
The middle of September was past. The school authorities had survived the worst of the confusion of registering, allotting rooms, smothering complaints, turning away unpromising applicants, evading the tearful entreaties of parents, arranging schedules, laying down rules. The second-hand furniture dealers were sold out, having reaped a cash harvest of a hundred per cent on goods bought of the mortally impecunious three months before. The student dealers in fountain pens and athletic supplies were making hay in dazzling sunshine. Football, the great industry of autumn, clamored for devotees. The first notes of the year-long wail over the food at Alumni Hall already floated in the air. With screech of bearings and groan of ill-fitting machinery, the Seaton mill had begun its one hundred and twenty-third manufacturing season. Would the product be worth while? It depended quite as much on the quality of the raw material provided as on the process of manufacture.
Sam Archer came to Seaton with vague but highly colored expectations, due in no small measure to the entertaining reminiscences of adventure and romance which his Uncle Fred delighted to tell. Uncle Fred had preceded him in school by twenty-odd years. The school had been smaller then, and the life simpler. The boys still boarded around the village in private houses, the sports were general affairs requiring no special training, the school itself formed a big fraternity with few distinctions except such as come naturally to superior personality. Uncle Fred, being a bright, friendly, whole-souled fellow, learning easily and possessing a natural aptitude for games of all kinds, had been a conspicuous figure in the school. He looked backward upon his Seaton days as the happiest period of his life; Sam looked forward to his with an eagerness born of long-fondled hopes.
Sam moved into 7 Hale, to which he had been assigned, and waited to see what kind of a comrade this appointed room-mate was to be. When two days went by without sign of a Peck, he called at the office and learned that the absentee was expected on the morrow; his coming, however, depended on the results of the examinations which he was taking in Cambridge; if he did not appear, another room-mate would be provided.