“No,” said Tommy, “I can’t sing.”
“It’s a great thing to get on the glee club. But no matter; you’re certain to make the football team, and that’s better yet. Nothing’s too good for you if you’re on the team. Wait till you see the Yale game!”
Tommy drew a deep breath of joy and longing. Would it ever come true? Was it not all a dream, that would presently fade and vanish? He looked about again at the great buildings, the long, winding walks, the level, close-clipped campus.
The extent and complexity of the college world dazzled him. He began to understand what a great college really is, and his heart leaped to a faster measure at the thought that he would one day be a part of it. He watched the students sauntering along the walks, smoking and chatting, and wondered if any of them had come from such a place as New River valley. He was quite sure that none had—he did not know that these boys were gathered together from every quarter of the world, and that some of them had worked their way up from even lower depths than the coal-mines.
“Let’s have another try at locating Ralph,” said Reeves, after a time, and they again clambered up to his room in Reunion. They found a boy lolling lazily on the window-seat, gazing out across the campus. He looked around as they entered.
“Isn’t this Ralph Reeves’s room?” asked Reeves, hesitating on the threshold.
“Yep,” said the stranger. “At least, part of it is. The other part’s mine. I’m his room-mate. What do you want with him?”
“I want to see him. He’s my brother.”
“Oh, is he?” And the owner of the room looked at them with considerably more interest. “Well, I’m afraid you won’t see him. He went up to New York last night to see Mansfield. He can’t get back till this evening, and I don’t much expect him before to-morrow morning.”
Reeves concealed as well as he could the disappointment which this announcement caused him.