[CHAPTER XVII]
[THE MAKING OF A FAN]
Hiram Parker lived in the house with Hal and Hans. He it was who had rented the third floor room at Mrs. Malcolm’s on the same day that Hans had moved in. He had not arrived until the day following Hans and, as said before, prepared his own meals in his rooms, and was such a quiet, serious fellow that neither Hans nor Hal got very well acquainted with him, or in fact saw him very often. Parker was a Senior. He was well thought of in the university, especially among the members of the Senior Class, who knew him for his earnestness.
Parker was a poor farmer’s son. He had to work harder than any other fellow in the university, and he had to do the things the hardest way. Not over bright naturally, he had to make his way by hard study and he was able by the force of his will to overcome obstacles which one with less determination would have balked at. When he entered the university he was thirty-five years old. He was so poor and the little money he earned in vacation time was really such a small amount that he had less to spend than any other fellow in the school and he devoted all of his time to his studies and paid no attention to the social features of college life, and very little more to athletic affairs.
Shortly after the last holiday vacation he had found himself still more cramped for funds, and finding that Mrs. Malcolm would let him have the third floor front room for twenty-five cents per week less that he had been paying, he had taken her room and moved in. His constant struggle was to be able to live long enough to get through his course, and he allowed himself no penny’s worth of spending money, nor any recreation whatever. He had his mind on the main chance all the time and for him it was to be graduated with honors from Lowell.
Parker was narrow-minded then, but he became a great preacher in later years and broadened out a lot. His life was altogether serious, and being much older than Hans and Hal and having undertaken to complete the college course in three years instead of four he was too serious even for a fellow of Hans’ disposition, who while earnest in all things, managed to get the most out of life as he went along.
Occasionally the boys would meet Parker on the way home or on the stairs. Being full of baseball all the time, they tried to talk about it to Parker. He would listen attentively when they showed their enthusiasm in this way and then he’d say, “I don’t know anything about the game, boys. Never saw but one in my life and when it was over, I knew less about it than before. It looks like a good game for a lot of lunatics.”
“You wouldn’t think that way if you knew the game,” said Hal. “Nothing like it for exercising all the muscles and keeping you strong and healthy.”
“Clears your brain just to watch a game if you understand it,” said Hans. “Rests your brain after the hard work of study.”