“Aw, don’t remind me of it, Wade. I hate to face the Old Man and hear sentence pronounced.”
“Well, you’ve got to face the music. I hope he gives it to Gould and Pell as stiff as he can. Blast ’em! If it hadn’t been for that dirty trick Gould pulled you wouldn’t be in this peck of trouble. Go ahead. Wash up.”
Jeff made little ceremony of his morning toilet. He turned on the water in the wash basin until it gushed out with such a splash that it spattered the walls and slopped over onto the floor. Then, in his undershirt and trousers, he plunged his head and arms into the basin and wallowed around like a seal, puffing and snorting and blowing and adding a great deal more to the water that was already on the floor, until presently there seemed to be more there than there was in the bowl. Then he came up for air, and with eyes squeezed tight shut and his face distorted, he began feeling around for a towel, which Wade obligingly wadded up into a ball and threw at him, shouting at the same time:
“There, you blamed hippopotamus; there’s your towel. Why in the dickens do you have to have the floor knee deep in water before you feel you are properly washed. Now I’ve got to put on my rubber boots or my bathing suit before I can cross the room to get my necktie. Every time you take a wash this room looks like that painting of Washington crossing the Delaware, only more so.”
“Aw, let me alone. You’ll be sorry when I’m not around to muss up your old floor. You wait and see.”
“Jingoes, you’re right I will, Jeff. I— Great guns, there goes the first bell. Grab your things and get ’em on. Come on quick.”
A mad scramble followed and both fellows only just squeezed into the last of their clothing as the final bell rang and they dashed for the hall and the chapel door.
But Jeff’s thoughts were far from being on the services and the announcements. Indeed, when he was thrown back among the boys again he realized once more with an aching heart how hard it was going to be to leave all this behind, and the prospects of a position on the Freeman did not seem half as alluring as it had the night before.
Somehow news of the fight had got through the school and Jeff found himself the object of admiring glances from the Freshmen and glowering looks from the Sophomores, and when the boys filed out from chapel Buck Hart, Rabbit Warren, Cas Gorham and Brownie Davis, got him aside and congratulated him.
“Great stuff, old fellow. Wish you’d have given him a black eye for me. That’s a fine lump he has on his cheek and his nose will never be the same,” said Buck.