Columbia High soon settled down to the duties of the season, and that year Prof. Tyson Parke admitted that the averages had never been so high. He secretly gave it as his opinion that the encouragement which clean athletics met with in his school, backed by the far-seeing trustees, was the cause for this increased interest shown by the pupils in their studies.
Lanky was very proud of his gold watch. He had to show it about twenty times a day for weeks after the long run, and the victory won, had gained him such a prize. And then his father, fearing that it was making him vain, bought him a dollar nickel timepiece, which he said was good enough for the rough-and-tumble school life of a boy. The prize was put away; only to be worn on Sundays, and special occasions; for it would do him when he grew up.
During the vacation that now loomed up before them, some of the boys who have figured extensively in these stories were to decide whether they would go to college, or, as Frank had suggested, take a post-graduate course under Prof. Parke; since their parents considered them rather young to break away from all home ties, and face the many temptations that beset the college student, especially in his freshman year.
Bill Klemm recovered, though he was laid up for two months. And there were many who echoed what the good doctor told Bill and his parents, that only for the first aid to the injured tactics of Frank Allen, the boy would hardly have pulled through. It doubtless would serve as a lesson to Bill, and everybody hoped for the sake of his parents that he would reform his ways.
If, as seems likely, Frank and a number of his chums who reached the graduation class on the last June school exhibition decide to stay in Columbia High another year, we shall hope and expect to meet them again amid scenes of boyish sports, where the honor of the school is the magnet that leads the contestants on to do their level best.
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.