“Well, the crowd will be here to-morrow,” observed Bill.
“Yes, and then for some lively times,” added Pete.
“How do you mean?” asked Bill.
“Initiations, and hazing and all that. But we’ll have to stand it.”
“Surest thing you know,” declared Cap. “We all want to make the ball team this spring, and if we balk out of the hazing I know what that means.”
“Are you going to take all that comes?” asked Bill.
“Well, up to a certain point, but if it gets too strenuous, I’ll take a hand myself. But we can’t tell until the time comes. Now let’s get to bed.”
Lively were the scenes that took place the next day. With the arrival of many new students, the return of old ones, the assigning of the boys to their rooms, the making up of classes, it is a wonder that poor old “Prexy’” did not desert. But he took everything calmly, and soon a sort of order came out of chaos.
The Smith boys found themselves in the midst of a lively colony of students in their dormitory. There were five rooms on a short corridor, and of these our heroes had three. Pete’s apartment was between those of Bill and John’s, while the letter’s adjoined the room of Donald Anderson, a new lad who was at once dubbed “Whistle-Breeches” by some senior from the fact that Donald wore corduroy trousers, which squeaked or “whistled” as he walked. As soon as he learned why he was so christened, he got rid of the offending garments, but the name stuck, and “Whistle-Breeches” he remained to the end of his course.
Next to Bill there roomed a well-dressed, supercilious lad, who was reputed to be quite wealthy, and his overbearing manners added to this surmise. He was James Guilder, but he was at once christened “Bondy” for he had boasted of his father’s stocks and bonds.