Boys of the Central: A High-School Story

by I. T. Thurston

As Graham spoke, the mistress appeared in the hall, and inquired of the girl what the boys wanted. Graham’s face lighted up as he caught sight of her, and he stepped forward, with his cap in his hand, saying:—

“I didn’t know that you lived here, Mrs. Hayes, but we boys want some shovels and brooms to make a snow fort on the vacant lots over yonder. We’ll clear off all the steps on this block, and the sidewalk too, if we can have the use of half a dozen shovels for an hour, to build our fort.”

“You can have ours, and welcome,” said Mrs. Hayes, “and I’ll give you a note to the other people on the block. Of course you won’t forget to bring back the shovels,” she added smiling. “You see I have several brothers, and have known them to forget such things, now and then.”

“We’ll return them, sure, before we begin our snowball fight,” Graham answered; and soon, thanks to Mrs. Hayes’ note, half a dozen shovels had been handed out to the boys, who took turns at using them, and so quickly had the walks beautifully cleaned. Lee did his share under protest, but he did it, and some of the boys would have done twice as much themselves for the fun of seeing the Southern lad obliged to handle the shovel.

Then the boys trooped over to the vacant lots, and set to work to build their fort. The many hands made short work of it, even though the fort they fashioned was of goodly dimensions; and as soon as it was finished, Graham and another lad carried back the borrowed shovels. Then the two came racing back, to take part in the choice of leaders for the two parties.

A dozen names were proposed by different boys, but finally, Hamlin and Griffin were selected. They at once proceeded to choose their followers by first one, and then another, calling out a name.

In Hamlin’s party were Clark, Gordon, Freeman, Graham, Raleigh, Sherman and Reed, while Griffin’s included his own friends, with Lee, Dixon, and a few others. In all, there were sixty boys. The leaders tossed up a penny for choice of position, and it fell to Griffin and his party to hold the fort.

Then he and his men were allowed ten minutes to make and carry into the fort as many snowballs as they could, for ammunition. Meantime, Hamlin’s party was similarly employed, while he was discussing with one or two of them the best plan of attack. It was decided to first make a rush all together, and try to scale the walls all along the line. This was done, but the attempt was a failure. The walls were too high to be readily scaled, and such a storm of snowballs was showered down upon the attacking party, that Hamlin was forced to call off his men, amid exultant shouts from those in the fort.

Then Hamlin divided his men into two parties, ordering one, under Clark’s leadership, to attack one end of the fort, while he himself led the other half against the other end, thus obliging Griffin to divide his force to repel the attack.

The two parties advanced all together against the fort until they were quite near, then suddenly dividing, half turned to the left and the other half to the right. Griffin hastily sent half of his men to repel Clark’s party, while he, with the rest, beat back Hamlin and his followers. Again and again the boys outside would succeed in climbing almost to the top of the wall of snow, only to be met by a shower of balls that filled eyes, ears and mouths, while strong hands pushed and shoved them down the slippery walls, shouts and yells of derision following them as they descended.