I was given a chum, and he was as full of mischief and conceit as boys generally are in the presence of one not so experienced as they are.
My father thought I might be able to go through to graduation, and therefore wanted me to take up studies accordingly.
Latin was one of the first I was down for, this was in Professor Campbell's room.
We filed in the first morning, and he took our names, and said he was glad to see us, hoped we would have a pleasant time together, etc., and then said, "Gentlemen, you can take the first declension for to-morrow."
What was the first declension, what did you do with it, how learn it, how recite it? My, how these questions bothered me the rest of the day! I finally found the first declension. I made up my mind that I would be the first to be called on to-morrow. Oh, what a stew I was in! I dared not ask anybody for fear of ridicule, and thus I was alone. I staid in my room, I pored over that page of my Latin grammar, I memorized the whole page. I could have repeated it backwards. It troubled me all night, and next day I went to my class trembling and troubled; but, to my great joy, I was not called upon, and without having asked anyone, I saw through the lesson, and a load went off my mind.
After that first hour in the class-room, I saw then that after all I was as capable as many others around me, and was greatly comforted. But my rascal of a chum, noticing that I stuck to my Latin grammar a great deal, one day, when I was out of the room, took and smeared the pages of my lesson with mucilage and shut the book, thus destroying that part for me, and putting me in another quandary.
However, I got over that, and "laid low" for my chum, for he was soon at his tricks again. This time he knotted and twisted my Sunday clothes, as they hung in the room.
And now my temper was up. I went out on to the playground, found him among a crowd, and caught him by the throat, tripped him up and got on him, and said, "You villain! You call me an Indian; I will Indian you, I will—scalp you!" And with this, with one hand on his throat, I felt for my knife with the other, when he began to call "Murder!" The boys took me off, and I laid my case before them, and showed them how the young rascal had treated me. And now the crowd took my part, and I was introduced.
After that everybody knew me, and I had lots of friends.
Before long I "cleaned out" the crowd in running foot-races, and proved myself the equal of any at "long jump" and "hop, step and jump." This made me one of the boys, and even my chum began to be proud of me.