“Oh, piffle! Ordway’s just like any of us—except that he happens to be English and have a Lord or a Duke or something for a father. I don’t know him very well myself, but that’s just because he trains with the football crowd—Blake and Winslow and that bunch. But I know him plenty well enough to visit, and that’s just what we’ll do this evening, Dud.”
“Maybe we’d better leave it for some other night,” replied Dud uneasily. “I’ve got a lot of lessons tonight and——”
“Ha, ha!” laughed Jimmy mirthlessly. “Where have I heard that before?” He pulled himself from his chair with a groan and pointed a stern finger at his chum. “You’ll start right in with me this very evening, Dud, and be a regular feller! And no more punk excuses, either! I’m going to take you in hand, son, and when I get through with you you won’t know yourself. Here, stop that!”
“What?” asked Dud startledly.
“You know what! You were beginning to wonder! I saw you! No more of that, understand? The first time I catch you wondering I’ll—I’ll take my belt to you!”
CHAPTER II
THE ENTERING WEDGE
If you have by any chance read a previous narrative of events at Grafton School entitled “Rivals for the Team” you are sufficiently acquainted with the scene of this story, and, also, with many of the characters. But since it is quite possible that you have never even heard of the former narrative, it devolves on the historian to introduce a certain amount of descriptive matter at about this stage, something he has as little taste for as have you. Descriptions are always tiresome, and so we’ll have this as short as possible.
Grafton School, then, occupies a matter of ten acres a half-mile east of the town of that name and at the foot of the hill which is known as Mount Grafton. Like many another New England school, it is shaded by elms, boasts many fine expanses of velvety turf and, so to speak, laves its feet in a gently-flowing river. The buildings on the campus consist of three dormitories, the more venerable School Hall, the gymnasium and the Principal’s residence, and of these all save the two latter stretch in a straight line across the middle of the three-acre expanse. The gymnasium is slightly back from the line and the Principal’s cottage is a bit in advance, its vine-covered porch looking along the fronts of the other buildings and its rear windows peering down into Crumbie Street. School Hall is in the center. Trow comes next on the left, and then Lothrop. On the right of the older building stands Manning, which shelters the younger boys, and somewhat “around the corner” is the gymnasium.
Graveled walks lead across the campus, under spreading elm trees, to Crumbie Street on one side, to River Street on the other, to School Street straight in front. Beyond School Street is the Green, a block-wide parallelogram on which, at the corner of School and River Streets, two smaller dormitories stand. These, Morris and Fuller, are converted dwellings of limited accommodations. The main walk from the steps of School Hall continues across the Green to Front Street, beyond which, descending gently to the Needham River, is Lothrop Field. An ornamental wall and gate commemorate the name of the giver. The Field House flanks the steps on the left and beyond lie the football gridirons, the baseball diamonds, the tennis courts and the blue-gray cinder track. The distant weather-stained building on the river bank is the boathouse.