Part 9 (1/2)
”I--I hope that the one you have chosen to appeal to Thor--” spoke Theophilus timorously, ”will succeed, for--Oh, Iwant him to be dropped from the squad, and--”
Big Butch Brewster, who had been gazing at little Theophilus Opperd.y.k.e with a basilisk glare that perturbed the bewildered Human Encyclopedia, suddenly strode across the room and placed his hand on the grind's thin shoulders.
”Theophilus, old man, it's up to you!” he said earnestly. ”Thor has a strong regard for you; in fact, outside of his good-natured tolerance for Hicks, you alone have his friends.h.i.+p. Now I want you to go to him, Theophilus, and make a last appeal to Thor. Try to awaken him, to make him understand his peril of being dropped from the squad, unless he plays the game for his college! It's for old Bannister, old man, for your Alma Mater--”
”Go to it, Theophilus!” urged Beef McNaughton. ”Coach Corridan said Thor might be suddenly awakened by a shock, but no electric battery can shock that Colossus, and, besides, miracles don't happen nowadays. Yes, it's up to you, old man.”
For a moment little Theophilus, his big-rimmed spectacles falling off as fast as he replaced them, and his puny frame tense with excitement, hesitated. Sitting on the extreme edge of the chair, he surveyed his comrades solemnly and was convinced that they were in earnest. Then, ”I--I will , sir!” exclaimed Theophilus, who wouldforget his Freshman training. ”I'mHicks, or somebody, could do It better than I; but--I'll try!”
CHAPTER IX
THEOPHILUS' MISSIONARY WORK
”College ties can ne'er be broken-- Loyal will remain each heart; Though the last farewell be spoken-- And from Bannister we part!
”Bannister, Bannister, hail, all hail!
Echoes softly from each heart; We'll be ever loyal to thee-- Till we from life shall part!”
Theophilus Opperd.y.k.e, the timorous, intensely studious Human Encyclopedia, stood at the window of John Thorwald's study room. That behemoth, desiring quiet, had moved his study-table and chair to a vacant room across the second-floor corridor of Creighton, the Freshman dormitory, when the Bannister youths cheered him, and he was still there, so that Theophilus, on his mission, had finally located him by his low rumblings, as he laboriously read out his Latin. The little Senior was gazing across the brightly lighted Quadrangle. He could see into the rooms of the other cla.s.s dormitories, where the students studied, skylarked, rough-housed, or conversed on innumerable topics; from a room in Nord.y.k.e, the abode of care-free Juniors, a splendidly blended s.e.xtette sang songs of their Alma Mater, and their rich voices drifted across the Quad. to Thor and Theophilus:
”Though thy halls we leave forever Sadly from the campus turn; Yet our love shall fail thee never For old Bannister we'll yearn!
Bannister, Bannister, hail, all hail!”
Theophilus turned from the window, and looked despairingly at that young Colossus, Thor. The behemoth Norwegian, oblivious to everything except the geometry problem now causing him to sweat, rested his ma.s.sive head on his palms, elbows on the study-table, and was lost in the intricate labyrinth of ”Let the line ABC equal the line BVD.” The frail chair creaked under his ponderous bulk. On the table lay an unopened letter that had come in the night's mail, for, tackling one problem, the bulldog Hercules never let go his grip until he solved it, and nothing else, not even Theophilus, could secure his attention. Hence the Human Encyclopedia, trembling at the terrific importance of the mission entrusted to him, waited, thrilled by the Juniors' songs, which failed to penetrate Thor's mind.
”Oh, whatI do?” breathed Theophilus, sitting down nervously on the edge of a chair and peering owlishly over his big-rimmed spectacles at the stolid John Thorwald. ”I am sure that, in time, I can help Thor to--to know campus life better; but-- is his last chance! He will be dropped from the squad, unless--”
As Thor at last leaned back and gazed at his little comrade, just then, to the tune of ”My Old Kentucky Home,” an augmented chorus drifted across the Quadrangle:
”And we'll sing one song For the college that we love-- For our dear old Bannister--good-by”
To the Bannister students there was something tremendously queer in the friends.h.i.+p of Theophilus and Thor. That the huge Freshman, of all the collegians, should have chosen the timorous little b.o.n.e.r was most puzzling.
Yet, to T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., a keen reader of human nature, it was clear; Thorwald thought of nothing but study, Theophilus was a grind, though he possessed intense college spirit, hence Thor was naturally drawn to the little Senior by the mutual bond of their interest in books, and Theophilus, with his hero-wors.h.i.+ping soul, intensely admired the splendid purpose of John Thorwald, toiling to gain knowledge, because of the promise of his dying mother. The grind, who thought that next to T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., Thor was the ”greatest ever,” as Hicks phrased it, had been, doing what that care-free collegian termed ”missionary work,” with the stolid, unimaginative Prodigious Prodigy for some weeks. Thrilled with the thought that he worked for his Alma Mater, he quietly strove to make Thorwald glimpse the true meaning and purpose of college life and its broadness of development. The loyal Theophilus lost no opportunity of impressing his behemoth friend with the sacred traditions of the campus, or of explaining why Thor was wrong in characterizing all else than study as foolishness and waste of time.
”Thor,” began Theophilus timidly yet determinedly, for he was serving old Bannister now, ”old man, do you feel that you are giving the fellows at Bannister a square deal?”
John Thorwald, slowly tearing open the letter that had come that night, and had lain, unnoticed, on the study-table while he wrestled with his geometry, turned suddenly. The Human Encyclopedia's vast earnestness and the strange query he had fired at Thor, surprised even that stolid mammoth.
”Why, what do you mean, Theophilus?” spoke Thor slowly. ”A square deal?
Why, I owe them nothing! I sacrifice my time for them, leaving my studies to go out and waste precious time foolishly on football. Why--”
”I mean this,” Theophilus kept doggedly on, his earnest desire to stir Thor conquering his natural timidity. ”You were brought to old Bannister by Hicks, who made a great mystery of you, so we knew nothing of you; but the fellows all thought you were willing to play football. Then, after they got enthused, and builded hopes of the champions.h.i.+p on , came your quitting. Hicks defended you, Thor, and changed the boys' bitter condemnation to vast admiration, by telling of your life, your father's being a castaway, your mother's dying wish, your toil to get learning, and your inability to grasp college life. Then from grat.i.tude to Mr. Hicks you started to play again--naturally, the students waxed enthusiastic, when you ripped the 'Varsity to pieces, but now you may be dropped by the coach, after tomorrow, because you don't play for old Bannister, and your indifference kills the team's fighting spirit. You do not care if you are dropped; it will give you more time to study, and relieve you of your obligation, as you so quixotically view it, to play because Mr. Hicks will be glad; but--think of the fellows.
”They, Thor, disappointed in you, their hopes of your bringing by your ma.s.sive body and huge strength the Champions.h.i.+p to old Bannister shattered, are still your friends--they of the eleven, I mean especially, for, as yet, the rest do not know you may be dropped. And the fellows came beneath your window tonight to cheer you; they will do so, Thor, even if you are dropped and they know that you will not use that prodigious power for their Alma Mater in the big games; they will stand by you, for they understand! Just think, old man; haven't the fellows, despite your rude rebuffs,to be your comrades? Haven't they helped you to get settled to work and a.s.sisted you with your studies? Why, you have been a big boor, cold and aloof, you have upset their hopes of you in football, and yet they have no condemnation for you, naught but warm friendliness.
”You are not giving them or yourself a square deal, Thor! You won't evento understand campus life, to grasp its real purpose, to realize what tradition is! The time will come, Thor, when you will see your mistake; you will yearn for their good fellows.h.i.+p, you will learn that getting knowledge is not all of college life. You will know that this 'silly foolishness' of singing songs and giving the yell, of rooting for the eleven, of loyalty and love for one's Alma Mater, is something worth while. And you may find it out too late. Oh, if you could only understand that it isn't what you take from old Bannister that makes a man of you, it is what you give to your college--in athletics, in your studies, in every phase of campus life; that in toiling and sacrificing for your Alma Mater you grow and develop, and reap a rich reward!”