RAEPH STEWART stood on the rear platform of the car waving his hand in a reply to the good-byes that a group of boys called after him as the train pulled out. He couldn’t control his voice to answer them, but there was a wistful look in his face which brought tears to their eyes, for only then did they understand fully what the leaving meant to him. ‘ ‘ There goes one of the finest fellows that ever entered Pem broke College,” said Bob Radcliff in a tone almost stifled with anger. ' ‘ Hanging is too good for that cowardly Freshman. We weren’t hurting him, besides Ralph Stewart didn’t have any more to do with it than the rest of us. ’ ’ “ Stanford will wish he’d never been born before he’s been around here a month longer,” cried Bricky Menner. “ But are you sure he was the one who told?” asked one of the smaller and more sympathetic of the boys. “ Couldn’t have been any one else,” replied Bricky. “ There wasn’t another soul around except our crowd. But just you wait, he’ll suffer for it. I’ll make it right if we don’t freeze him off the earth before the session is over.” As usual there had been a great deal of hazing that fall, and the authorities had been doing their best to break up the custom. A few nights before, Harry Stanford, a quiet young fellow who had just entered college, had been “ put through,” and as the result Ralph Stewart, one of the brightest and most popular men of the Sophomore class, had received official notice of his expulsion, requesting him to leave town at once. Natur ally, for a few days the excitement ran high and the Sophs talked seriously of a general strike, but some of the older ones interfered and gradually the commotion died away, although the feeling of indignation toward Stanford increased as the time went on and the fellows lost no opportunity of making it un pleasant for him, proving in a way well known to college men that theirs was not idle talk. To Harry, who was a very sensitive boy, their annoyance be came almost unbearable. He was alone in this heartless world, his only relative being an aunt with whom he had lived from early childhood. She had given him a common-school education, and by years of toil, and by depriving himself in every way, he The Free Lance, THE GASCON PRIZE [December,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers