was posted on the bulletin board. From that moment his work
was automatic, unconscious. His mind was in a turmoil, his
nerves strung to their highest tension. This was the moment for
which he had longed and waited and worked. He dimly won
dered how he would look in a neat blue jersey, with that glori
ous white S standing out boldly on his breast.
"I am trying very hard," he had written to his parents, " for
a position on the basket-ball team, and I have a very fair, chance
of making it. If Ido then, I can wear an S, just as the foot-ball
men. And if hard, conscientious work will win it, lam sure of
it now."
So deeply was he engrossed in building these fond air castles
that when he came back to reality he saw that he had ruined his
work. Where he should have cut out mortises, lie had left
tenons, and the piece was a total wreck. So he tucked it into
his pocket to keep it from the ever watchful eye of the master
workman and began anew.
When the bell for dismissal tinkled out its few jerky notes,
Whittlesey was the first in the lavatory,. and the first out of it.
As he wended his way towards Old Main, with his mind feverish
in the excitement of expectation, his steps involuntarily quick
ened until he almost ran. When, finally, he did reach the hall,
he found a jostling crowd six deep, gathered around a new notice
tacked upon the bulletin-board. Here his diminutive size aided
him in squirming into the front of the throng and from this point of
vantage he glued his eyes to the little square of paper just above
his head.
It took him only a moment to glance over it, but in that mo
ment he received the severest disappointment of his life. True,
his name was on the list, but opposite it was " Sub."— an abbre 7
viation which dashed all his dearest hopes to earth. He turned
with lagging
. feet and started wearily for his room. On the stair
way a friend met him and wrung his hand in hearty congratula
tion. Whittlesey mumbled something, he did not know exactly
what, and moved on. Once inside his own door, though, he
broke down completely, and, throwing himself on his bed, buried
his face in the pillows and cried like the child he was ; cried until
the first sudden grief had exhausted itself, leaving a dead, dull
pain in his heart. His room-mate came in, lightly humming' a
few bars of a late popular song. But when he saw the red, tear-