The Republican journal., 1905-10-05
A FRESHMAN AT u. OF N.


When you aWOKe the next morning
your first Sunday away from home,
stretched its interminable length be-
fore you. OF course college was the
best place ever-but oh, if it only didn't
take whole day to get home, how nice
it would be! Of course, there was
church to 90 to, but somehow the twelve
hours stretched themselves out rubber
band like, to your imagination. Break
fast over, you whiled away the time
before the church bells rang in writing
letters home and giving detailed &C
count of your adventures up to date.
The church you selected, of the same
denomination as the one you attended
at home, was not remarkable in any
way. Jack could not be persuaded to
60 and SO you went alone and, arriving
early, found rear pew quite empty.
Before the service began, however, it,
and a number more in the vicinity,
were filled with students, who listened
attentively to the sermon, which was
specially appropriate to the opening of
the college year. You listened to it all,
of course, but there was far away
look in your eyes, and most of the time
you were many miles away from the
bare little church and the good natured
boys around you. Coming out, one of
the fellows you had met and liked at
the Y. NJ. C. A. reception the night be-
fore, found you and carried you off with
him to dinner at his fraternity house,
and, as the fellows seemed to be jolly
crowd, and no one had anything in par
ticular to do, it was the middle of the
afternoon before you got back to the
room and routed out Jack, who, in
common with a good part of the rest of
the college world, was writing letters.
You had planned for long walk that
lovely afternoon and you did not intend
to miss it. The banks of the Saltwater
were brilliant with autumn colorings,
and the railroad track that followed the
river around shone alluringly in the
warm September sunlight. 1t was lit
| tie single track, used for lumber trains,
| that puffed and snorted laboriously
nearly every day, but today everything
was quiet with the stiffness peculiar to
golden fall days You and Jack were
| busy with your own thoughts and had
little to say as you walked along beside
the river, partly filled with great brown
| logs, while here and there, announced
| by the tinkle of a mandolin, the words
of student song, or ringing laugh, a
brilliant canoe glided along, propelled
| by muscular arms.
AS you progressed, the college build
ings began to show the dull red of their
brick walls among the evergreens of the
campus, and the standpipe brought to
your mind duty that must be done
before the class was much older. The
fraternity houses showed up we'll, from
the opposite bank, and gave rise to one
of those discussions of merits and
dement's possible only among two
friends to whom pledge buttons were
| things of the future. You were both
frankly surprised at the number of
houses in the village of Saltwater, which
was soon reached. AS you crossed the
covered bridge smaller copy of the
already familiar structure at Orono-
and reached the electric railway track
! a suggestive humming was heard, but
you resolutely faced about and let the
, down car zoon merrily by on it's way.
! The autumnal chill in the air was max
i ing itself felt by the time the college
was reached, but brisk walking during
the remaining distance more than
counteracted it's effect. So far the day
| had gone very well, but the evening
and you were thankful that your walk
had left you tired enough to make the
prospect of an early departure for bed,
| attractive.
| After supper you remembered few
last things on those lessons for the next
day, in the unfamiliar text books, that
it would be we'll to glance at, and be-
fore that was done rap at the door an
nounced visitors. Two other Fresh
men from down the street, whom you
and Jack had given cordial introduce
ton to "come around" since an infor-
NAL introduction on the night of the
hazing; and later one of the Seniors con-
desendingly brought in his pipe to 'see
how things were going;" and, last of all,
your Junior, and one of his friends,
came in to inquire for the frm-so a
lively evening was spent, after all. You
happened to remember that you had a
box of homemade candy which was as
yet, through some remarkable coinci-
dence, untouched, and by the time the
room was emptied and it was flights
OUT the box was emptied, also.
Monday morning introduced the
regular round of work which you carried
out all the fall. REGULATIONS, with a
spare hour daily spent in the Library,
and an afternoon as busy, with the
variety of football practice to end with.
| Thora woo an iocpi ripr oollara n, aa+ipu