The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-14
George Fitch Tells
What a College
Boy Goes Through

stopper from Kansas City, to go with
me to the dance and she had consented
-Four days before 1t came off she wrote
and begged to De excused.
She hardly knew. she said, how To
explain except that she had had
previous engagement and that she had
supposed IL broken and that she had
found 1t wasn't. and she knew | would
understand, and wouldn't he nice about
taking "A lot of dances. and she wanted
me ITO he nice to her escort, who was "A
stranger in the class-in fact 1t was
Count Grabbenheim.
When came to later was gnawlng
contentedly at fragments OF the furni-
ture. Never had been so mad. l had
eaten quite meal OF raw chair legs
before | was calm enough to rush off
TO Pierce for comfort.
But Pierce was madden than 7. Fur
nlture didn't satisfy his feelings. He
was chewing the radiator. My affair
with Miss Willoughby was just mild
little thing of a months standing and
really had her successor in mind but
old Noddy had been clean and ever
lastingly gone to smash on Helena
Toothby, the queen of our class. and
Helena had just turned him down and
lroken her engagement because an old
friend who had no acquaintance in the
college had thrown himself on her mercy
and she felt 1t her duty to go with him
to the dance.
Noddy and leaned on each other for
while and fought for language-but
not for long. Keg Rearick kicked the
door in presently. Keg was past all
such mild diversions as dining on any
thing. He was about to dissolve into
high explosives.
Amy Landevile had been tossing him
up playfully and catching him as he
came down for some months and had
consented to GO to the ball with him
as great favor. Keg was entirely
devastated about her-terrible case
and she had just written breaking her
engagement for the party in great in
dignation because she had passed him
that day and he had been too busy
looking the other way To notice her
We three threw water on each other
and put two and two together--thank
heaven, this was no calculus problem.
And then we went to telegraph Snoddy.
promising him instant death at the carli-
est possible moment. But on the way
we met Walls and Etherton, and when
we saw their wild look We seized their
hands and asked: brothers. did you
get 1t too?' And they said they had.
So we made up q Roman mob and
charged the telegraph office, where we
composed a message which had To- be
revised four times before the operator
would take it. We didn't do the subject
justice then. but our money gave out.
So We sent II on to that sllulking coward
In Chicago who had taken our own child
and had ruined us with him and went
home TO dine on more furniture.
I got reply in the morning. It was
short but fairly explicit. Ii read: 81
see you're crazy, but explain further.
Never wrote said girls. Some one else
is using your Grabbenhelm."
That day We five and Andrews and
Fudge Bigelow. who had also received
the dull destructive drop from their
best young lady friends. met in the
library, it being the most secret place
we could find, and composed a grlsly
and horrible oath by which we swore
TO have revenge on Grabpenheim and
other persons as vet unknown To the
jury. Self-preservation If nothing else
demanded II. Heaven knows what the
miscreant who had stolen our hero
would do with him. He might produce
him. and then where would We be?
Imagine us. the parents of great Mr.
Grabbenheim. gnawing our thumbs In
the corner while some rank outsider
trotted him about the ballroom floor
with a retinue of seven of our best girls
following him and gobbling up the re-
suits of years hard work. No, stree.
Grabbenheim had betrayed us. What
we proposed to do to Grabbenheim
would curdle the coolest blood. only
what was IT,.
We sat around the library until Miss
Hawkes., the librarian. became suspi-
cious. never having seen us there before
But 1t wasn't until late afternoon that
we found the plan. Then 1t all dawned
at once like a beautiful sunrise. It was
an inspiration-the Idea Of a lifetime.
Grabby would wreck the chemical
laboratory. In so doing he would fill "A
long felt want. We had been yearning
to do 1t ever since we had had fresh
man chemistry. But We hadn't dared.
1t had been a popular diversion in years
past. but had been overdone, and that
year the faculty had served notice that
any person found spilllng sulphuric
acid around the building and mixing up
compounds that smelled to yon high
heaven would not only be expelled but
indicted by the Grand Jury for malicious
mischief.
SO we had suffered all year. Heavens,
how we had suffered In that class! Prof.
Grubb was a ficnd incarnate for piling
up work and trouble and conditions.
And now we would get even. Grabby
would pile up the chemistry room for
us.
We plotted fiercely all that night.
The dance was only three days away
and time was short. The next day
Pierce and I disappeared from our ac-
customed haunts in the afternoon. We
had with us tools and lunch.
The old main building stands open
until 8. and II wasn't hard for us Ia
ramble casually up to the ta.:d floor
without meeting any one anC insert our
selves into Prof. Wogg's room. The old
main building has little octagoaal towers
all over It, and these towers open in a
some OF the ciassrooms They are too
small to be used for anything by the
l.,,. -.