The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1917-01-11

1--WE can cure LudL LII Wiz AAAoAS'
said Saunders, "but we can make
beginning; twenty-five. Freshman,
why don't you study?"
cot up stiffly and swallowed ABOUT
forty times. II haven't funked any
more than most fellows said in
bruised and battered little voice.
"Better make it thirty-five," said
Bogboom. They did. dug my nails
into my hands and swore that If
cried I'd feed myself to a trolley car
that night.
"You can 90 any time you want, you
know" said Saunders after the treat
ment.
I got up and grabbed twice at Hog
boom before I could get hold OF him
and hang on. "I-Tm not a gutter"
said.
sHurrah!" said every one so sud-
denly and heartily that I got gulpier
than ever.
"But you're going to quit some
things aren't you?" said Saunders.
sYou can't spank them out of me-"
I flashed.
"We're not trying to- said Saun-
ders. ''We're just calling your atten-
ton to them. You know, we've been
limiting a long time on some of them."
"You were sassy to a professor to-
day." continued Saunders, after giving
me plenty of chance. "Why?"
because I was a fool, I guess"
"Give him ten," shouted some one.
II object" growled Hogboom. "You
can't spank a man for telling the
TRUTH
eff you don't mind" I said, "I'd like
to take q few for that professor busi-
ness. It will make me feel better"
So they gave them to me. They also
gave me five for criticizing the food
and ten for talking about my fathers
bank, and a dozen for being conde-
scending to outsiders, and a few mis-
celaneous swats for small crimes.
Then Saunders looked at me severely
and pointed to the blackboard. There
was, mirrored to myself-"inconsid-
crate" "a punster," ''lazy," "impu-
dent" "boastful," Notwithstanding" and
complaining" There was Petey Sim
mons as others saw him-the Petey
Simmons whom day before I could
scarcely think of without reverent
| admiration for the works of nature.
And as + saw the list I shrank and
shrank, and dissolved end shriveled.
| and fell away, and became a little
trembling freshman with a sore and
shaken body and mind the size Of a
o;r1,o kIo 70 I>
of becoming endurable and possibly
enjoyable to my fellow men.
I was little Petey Simmons, a green
freshman who had wasted three
months learning all the things he
shouldn't; Petey Simmons, the college
joke, the campus nuisance, the loud
noise on the streets, the pest of the
chapter house. I had always been
Petey Simmons, an understood con-
sumer of perfectly good oxygen.
but some one had patted me On
the head a few months ago and It
HAD swelled-heavens, how it had
swelled. Suddenly all my grandiose
doings of those insane months rose up
wildly before me. I gagged at the
thought of them. Oh, how sick I had
been! But I was better now. The
swelling was going down. Explode a
dynamite bomb in almost any swelling
and it will be materially reduced.
"You wouldn't care to say word,
would you, freshman" said Saunders
after long silence.
I got up, very stiffly. II guess not"
I stammered. 81 don't know enough
to say anything except-except--"
thank YOU" .~~',
sHurrah!" said every one. That
| jolt was too much. I cried.
Then they let me go upstairs to bed
| and called down Wansworth, who was
h freshman, too, and very far gone in
| it. The next morning he ate very little
more than did and acted like man
who had fallen 100000 miles out of
a blissful dream, landing very hard.
But we never confded in each other.
When you take young man who is
contented with himself and reduce
him to the mangled remains Of every
thing he had imagined himself to be,
you can't expect him to recover at
OilSS. 4uILc 1OW anu IulSeFuDIe
for week. Every little thing that I
had stepped carefully over during my
Colossus days rose up and lowered
above me, and kept me stretching my
neck and lodging like an ant under a
lodge parade. Suddenly Siwash was
4 mighty college again, as it
had been when I was in high
school, and it was full of bust
nesslike young giants who would
have to be encouraged to tolerate me.
But finally did something that made
me feel better. It was lonely around
the house-not because the boys
wouldn't notice me, but because I had
to keep so quiet to keep them from
doing it. So I put on my hat about
nine one evening and went down to
Mark Smiths room. I knocked timid-
ly. Two weeks before would have