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Show J iitimiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiTiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiniiiniiiiiiniinitiiimn iiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiinifiLi Ramsey Milholland ) j By BOOTH TARKINGTON f 5 Copyright by Doubleday, Page S Company llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllMIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlllllll 1 1 1 1 1 1 : 1 1 : n 1 1 1 1 1 m 1 1 1 : 1 1 1 1 1 1 n i m 1 1 1 1 1 1 n i 1 1 ii 1 1 1 1 1 1 i inn r Fourteen is about gone," he said to Fred Mitchell, who was still his most intimate friend when they reached the senior year. "Yes, sir; it's held together to-gether a good many years, Fred, but after June It'll be busted plum up, and I hope nobody starts a move to have any reunions. There's a good many members of the ole class that I can stand and there's some I can't, but there's one I just won't ! If we ever did call a reunion, that ole Yo-cum Yo-cum girl would start in right away and run the whole shebang, and that's where I'd resign ! You know, Fred, the thing I think Is the one biggest benefit of graduating from this ole school? It's never seein' Dora Yocum again." This was again his theme as he sat by the same friend's side, in the rear row of the class at Commencement, listening to the delivery of the Valedictory. Vale-dictory. "Thinks she's Just soobllme, don't she !" he whispered morosely. "She wouldn't trade with the President Presi-dent of the United States right now. Never mind! Just about a half-an-hour more and that's the last o' you, ole girl! Yes, sir, Fred; one thing we can feel pretty good over : this is where we get through with Dora Yocum Yo-cum !" Ramsey and Fred had arranged to room together at Greenfield, the seat of the state university, and they made the short journey in company the following fol-lowing September. They arrived hilarious, hi-larious, anticipating pleasurable excitements ex-citements in the way of "fraternity" pledglngs and Initiations, encounters with sophomores, class meetings, and elections ; and, also, they were not absolutely ab-solutely without interest in the matter of Girls, for the state university was co-educational, and it was but natural to expect in so broad a field, all new to them, a possible vision of something rather thrilling. They whispered cheerfully of all these things during the process of matriculation, and signed the registrar's book on a fresh page ; but when Fred had written his 1 . I I , I I M I I I I I I I I I I k I I I 1 I I I I I I 1 1 I I 1 I I I I I I I I . 1 i I I I I I I a distant glimpse of her on one of the campus paths, her thoughtful head bent over a book as she hurried to a classroom. This was bearable ; and in the flattering agitations of being sought, and even hunted, by several "fraternities" simultaneously desirous of his becoming a sworn Brother, he almost forgot her. After a hazardous month the roommates fell into the arms of the last "frat" to seek them, and having undergone an evening of outrage which concluded with touching touch-ing rhetoric and an oath taken a1 midnight, they proudly wore jeweled symbols on their breasts and wer free to turn part of their attentlou to other affairs, especially the affair of the Eleven. However, they were Instructed by the older brethren of their Order, whose duty It was to assist in the proper maneuvering of their young careers, ca-reers, that, although support of the 'varsity teams was Important, they must neglect neither the spiritual nor the Intellectual by-products of undergraduate under-graduate doings. Therefore they became be-came members of the college Y. M. C. A. and of the "Lumen Society." According to the charter which It had granted itself, the "Lumen Society" Soci-ety" was an "Organization of male and female students" so "advanced" was this university "for the development develop-ment of the powers of debate and oratory, or-atory, intellectual and sociological progress, and the discussion of all matters mat-ters relating, to philosophy, metaphysics, metaphys-ics, literature, art, and current events." A statement so formidable was not without a hushing effect upon Messrs. Milholland and Mitchell ; they went to their first "Lumen" meeting in a state of fear and came away little reassured. "I couldn't get up there," Ramsey declared, "I couldn't stand up there before all that crowd and make a speech, or debate in a debate, to save my soul and gizzard ! Why, I'd just keel right over and haf to be carried out." "Well, the way I understand It," said Fred, "we can't get out of it. The seniors in the 'frat' said we had to join, and they said we couldn't resign, either, after we had joined. They said we Just had to go through it, and after a while we'd get used to It and not mind it so much." "I will !" Ramsey Insisted. "I couldn't any more stand up there on my feet and get to spoutin' about sociology and the radical metempsy-chorus metempsy-chorus of the mettyphysical bazoozum than I could fly a flyin' machine. Why, I " "Oh, that wasn't anything," Fred interrupted. "The only one that talked like that, he wes that Blickens ; he's a tutor, or something, and really a member of the faculty. Most o' the others just kind of blah-blahhed around, and what any of 'em tried to get off their chests hardly amounted amount-ed to terribly much." "I don't care. I couldn't do it at all !" "Well, the way It looks to me," Fred observed, "we simply got to ! From what they tell me, the freshmen got to do more than anybody. Every other oth-er Friday night, It's all freshmen and nothln' else. You get a postal card on Monday morning in your mail, and it says 'Assignment' on it and and then It's got written underneath what you haf to do the next Friday night oration or debate, or maybe Just read from some old book or something. I guess we got to stand up there and try, anyway." "All right," said Ramsey. "If they want me to commit suicide they can send me one o' their ole 'Assignments.' I won't need to commit suicide, though, I guess. All I'll do, I'll just fall over In a fit, and stay In It-" And, In truth, when he received his first "Assignment," one Monday morning, morn-ing, a month later, he seemed In a fair way to fulfill his prophecy. The attention of his roommate, who sat at a window of their study, was attracted at-tracted by sounds of strangulation. "What on earth's the matter, Ramsey?" Ram-sey?" "Look! Look at this!" Fred took the card and examined It with an amazement gradually merging merg-ing into n pleasure altogether too perceptible per-ceptible : ASSIGNMENT Twelve-Minute Debate. Class of 1918. Subject, Resolved : That Germany is both legally and morally Justified In her invasion of Relgium. (Debaters are notified that eac will be held strictly to the following scheif-ule scheif-ule : Affirmative. 4 min.. first. Negative. Nega-tive. 4 mln.. first. Affirm.. 2 min., second. sec-ond. Neg., 2 min.. second.) Affirmative. R. MILHOLLAND. 18 Negative, D. YOCUM. 18. The "Lumen Society" debate, R. Milholland vs. D. Yocum. (TO BE COXTIKUED.) O DORA YOCUM. Synopsis. With his grandfather, small Ramsey Milholland Is watching watch-ing the "Iecoration Day Parade" in the home town. The old gentleman, gentle-man, a veteran of the Civil war, endeavors to Impress the young, ter with tht significance of the great conflict, and many years afterward aft-erward the boy was to remember his words with startling vividness. In the schoolroom, a few years afterward, Ramsey is not distinguished distin-guished for remarkable ability, though his pronounced disllces are arithmetic, "Recitations" and German. Ger-man. In sharp contrast to Ramsey's Ram-sey's backwardness is the precocity of little Dora Yocum, a young lady whom in his bitterness he denominates denomi-nates "Teacher's Pet." In high school, where he and Dora are classmates, Ramsey continues to feel that the girl delights to manifest mani-fest her superiority, and the vin-dlctiveness vin-dlctiveness he generates becomes alarming, culminating In the resolution reso-lution that some day he will "show" her. At a class picnic Ramsey Ram-sey Is captured bag and baggage ' by Mllla Rust, the class beauty, and endures the agonies of his first love. Ramsey's parents object to MiHa and wish he'd taken up with Dora Yocum. Ramsey kisses Mllla. Then Milla suddenly leaves town. 0 V CHAPTER VII He never saw her again. She sent him n "picture postal" from Oconomo-woc, Oconomo-woc, Wisconsin, which his father disengaged dis-engaged from the family mail, one morning at breakfast, and considerately considerate-ly handed to him without audible comment. com-ment. Upon it was written, "Oh, you Ramsey !" This was the last of Milla. Just before school opened, in the autumn, Sadie Clews made some revelations. reve-lations. "Milla did like you," said Sadie. "After that time you jumped in the creek to save her she liked you better than any boy in town, and I guess If it wasn't for her counsin Milt up in Chicago she would of liked you the best anywhere. I guess she did, anyway, because she hadn't seen him for about a year then. "Well, that afternoon she went away I was over there and took in everything that was goln' on, only she jnade me promise on my word of honor l wouldn't even tell Albert. They didn't get any wire from the uncle about the touring car; it wms her cousin cou-sin Milt that jumped on the train and came down and nxed it all up for Mllla to go on the trip, and everything. every-thing. You see, Ramsey, she was turned back a couple of times in school before she came in our class and I don't know how old she Is and she don't look old yet, but I'm pretty sure she's at least eighteen, and she might be over. I didn't think such a great deal of this Milt's looks myself, but he's anyway twenty-one years old, and got a good position, and all their family fam-ily seem to think he's just fine! It wasn't his father that took in the touring tour-ing car on the debt, like she said she was writing you ; it was Milt himself. He started out in business when he was only thirteen years old, and this trip he was gettln' up for his father and mother and Milla was the first vacation he ever took. Well, of course ehe wouldn't like my teJlin' you, but I can't see the harm of it, now everything's every-thing's all over." "All all over? You mean Mllla's going to be to be married?" "She already is," said Sadie. "They got married at her Aunt Jess and Uncle Un-cle Purv's house, up In Chicago, last Thursday. Yes, sir ; that quiet, little Mllla's a regular old married woman by this time, I expect, Ramsey I" When he got over the shock, which was not until the next day, one predominating pre-dominating feeling remained: It was a gloomy pride a pride in his proven maturity. He was old enough, It appeared, ap-peared, to have been the same thing as engaged to a person who was now a Married Woman. His manner thenceforth thence-forth showed nn added trace of seriousness seri-ousness and self-consideration. Having recovered bis equipoise and something more, he entirely forgot that moment of humble admiration he had felt for Dora Yocum on the day of his flattest prostration. When he saw her Kitting In the classroom, smiling brightly bright-ly up at the teacher, the morning of the school's opening In the autumn, all his humility had long since vanished van-ished and she appeared to him not otherwise than as the scholar Whose complete proficiency bud always been so Irksome to him. "Look at her!" he muttered to himself. him-self. "Same ole Teacher's IYt '." Now and then, as the days and Seasons Sea-sons passed, and Dora's serene progress prog-ress continued, never checked or even flawed, there stirred within him some llngerlngs of the old determination to "show" her ; and he would conjure tip a day-dream of Dora in loud '-eientutlon, '-eientutlon, while he led the laughter iof the spectators. But gradually his feeling about her came to be merely dull oppression. He was tired of having to look at her (as he stated It) and he thanked the Lord that the time wouldn't be so long now until he'd be out of that ole school, and then all he'd have to do he'd Just take care never to walk by her house. It was easy enough to use some other treet when he bad to go down town. "The good oi class of Nineteen- "What on Earth's the Matter, Ramsey?" Ram-sey?" name under Ramsey's and blotted It, he took the liberty of turning over the leaf to examine some of the autographs auto-graphs of their future classmates, written on the other side. Then he uttered ut-tered nn exclamation, more droll than dolorous, though it affected to be wholly whol-ly the latter; for the shock to Fred was by no means so painful as it was to his friend. Kamsey leaned forward and read the name indicated by Fred's forefinger. fore-finger. DORA YOCUM. . . . When they got back to their pleasant quarters at Mrs. Meigs', facing fac-ing the campus, Ramsey was still unable un-able to talk of anything except the lamentable discovery: our were his companion's burlesquing efforts to console con-sole him of great avail, though Fred did become serious enough to point out that a university was different from a high school. "It's not like bavin' to use one big room as a headquarters, you know. Ramsey. Everything's all split up. and she might happen not be in a single one of your classes." "You don't know my luck!" the afflicted af-flicted boy protested. "I wish I'd gone to Harvard, the way my father wanted me to. Why. this Is Just the worst nuisance I ever struck! You'll see! She'll be In everything there is, just the way she was back home." . He appeared to be corroborated by the events of the next day, when they attended the first meeting to organize the new class. The masculine element ele-ment predominated, but Dora Yocum was elected vice president. "You see?" Ramsey said. "Didn't I tell you? You see what happens?" Rut after that she censed for a time to Intrude upon his life, and he adailt-ted adailt-ted that his harassment was less grave than he had anticipated. There were about five hundred students In the freshman class ; he seldom saw her, and when he did It was not more than |