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Show iiiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiuniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiJiiiUiiiiiiiliililiUiiiliiii iiiihiiiiuiiuliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiaiiuiiiiuiiiii n. i . 1 1 1: E g I Ramsey Milholland' f By BOOTH TARKINGTON I - Copvr'itht ty roiit'!e,1.iy, P.Vo ft Crm-arv riMiiii 1 1 r 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 : 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 : 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ! 1 1 1 ! : : : i r : : 1 1 1 1 '. t 1 1 : u i : 1 1 1 : ! i iMmimimimiiiiHmMMiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiinimiiiiiiimiiMi'n I c ; RAMSEY!" Synopsis. With his nr.nulfather. smtill K.tmst'y MitholluiKi is wau'h-lus wau'h-lus the "lVcortun Pay r.ira.io" In tt.o homo town. Ttie oU1 :ontlo-nian. :ontlo-nian. rt veteran of the Civil war. eiuleavors to Impress the youngster young-ster with the eisnlrU'imco of the Kreat eonrl.ct. ami many yeara afterward aft-erward Uie boy was to retiiemtx'r his worus with sturtl'.ns vl ulnes-a. In the schoolrvvom. a few years allerward. Ramsey is not distinguished distin-guished for remarkai'le ut'tllly. though his pronounced dislikes are arithmetic, "ReoU.ulons" and German. Ger-man. In sharp contrast to Kam-sey's Kam-sey's backwardness is the precocity of Utile Pora Yocum, a your.K lady whom In his bitterness he denominates denomi-nates 'Teacher's Pet." In hljth school, when? he and Pvra are c'.assmates. R-imsey continues to feel that the s'rl delights to manifest mani-fest her superiority, and the vln-dictiveness vln-dictiveness he senorates becomes alarmlnK. culminatlnsr in the resolution reso-lution that some day he wi'.l "show" her. At a class picnic Ramsey Ram-sey is captured has and ba.ca.ce by" Miila Rust, the class beauty, and endures the agonies of h: first love- Ramsey ' parents object to Milla and wish he'd taken up with Pora Yocum. Famsey kisses Milla. Then Mi la sua.ieniy leaves town. She marries. Kamsey enters the state university and there Is EKjra Yocum ac.tin. l'-arnsey meets Pora In a World War debate and is In-ploriously In-ploriously Tantiuish.ed. Ramsey gives Unskl "a r-eaeh of a punch I on the snoot" Why1, C -O CHAPTER VIII. Continued. ia '"Well, I'm glad y vu gave that I.lnskl a fine little punch. Brother Mllhol-liuul," Mllhol-liuul," he said at the door. "It won't do yoti any lianti la the 'frat,' or with the Lumen, either. Ami don't be dis couraged ubout your derating. You'll learn. Anybody mis'lit have got rattled rat-tled by bavin; to argue against r.s clever and good-looking a girl as that V The roommates gf.ve each other a look of serious puzzlt-meut as the door closed. "Well. Brother Colburn is a mighty nice fellow." lrej said. "He's kiud of funny, though." Kamsey assented, and then, as the two prepared for bed. they entered Into In-to a further discussion of their senior friend. They liked him "all right." they said, but he certainly must be kind of queer, and they couldn't just eee how he had "ever managed to get where he was" In the "frat" and the Lumen and the university. Ramsey passed the slightly disfigured disfig-ured Llnski on the campus next day without betraying any embarrassment or miking a sign of recognition. Fred Mitchell told his roommate, chuckling, that Llnski had sworn to "get" him, and, not knowing Fred's affiliations, had made him the confidant of his oath. Fred had given his blessing, he said, upon the enterprise, and advised Linski to use a brick. "He'll hit you on the head with it," said the light-hearted light-hearted Fred, falling back upon this old joke. "Then you can catch It as it bounces off and throw It back at him." However, Llnski proved to be merely mere-ly an episode, not only so far as Ram-Bey Ram-Bey was concerned but In the Lumen and In the university as well. His suspension sus-pension from the Lumen was for a year, and so cruel a punishment it proved for this born debater that he noisily declared he would found a debating de-bating society himself, and had a poster prlrted and distributed announcing an-nouncing a e first meeting of "The Free Speech and Masses' Hights Council." Coun-cil." Several town loafers attended the meeting, !ut the only person connected con-nected with the university who came was an oriental student, a Chiuese youth of ajihost intrusive amiability. Llnski made a fiery address, the townsmen towns-men loudly applauding his advocacy of an embargo on munitions and the distribution of everybody's "property," but the Chinaman, accustomed to see students so madly in earnest only when they were burlesquing, took the whole affair to be Intended humor, and tittered politely without cessation except at such times as he thought It proper to appear quite wrung with laughter. Then he would rock himself, him-self, clasp his mouth with both hands and splutter through his fingers. Llnski accused him of being In the pay M "capital." Next day the oratcr was unable to e'low himself upon the campus wllh-O'lt wllh-O'lt causing demonstrations; whenever he was seen a file of quickly gathering students marched behind him chanting repeatediy and deafenlngly In chorus: "Down with Wall Street! Hoch der Kaiser! Who loves I.lnskl? Who, who, who? Iloo I.un ! Who loves Llnski? Who, who, who? Hoo Lun !" Llnski was disgusted, resigned from the university, and disappeared. "Well, here It Isn't midyear Exams yet, and the good ole class of Nlneteen-Elghtcen's Nlneteen-Elghtcen's already lost a member," raid Fred Mitchell. "I guess we can bear the break-up !" "I guess so." Ramsey assented, "s'hnt I.lnskl might Just as well stayed ui-re. though." -Why?" "lie ciiulim't do any harm here. He'll fT'ib'iy tret more people to listen to nil,, 'n cities where there'? so many tmmigmnts and all such that don't know ait thing, coiuin' In all the 1 1 1110." "Oh, well." said Fred. "What do ive care what happens to C'hleimo '. Come on. lot's behave real wild, ami go on over to the 'Terla and got its a couple of egg smidw leliea and tass-nrlily." tass-nrlily." Katnsey was willing. Afler the strain of the "inld-.venr Kxaius" in February, the chums lived a free-hearted life. They had settled into the ways of their world; they had grown used to It, and It had grown used to theia; there was no longer any Ignominy In being a freslunaii. They rouiix'd upon the campus and sometimes some-times rioted harmlessly about the streets of the town. In the evenings they visited their fellows and brethren and were visited in turn; horseplay prevailed, but collegiate gossip had its turn, and sometimes they looked so far ahead as to talk vaguely of trVlr plans for professions or business though to a freshman this concerned an uluiost unthlukably distant prospect. pros-pect. "I guess I'll go iu with my father, fa-ther, In the wholesale drug business," said Fred. "My married brother already al-ready is In the firm, and I suppose they'll give uie a show send me out on the road a year or two first, maybe, to try me. Then Tin going to inarry some little cutie and settle down. What you goln' to do, Kamsey? tlo to law school, and then come back and go in your father's oilice?" "I don't know, (luess so." It was always Fred who did mot of the talking: Ramsey was quiet. Fred told the "frat seniors" that Ramsey was "developing a whole lot these days;" and he tdd Ramsey himself that he could see a "big change" iu 1? j. ......v 1 1 w Sift k w "Who Loves LlnsKi? Who, Who. Who? Hoo Lunl" him, adding that the Improvement was probably due to Ramsey's having passed through "terrible trials like that debate." Ramsey kept U their rooms more than his comrade did, one reason for this domesticity being that he "had to study longer than Fred did, to keep up;" and another reason may have been a greater shyness than Fred possessed pos-sessed If, Indeed, Fred possessed any shyness at all. For Fred was a cheery spirit difficult to abash, and by the coming of spring knew all of the best-looking best-looking girl students In the plnce knew them well enough, It appeared, to speak of them not merely by their first names but by abbreviations of these. He had become fashion's sprig, a "fuss"r" and butterfly, and he reproached re-proached his roommate for shunning the ladles. "Well, the truth Is, Fred," suld Ramsey Ram-sey one day, responding darkly "well, you see the truth is. Fred, I've had a a I've had an experience " So, only, did he refer to MUla. Fred said no more ; and It w as comprehended com-prehended between them that the past need never be definitely referred to again, but that It stood between Ramsey Ram-sey and any entertainment to be oh-alned oh-alned of the gentler but less trustworthy trust-worthy sex. And when other brethren of the "frat" would have pressed Ramsey Ram-sey to Join them In various frivolous enterprises concerning "co-eds." or to be shared by "cn-eds," Fred thought It better to explain to them privately (all being sacred among brethren) how Ramsey's life, so far as Girls went, had been toyed with by one now a Married Woman. This created a gn at deal of respect for Ramsey. It became understood everywhere that he was a woman-hater. woman-hater. CHAPTER IX. That early spring of 1915 the two boys and their friends nnd brethren talked more of the war than they hnd in the nutumn. though the subject was not at all an absorbing one; for the trenches of Flanders and France were still of the Immense, remote distance. By no stretch of Imagination could these wet trenches be thought gtestly lo concern the "frat," the Lwaen, or the university. Really Iwportaut mat- j tors wore the doings of Hie "Truck j Team," now training In Hie "tiwn" and on the 'Varsliy field, and, more I vital Mill, the prospects of the Nine, I Hut in May there cunie a shock which cluumcd tilings for a liir.e. The l.llsi uinlii brought to every . American a revelation of what had j lain so deep hi his own heart (hat j often he had not renlli'.cd it was there. When the to'rninns hid In the sea and sent down the groat nioivhaiit ship, with American I aides and their mothers, moth-ers, and gallantly living American c.en-tlenicn, c.en-tlenicn, there came a change even to girls and hoys and professors, until tlu n so preoccupied with their own little aloof world thousands of miles from tlit murder. Fred Mitchell, ever volatile and gen. erous, was one of those who went quite wild. No orator, he iH'verth"less made a frantic speech at the week's "fiat meetings," cursing the (Ioniums j In the simple old Knglish words (lint their performance had dein.instrated In he applicable, and gulag on to demand ! that the fraternity prepare for Its share In the action of the country. "I don't care how insignificant we few i fellows here tonight may seeni." he , cried; '.'we can do our little, and If everybody in this country's ready (o do their own little, why. that'll he plenty! lip'thors. don't you r. -alkie that all over the I'n'ted States tonight the people peo-ple are feeling Just the way we are here? Millions and millions and millions mil-lions of tlioiii ! Wlu-rcvcr there's an American he's with us and you bet your bottom dollar there are Just a few more Americans Iu (his country of ours than there are Mg-uioiiiliod lobsters like that fellow Llnski! I te..1 you. If congress -i!y gives the word, there could be an army of five-million nieu In this country tomorrow', and those dirty baby-klllin' dachshunds would hear a word or two from otir Fncie Samuel! r.rothers. I dciiiaud that soine-thing soine-thing be done right here and liuw. and by us! I move we telegraph '.he secretary sec-retary of war tonight and o!Ver him a regiment from this university to go over and help hang (heir d n kaiser. The motion was hotly seci-ndcd and Instantly carried. Then followed a much llustered discussion of the form and phrasing of the proposed telegram, tele-gram, but, nfler everything stemed to have been settled, some one ascertained ascer-tained by telephone that the telegraph company would not accept messages containing words customarily dohned as profane ; so the telegram had to he rewritten. This led to further aaiend-ment, aaiend-ment, and it was finally decided to address ad-dress the senators from that state, instead in-stead of the secretary of war. and thus In a somewhat modified form the message was finally dispatched. Next day, news of what the "frat" had done made a great stir In the university. uni-versity. Cither "frnts" sent teegrnms, so did the "Itarbarians," haters of the "frats" but Joining them In this; while a small band of "Cernian-Amerlcan" students found it their duty to go before be-fore the faculty and report these "breaches of neutrality." They protested pro-tested heavily, demanding the expulsion expul-sion of the "hreachers" as disloyal citizens, cit-izens, therefre unfit students, but suffered suf-fered a disappointment, for the faculty itself had been sending telegrams of similar spirit, addressing not only the senators and congressmen of the state, hut the President of the Cnited States. Flabbergasted, the "Germau-Amerl-cans" retired ; they were confused and disgusted by this hlgher-up outbreak of unneulrailty It overwhelmed them that citizens of the United States should not remain neutral in the dispute dis-pute between the United States nnd Germany. Ail day the campus was In ferment. At twilight, Ramsey was walking meditatively on his way to dinner nt the "frat house," across the campus from his ' apartment at Mrs.' Meigs'. Everything was quiet now, both town and gown ; the students were at their dinners and so were the burghers. Ramsey was late, but did not quicken his thoughtful steps, which were those of one lost In reverie. He had forgotten forgot-ten that springtime was all about him and, with his head down, walked un-regardful un-regardful of the new gayetles flung forth upon the air by great clusters of (lowering shrubs. Just come Into white blossom and lavender. He was unconscious that somebody behind him. going the same way, came hastening to overtake him and called his name, "Ramsey ! Ramsey Milholland Milhol-land !" Not until he had been called three times did he realize that he was being hailed and In a girl's voice! By that time the girl herself was beside be-side him, and Ramsey halted, quite taken aback. The girl was Dora Yocum. Yo-cum. She was pale, a little breathless, and her eyes were bright and severe. "I want to speak to you," she said, quickly. "I want to ask you about something. Mr. Colburn and Fred Mitchell are the only people I know In your 'frat' except you, and I haven't seen either of them today, or I'd have asked one of them." Dora tries to impress Raiey with her pacifist vlw. (TO BB CUliTliNUD. |