Andy at Yale
Page 9
CHAPTER IX
ON THE CAMPUS
Andy's train rolled into the New Haven station shortly before dusk. Onthe way the new student had been surreptitiously "sizing up" certainother young men in the car with him, trying to decide whether or notthey were Yale students. One was, he had set that down as certain--aquiet, studious-looking lad, who seemed poring over a book and papers.
Then Andy, making an excuse to get a drink of water, passed his seat andlooked at the documents. They were a mass of bills which the young manevidently had for collection.
"Stung!" murmured Andy. "But he sure did look like a Yale senior." Hewas yet to learn that college men are not so different from ordinarymortals as certain sensational writers would have had him believe.
There was the usual bustle and rush of alighting passengers. Now indeedAndy was sure that a crowd of students had come up on the train with himfor, once out of the cars their exuberance manifested itself.
There were greetings galore from one to another. Renewals of pastacquaintance came from every side. There were hearty clappings on thebacks of scores and scores, and re-clappings in turn.
Youths were tumbling out here, there, everywhere, colliding with oneanother, bumping up against baggage trucks, running through the station,one or two stopping to snatch a hasty cup of coffee and some doughnutsfrom the depot restaurant.
Andy stood almost lost for the moment amid the excitement. It had comeon suddenly. He had never dreamed there were so many Yale men on thetrain. They gave no evidence of it until they had reached their ownprecincts.
Then, like a dog that hesitates to bark until he is within the confinesof his own yard, they "cut loose."
Taxicab chauffeurs were bawling for customers. Hackmen with ancienthorses sent out their call of:
"Keb! Keb! Hack, sir! Have a keb!"
The motor bus of the Hotel Taft was being jammed with prosperous lookingindividuals. Around the curve swept the clanging trolley cars.
"I guess I'll walk," mused Andy. "I want to get my mind straightenedout."
He managed to locate an expressman to whom he gave the check for histrunk, with directions where to send it. Then, gripping his valise,which contained enough in the way of clothing and other accessories tosee him through the night, in case his baggage was delayed, our herostarted up State Street.
In the distance he could see, looming up, the lighted top stories of theHotel Taft, and he knew that from those same stories one could look downon the buildings and campus at Yale. It thrilled him as he had not beenthrilled before on any of his visits to this great American university.
He paid no attention to those about him. The sidewalks, damp with thehazy dew of the coming September night, were thronged with pedestrians.Many of them were college students, as Andy could tell by their talk.
On he swung, breathing in deep of the air of dusk. He squared back hisshoulders and raised his head, widening his nostrils to take in the air,as his eyes and ears absorbed the other impressions of the place.
Past the stores, the hotels, the moving picture places Andy went, untilhe came to where Chapel Street cuts across State. At the corner aconfectionery store thrust out its rounded doorway, and in the windowswere signs of various fountain drinks.
"A hot chocolate wouldn't be so bad," thought Andy. "It's a bit chilly."
He went in rather diffidently, wondering if some of the pretty girlslined up along the marble counter knew that he was a Yale man.
He heard a titter of laughter and grew red behind the ears, fearing itmight be directed against him.
But no one seemed to notice him, the girl who passed him out his checkmaking change as nonchalantly as though he was but the veriest travelingman instead of a Yale student.
"Very blase, probably," thought Andy, with a sense of resentment.
He stood on the steps a moment as he came out, and then walked towardthe Green, with its great elm trees, now looming mistily in theSeptember haze.
Three churches on Temple street seemed to stand as a sort of guard infront of the college buildings that loomed behind them. Three silent andclosed churches they were.
Up Chapel street walked Andy, and he came to a stop on College street,opposite Phelps Gateway. Through the gathering dusk he could make outthe inscription over it:
LUX ET VERITAS
"That's it! That's what I came here for," he said. "Light and truth!Oh, but it's great! Great!"
He drew in a long breath, and stood for a moment contemplating thebeautiful outlines of the college buildings.
"Oh, but I'm glad I'm here!" he whispered.
Other students were pouring through the classic gateway. Andy crossedthe street and joined them. Already lights were beginning to glow inLawrance and Farnam Halls, where the sophomores had their rooms. Andycould see some of them lolling on cushions in their window seats. Yaleblue cushions, they were.
He passed in through the gateway, his footsteps clanging back to hisears, reflected by the arch overhead. He emerged onto the campus, andstarted across it toward Wright Hall, with its raised courtyard, and itscurtained windows of blue.
"I wonder if Dunk is there yet?" thought Andy. "Hope he is. Oh, it'sYale at last! Yale! Yale!"
He breathed in deep of the night air. He looked at the shadows of theelectric lights of the campus filtering through the trees. He paused amoment.
A confusion of sounds came to him. Outside the quadrangle in which hestood he could hear the hum of the busy city--the clang of trolleys,the clatter of horses, the hoarse croak of auto horns. Within theprecincts of the college buildings he could hear the hum of voices. Nowand then came the tinkle of a piano or the vibration of a violin. Thenthere were shouts.
"Oh, you, Pop! Stick out your head!"
The call of one student to another.
"I wonder if they'll ever call me?" mused Andy.
He started across the campus. Coming toward him were several darkfigures. Andy met them under a light, and started back. Before he had achance to speak someone shouted at him:
"There he is now! The freshest of the fresh! Take off that hat!"
It was Mortimer Gaffington.