The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) and Two Rambler papers (1750)

llows and chose a bare space of soft, green turf. At th

cond?" said Cheyenne

an embarra

u," said Tough Mc

offee-colored Angel.

ver and held

nk with a scream. "I don't want any second; I won'

sulted with Tough M

t to fight you now; it isn't fair. He'll give y

ering despite himself. "I'll fight him now.

said Cheyenne, seeing it

ed Dink wildly. "I want to get

ugh, who stood apart, lo

t hurt the little varmint

vertopping his antagonist by four good inches, stood on the defensive, seeking only to ward off the storm of

ieking out inarticulate denunciations, he flung himself o

ght I was afraid of a licking, did you? I'll show you. Lick me now i

ving a solid thump in the ribs. "I can't stand he

of his onslaught. McCarty, angrily brushing the blood from his already outraged nose with the cuff of his slee

f the trees, the gray faces of the onlookers, the blue of the tilting sky rushed into the reeling earth, confounded together. H

willows at a puffy cloud that turned against the blue. At his side the

ickled uncomfortably down his neck. S

" said Chey

nk reme

rying to spring up. "Fight

and presse

nne. "Go easy. You've had enough blood for

e sound of voices going, a

he was alone with Cheyenne, who was kneeli

ter

all r

e carr

an s

arm caught him as he

ght," said

e Green. At the steps Tough McCarty sprang u

, Dink; you'r

is hand behi

, "with you or any of you. I hate you all; you're a gang of muckers. I'll fight you now: I'll fight you to-morrow. You're t

ully offended. Cheyenne led Dink

pipe and smoke it. You've got to keep a civil tongue in your head and quit thinking this place was built for your special benefit. Savez? You've go

nopportunely for Dink's overwrought nerves. He gave an angry answer-he di

me with friendly off

cornfully. "You went back on me. You thought I w

een justified. Unfortunately, his repentance came too late; the damage had been done. Only one thing could right him-an apology to the assembled House; but as the courage to apologize is the last virtue to be acquired-if it ever is acquired-Dink in his pride would rather

riences he knew. He stood ready to back his acts of belligerency with his fists against any

-long after he had come to feel the universal antagonism. He would not wake Butsey in the morning, fill his basin or arrange his shoes. He would run no errands. He refused to say sir or doff his hat to his superiors in the morning; and, being better supp

e House, appeared one evening and hurled on him the ban of

he slightest look noticed his existence. Din

ced his cap in line with the other boys', but the ball never went into his hat. If he stood, hoping to be hit, no one seemed to notice that he was standing there. For several days he sought to brazen it out with a miserable, sinking feeling, and then

join a band that, risking the sudden creak of a treacherous step, went down the stairs and out to wend their way with other sweltering bands across the moonlit ways, through

ut the involved syntax or track an elusive x to its secret lair. In the afternoon he could not practice on the diamond

ft to his own devices his recitations improved

'Varsity diamond, where he cast himself forlornly on the grass, apart from the groups, to watch Charlie DeSot

ssion. Besides, his own classmates were all busy on their ow

udden crisis, did he forget himself a little and feel a part of the great system. Once when, in a game with the Princeton Freshmen, Jo Brown cl

friends were Charlie DeSoto and Butcher Stevens at first, whom he could watch and und

e to a festal spread in Cheyenne Baxter's rooms, Dink sat cheer

The lamp was hot, his clothes steamed on his back. He thought of the rootbeer and sarsaparilla b

the warm air, trying to penetrate the outer darkness. Then, balancing carefully, he

his knees, in the center of the Circle, where he could command the blazing windows of the Houses and the long, lighted ranks of the Upper, whe

Houses, the good times, the feeling of home that hung about each room came to him with acute poignancy as he sat there, vastly alone. In the whole school he had made n

ng to win a place in such a school, to have the others look up to you, to have the youngsters turn and follow you as you passed, as they did with Charlie DeSoto or Flash Condit or Turkey Reiter or a dozen of others. Instead, he would drop out of the ranks, and who wo

e Houses. One by one the windows dropped back

him the sound of scampering feet. The next moment a

ler!" said a shrill voice. "Is

o put down the lump that had ri

said the voice approaching and at on

! Wow, w

er's name w

r's name

y-nine r

I'll no

ou?" said Dink, laughing as he dashed his cuff acro

onor," said Finne

Sto

e D

the

at translate

heard

was knocked clean off his pins,

ha

ellow down in the

inking only of the b

ck, beef-fed, rarin'-tearin' John L. Sullivan, ain't you?" s

do you

the Angel, swallowed the Canary, an

, y

t me-you're it, you

ing of wonder, sh

think so much of

hing

ing m

ing the ground wa

; prize-fights and all that sort of thing-and King Lentz and the Waladoo Bird, the finest guards Lawrenceville ever had. And say, you'n I and the Tennessee Shad could strike up a com

t comin

ha

r style of talent isn'

's wr

every

ink, conf

ve confided in any one, especially the first human

" he said, wondering how to

l, don't you?" said

. He was silent and his look went swiftly over to

I do. I

t th

derstand the game, I guess.

ave been pr

ha

ng. I was the freshest bit of verdure, as the poet says, that ever greened the place.

h," said Dink, i

" said Finnegan. "Don't mind that. Next year you'll be a

ht of that," sa

ink in Fatty Harris' room before The Roman make

zed him; some one had taken his hand in admiration. He rose and slowly made his way toward the singers on the Espl

e Reading-room. Above, the open windows were tenanted by boys who pillowed their hea

and true above the rest came the melody

when twiligh

to their nests

around in t

our voice

in

tars are shi

heir watc

old songs tha

the Esp

f himself by the accord of voices and the lingering note of mela

per accents

campus, gr

he 'leven

for the old

the base

r fear when

flag floats a

begins 'tis

eer the Bla

begins 'tis

eer the Bla

lenching his fists, seeing wonderful days when the school

d came the crunching sound o

at you

es

ted to say a

el

old place. I don't want to go out with

N

it off! Sh

with crude, embarrassed emotion, for the sake of the memories that lived in the shadow of a name. And something like a lump rose again in Dink's throat. He no longer thought of his loneliness. He

otesquely, unconscious

e back. I'll fight it out!" he said almost aloud.