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Title: The Varmint

Author: Owen Johnson
F. R. Gruger

Release Date: May 1, 2008 [EBook #25272]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Varmint

[Illustration]

OWEN JOHNSON

The Varmint

By OWEN JOHNSON

Author of "The Prodigious Hickey," "Stover at Yale,"
"The Humming Bird," "Tennessee Shad," etc.

WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
BY F. R. GRUGER

A. L. BURT COMPANY
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY

_Published, July, 1910_

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.

TO

Alexander Lambert, M.D.

IN FRIENDSHIP, IN GRATITUDE, AND IN MEMORY OF MY WIFE.

THE VARMINT

[Illustration: "LIKE MY JIBS?" SAID STOVER]

THE VARMINT

I

When young Stover disembarked at the Trenton station on the fourth day
after the opening of the spring term he had acquired in his brief
journey so much of the Pennsylvania rolling stock as could be detached
and concealed. Inserted between his nether and outer shirts were two
gilt "Directions to Travelers" which clung like mustard plasters to
his back, while a jagged tin sign, wrenched from the home terminal,
embraced his stomach with the painful tenacity of the historic Spartan
fox. In his pockets were objects--small objects but precious and
dangerous to unscrew and acquire.

Being forced to wait, he sat now, preternaturally stiff, perched on a
heap of trunks, clutching a broken dress-suit case which had been
re-enforced with particolored strings.

There was about young Stover, when properly washed, a certain air of
cherubim that instantly struck the observer; his tousled tow hair had
a cathedral tone, his cheek was guileless and his big blue eyes had an
upward cast toward the angels which, as in the present moment when he
was