wo
days later.

Mrs. West meanwhile toiled ceaselessly at furnishing the boys' room, and
the result was a revelation to Joel, to whom luxurious lounges and
chairs, and attractive engravings, were things hitherto admired and
longed for from a distance. And then, bidding a farewell to the lads,
Outfield's mother took her departure for home, and they were left
practically rulers of all they surveyed, and, if the truth were told, a
trifle sobered by the suddenness of their plunge into independence.

And one warm September day the college bell rang for chapel and the two
lads had begun a new, important, and to them exciting chapter of
their lives.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SACRED ORDER OF HULLABALOOLOO.

Picture a mild, golden afternoon in early October, the yellowing green
of Sailors' Field mellow and warm in the sunlight, the river winding its
sluggish way through the broad level marshes like a ribbon of molten
gold, and the few great fleecy bundles of white clouds sailing across
the deep blue of the sky like froth upon some placid stream. Imagine a
sound of fresh voices, mellowed by a little distance, from where, to and
fro, walking, trotting, darting, but ever moving like the particles in a
kaleidoscope, many squads of players were practicing on the football
field. Such, then, is the picture that would have rewarded your gaze had
you passed through the gate and stood near the simple granite shaft
which rises under the shade of the trees to commemorate the little
handful of names it bears.

Had you gone on across the intervening turf until the lengthened shadow
of the nearest goal post was reached you would have seen first a
squad--a veritable awkward squad--arranged in a ragged circle and
passing a football with much mishandling and many fumbles. Further along
you would have seen a long line of youths standing. Their general
expression was one of alertness bordering on alarm. The casual observer
would have thought each and every one insane, as, suddenly darting from
the line, one after another, they flung themselves upon the ground,
rolled frantically about as though in spasms, and then arose and went
back into the rank. But had you observed carefully you would have
noticed that each spasm was caused by a rolling ball, wobbling its
erratic way across the turf before them.

Around about, in and out, forms darted after descending spheroids, or
seized a ball from outstretched hands, started desperately into motio