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                      _The_ SPIRIT OF THE SCHOOL




BY RALPH HENRY BARBOUR.

Each 12mo, Cloth.

  The Spirit of the School.
    Illustrated in Colors. $1.50.

  Four Afloat.
    Illustrated in Colors. $1.50.

  Four Afoot.
    Illustrated in Colors. $1.50.

  Four in Camp.
    Illustrated in Colors. $1.50.

  On Your Mark.
    Illustrated in Colors. $1.50.

  The Arrival of Jimpson.
    Illustrated. $1.50.

  Weatherby’s Inning.
    Illustrated in Colors. $1.50.

  Behind the Line.
    Illustrated. $1.50.

  Captain of the Crew.
    Illustrated. $1.50.

  For the Honor of the School.
    Illustrated. $1.50.

  The Half-Back.
    Illustrated. $1.50.

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.




[Illustration: “A more harmless youth it would have been hard to find.”]




                                 _The_
                                SPIRIT
                             OF THE SCHOOL

                          RALPH HENRY BARBOUR

           Author of “The Half-Back,” “Weatherby’s Inning,”
                         “On Your Mark,” etc.


                            [Illustration]


                        D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
                               NEW YORK
                                 1907




                          Copyright, 1907, by
                          PERRY MASON COMPANY


                          Copyright, 1907, by
                        D. APPLETON AND COMPANY


_Published, September, 1907_




                                  TO

                          JOSEPH SHERMAN FORD




CONTENTS


 CHAPTER                                         PAGE
     I.--AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE IN A NEW RÔLE          1
    II.--HANSEL DECLARES FOR REFORM                20
   III.--MR. AMES TELLS A STORY                    36
    IV.--SCHOOL AGAINST TOWN                       56
     V.--HANSEL MEETS PHINEAS DORR                 73
    VI.--THE CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT                 91
   VII.--THE FIRST SKIRMISH                       111
  VIII.--MR. AMES STATES HIS POSITION             131
    IX.--THE SECOND SKIRMISH                      149
     X.--HANSEL LEAVES THE TEAM                   159
    XI.--HANSEL MAKES A BARGAIN                   176
   XII.--THREE IN CONSPIRACY                      191
  XIII.--FAIRVIEW SENDS A PROTEST                 216
   XIV.--THE SPIRIT OF THE SCHOOL                 241
    XV.--THE GAME WITH FAIRVIEW                   255




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS[*]


                                                            FACING
                                                              PAGE

 “A more harmless youth it would have been hard to
     find.”                                          _Frontispiece_

 “‘I am looking for Bert Middleton,’ he announced.”             12

 “‘Play the game the best you can, and let me manage your
     campaign.’”                                               108

 “In place of his former attire was an immaculate suit of
     evening dress.”                                           118

 “He was beginning to be looked upon as ‘queer.’”              156

 “‘Who do you think will win, sir?’ asked Phin.”               192

 “‘Gee! I didn’t know I represented anything!’”                236

 “Lockhard... was streaking around the right end of his
     line.”                                                    264

[*] These illustrations are used by arrangement with the publishers of
_The Youth’s Companion_.




THE SPIRIT OF THE SCHOOL




CHAPTER I

AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE IN A NEW RÔLE


“It’s all well enough for you to sit there and grin like a gargle.”

“Gargoyle is what you mean, my boy!”

“Well, gargoyle,” continued Bert Middleton. “What’s the difference?
Of course, it’s easy enough for you to laugh about it; it isn’t your
funeral; but I guess if you’d had all your plans made up only to have
them knocked higher than a kite at the last minute----”

“I know,” said Harry Folsom soothingly. “It’s rotten mean luck. I’d
have told the doctor that I wouldn’t do it.”

“But it wasn’t his fault, you see. It’s dad that’s to blame for the
whole business. You see, it was this way. The Danas used to live up in
Feltonville when I was a kid, and dad and Mr. Dana were second cousins
or something, and were sort of partners in a sawmill and one or two
things like that. Hansel Dana was about my age, maybe a year younger,
and we used to play together sometimes. But his mother used to take
him away on visits in the summer, and so we didn’t get very chummy.
The fact is I never cared much for him. He was sort of namby-pamby,
and used to read kid’s books most all the time. Mr. Dana died when I
was about twelve, and Mrs. Dana and Hansel went out to Ohio to live
with relatives. Then this summer dad gets a letter from her saying that
she wants to send Hansel to a good school in the East, and asking his
advice. And nothing would do for dad but that the little beggar must
come here to Beechcroft and room with me! Did you ever hear of such
luck? And Larry Royle and I had it all fixed to take that dandy big
suite in Weeks. Of course that wouldn’t do, for dad says I’ve got to
sort of look after the kid. And as his mother hasn’t much money, why,
we have to room up here on the top floor of Prince with the grinds and
the rest of the queer ones. Look at this hole! Isn’t it the limit? One
bedroom, about the size of a pill box, dirty wall paper, a rag of a
carpet, and a fireplace that I just bet won’t do a thing but smoke us
out!”

“Oh, I don’t know, Bert. I think the place looks mighty swell with all
your pictures and truck around. The carpet isn’t much, as you say, but
then that’s all the better; you won’t have to be careful about spilling
things on it. And maybe What’s-his-name will turn out all right.”

“A regular farmer, I’ll bet! They live in Davis City, Ohio, and I never
heard of the place before. He’s been going to some sort of a two-cent
academy out there, and now he’s got it into his head that he can enter
the third class here. If he makes the second he’ll be doing well.”

“You say he plays football?”

“That’s what dad says; says he was captain of his team last year. I can
just see the team, can’t you? And I dare say he’ll expect me to get him
a place on the eleven here; maybe he expects to be captain again!”

“Oh, well,” said Harry, smiling at his friend’s woe-begone countenance,
“perhaps it won’t be as bad as that. And if he’s played football at all
we ought to be glad to get him. We haven’t so much new material in
sight this fall that we can afford to be particular. I really think,
though, you ought to have gone to the station to meet him, Bert.”

“I was busy putting up pictures,” answered Bert grumpily. “If he can’t
find his way from the station up here he’d better go back where he came
from.”

“I can see where little--say, what the dickens _is_ his name, anyway?”

“Hansel.”

“Where’d he get it? Well, I can see where he’s going to have the time
of his young life when he gets here; you’re so sweet-tempered, old
man!” And Harry Folsom leaned back among the pillows of the window seat
and laughed. Bert, sprawling in a dilapidated Morris chair, observed
him gloomily.

What he saw was a rather plain-looking lad of seventeen, of medium
height and weight, with light hair and gray eyes and an expression of
good nature that was seldom absent. Bert had never seen Harry angry;
in fact, his good nature was proverbial throughout Beechcroft Academy.
He was