



Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net







[Illustration: AS BOB CROSSED HOME PLATE WITH HIS RUN, JERRY WAS NOT
FAR BEHIND HIM.]




                       ----_The Motor Boys_----


                          NED, BOB AND JERRY
                            AT BOXWOOD HALL

                                  Or
                      The Motor Boys as Freshmen


                                  BY

                            CLARENCE YOUNG

                   AUTHOR OF “THE MOTOR BOYS SERIES”
                     “THE RACER BOYS SERIES” “THE
                       JACK RANGER SERIES,” ETC.


                              ILLUSTRATED


                               NEW YORK
                        CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY




BOOKS BY CLARENCE YOUNG

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.

=Price, per volume, 60 cents, postpaid.=


=THE MOTOR BOYS SERIES=

  THE MOTOR BOYS
  THE MOTOR BOYS OVERLAND
  THE MOTOR BOYS IN MEXICO
  THE MOTOR BOYS ACROSS THE PLAINS
  THE MOTOR BOYS AFLOAT
  THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE ATLANTIC
  THE MOTOR BOYS IN STRANGE WATERS
  THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE PACIFIC
  THE MOTOR BOYS IN THE CLOUDS
  THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE ROCKIES
  THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE OCEAN
  THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE WING
  THE MOTOR BOYS AFTER A FORTUNE
  THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE BORDER
  THE MOTOR BOYS UNDER THE SEA
  THE MOTOR BOYS ON ROAD AND RIVER


=THE MOTOR BOYS--SECOND SERIES=

  NED, BOB AND JERRY AT BOXWOOD HALL;
    Or, The Motor Boys as Freshmen


=THE JACK RANGER SERIES=

  JACK RANGER’S SCHOOLDAYS
  JACK RANGER’S WESTERN TRIP
  JACK RANGER’S SCHOOL VICTORIES
  JACK RANGER’S OCEAN CRUISE
  JACK RANGER’S GUN CLUB
  JACK RANGER’S TREASURE BOX


=THE RACER BOYS SERIES=

  THE RACER BOYS
  THE RACER BOYS AT BOARDING SCHOOL
  THE RACER BOYS TO THE RESCUE
  THE RACER BOYS ON THE PRAIRIES
  THE RACER BOYS ON GUARD
  THE RACER BOYS FORGING AHEAD


  COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY
  CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY


=Ned, Bob and Jerry at Boxwood Hall=




CONTENTS


 CHAPTER                               PAGE
      I. THE OVERTURNED AUTO              1
     II. A FAMILY CONFERENCE             10
    III. THE RACE                        20
     IV. THE DECISION                    29
      V. GOOD NEWS                       37
     VI. BOXWOOD HALL                    46
    VII. OFF TO COLLEGE                  53
   VIII. PROFESSOR SNODGRASS             61
     IX. THE PROFESSOR’S SHOES           70
      X. A COOL RECEPTION                79
     XI. THE PROFESSOR’S DILEMMA         87
    XII. IN THE GYMNASIUM                97
   XIII. THE BANG-UPS                   105
    XIV. THE INITIATION                 113
     XV. CAUGHT                         124
    XVI. A COLLISION                    132
   XVII. THE AEROPLANE                  140
  XVIII. THE POSTPONED EXAMINATION      148
    XIX. THE BOXWOOD PICTURE            160
     XX. “WHO TOLD?”                    167
    XXI. THE COASTING RACE              175
   XXII. THE ICE BOAT                   183
  XXIII. SPRING PRACTICE                191
   XXIV. A SCRUB GAME                   199
    XXV. A VARSITY LOSS                 207
   XXVI. DISSENSIONS                    214
  XXVII. THE ROOTERS INSIST             220
 XXVIII. IN THE TENTH                   228
   XXIX. MR. HOBSON                     235
    XXX. THE WINNING GAME               240




INTRODUCTION


MY DEAR BOYS:

With this volume begins a new series of adventures for the “Motor
Boys.” Under the title “Ned, Bob and Jerry at Boxwood Hall; Or, The
Motor Boys as Freshmen,” I have had the pleasure of writing for you
the various happenings that took place when the three young men, whose
activities you have followed for some time, entered a new field.

The fathers of Ned Slade and Bob Baker, and the mother of Jerry
Hopkins, in consultation one day, decided that the young men were
getting a bit too wild and frivolous.

“It is time they settled down,” said their parents, “and began to think
of growing up. Let’s send them to college!”

And to the college of Boxwood Hall our heroes were sent. It was a
surprise to them, but it turned out to be a delightful surprise, and
one of the reasons was that their old friend, Professor Snodgrass, now
an enthusiastic collector of butterflies, was an instructor at Boxwood.

Of what took place at the college, of the hazing, the initiation, the
queer developments following an automobile rescue, of how the motor
boys gradually overcame an unfair prejudice, and how they helped to
win a baseball victory--for all this I refer you to the following
pages. The titles of the second series will include the names Ned, Bob
and Jerry, in various activities, and while they will still use their
motors, in auto, boat or airship, those machines will be of secondary
consideration.

And with this explanation, and with the hope that you will accord this
book the same welcome you have given my other writings, I remain,

                           Sincerely yours,

                                                        CLARENCE YOUNG.




NED, BOB AND JERRY AT BOXWOOD HALL




CHAPTER I

THE OVERTURNED AUTO


“What do you reckon it’s all about, Jerry?”

“Well, Bob, you’re as good a guesser as I am,” came the answer from
the young man who was at the wheel of a touring car that was swinging
down a pleasant country road, under arching trees. “What do you say it
means?”

“I haven’t the least idea, unless it’s some business deal. Ned, why
don’t you say something, instead of sitting there like a goldfish being
admired by a tom-cat?” and Bob Baker, who sat beside Jerry Hopkins, the
lad at the wheel, turned to his chum in the rear seat of the car.

“Say something!” exclaimed Ned Slade. “I’m as much up in the air about
it as you fellows are. All I know is that my dad, and yours, and
Jerry’s mother, are having a confab.”

“And a sort of serious confab at that,” added Bob. “Look out there,
Jerry!” he cried suddenly. “You nearly ran over that chicken,” and
he involuntarily raised his hand toward the steering wheel as a
frightened, squawking and cackling hen fluttered from under the front
wheels of the automobile, shedding feathers on the way. Then Bob
remembered one of the first ethics of automobiling, which is never to
interfere with the steersman, and he drew back his hand.

“A miss is as good as a mile,” remarked Jerry coolly, as he brought the
car back to a straight course, for he had swerved it to one side when
he saw the chicken in the path. “But I agree with you, Bob, that the
conference going on at my house, among our respected, and I might as
well say respectable, parents does seem to be a serious one. However,
as long as we can’t guess what it’s about there’s no use in worrying.
We may as well have a good time this afternoon. Where shall we go?”

“Let’s go to Wallace’s and have a bite to eat,” put in Bob.

“Why, we only just had lunch!” exclaimed Ned, with a laugh.

“Maybe you fellows did, but I wouldn’t call it a lunch that I got
outside of--not by a long shot! Mother isn’t at home, it was the girl’s
day out and I had to forage for myself.”

“Heaven help the pantry, then!” exclaimed Jerry. “I’ve seen Bob
‘forage,’ as he calls it, before; eh, Ned?”

“That’s right. He did it at our house once, and say! what mother said
when she came home--whew!” and Ned whistled at the memory.

“I wasn’t a bit worse than you were!” cried Bob, trying to lean back
and punch his chum, but the latter kept out of reach in the roomy
tonneau. “Anyhow, what has that got to do with going to Wallace’s now?
I’m hungry and I don’t care who knows it.”

“Well, don’t let that fat waiter at Wallace’s hear you say that, or
he’ll double charge us in the bill,” cautioned Jerry. “They sure do
stick on the prices at that joint.”

“Then you’ll go there?” asked Bob eagerly.

“Oh, I s’pose we might as well go there as anywhere. Does it suit you,
Ned?”

“Sure. Only I can’t imagine where Bob puts it all. Tell us, Chunky,
that’s a good chap,” and he patted the shoulder of the stout lad who
sat in front of him.

“Tell you what?” asked Bob, responding to the nickname that had been
bestowed on him because of his stoutness.

“Where you put all you eat,” went on Ned with a laugh. “You know it is
impossible to make two objects occupy the same space at the same time.
And if you’ve eaten one lunch to-day, and not two hours ago, where are
you going to put another?”

“You watch and see,” was all the answer Bob made. “Hit her up a bit,
Jerry. There’s a stiff hill just ahead.”

“That’s right. I forgot we were on this road. Well, then it’s settled.
We’ll go to Wallace’s and let Bob eat,” and having ascended the hill,
he turned off on a road that led to a summer resort not many miles from
Cresville, the home town of the three lads.

“Aren’t you fellows going to have anything?” asked Bob. “You’ll eat;
won’t you?”

“Oh, for cats’ sake, cut out the grub-talk for a while!” begged Ned.
“Say, what about that conference, anyhow? Does any one know anything
about it?”

“All I know,” said Jerry, “is that I asked mother to come out for an
auto ride this afternoon, and she said she couldn’t because your dad,
Ned, and Bob’s too, were coming over to call.”

“Did you ask her what for?”

“No, but I took it for granted it was something about business. You
know mother owns some stock in your father’s department store, Ned.”

“Yes, and she deposits at dad’s bank,” added Bob, whose father, Andrew
Baker, was the president of the most important bank in Cresville. “I
guess it must be about some business affairs.”

“I don’t agree with you,” declared Ned.

“Why not?” Jerry demanded. “When mother said she couldn’t come out I
hustled over and got you fellows, and here we are. But what’s your
reason for thinking it isn’t business, Ned, that has brought our folks
together at my house?”

“Because of some questions my father asked me this morning.”

“Serious questions?” Bob interrogated.

“Well, in a way, yes. He asked me what I’d been doing lately, what you
fellows had been doing, and he wanted to know what my plans were for
this winter.”

“What did you tell him?” inquired Jerry, slowing down as he came to the
crest of another hill.

“Oh, I said we hadn’t decided yet. I didn’t tell him we had talked over
making a tour of the South, for we hadn’t quite decided on it; had we?”

“Not exactly,” responded Jerry. “And yet the South is the place when
winter comes. I guess we might do worse.”

“Well, I didn’t say anything about that,” went on Ned, “because, if I
had, dad would have wanted to know all the particulars, and I wasn’t in
a position to tell him.”

“Is that all he asked you that makes you think the conference may be
about us, instead of business?” Bob inquired.

“No, that wasn’t quite all. He asked me about that trouble we got into
last week.”

“Oh, do you mean about the time we were pulled in for speeding?” asked
Jerry with a laugh.

“That’s it,” assented Ned. “Only it isn’t going to be anything to grin
at if dad finds out all about it--that we nearly collided with the hay
wagon while trying to pass that roadster. Say, but it was some going!
We fractured the speed limits in half a dozen