The entering class that year numbered twenty-seven. Rodney had a chance to look them over Thursday evening when the new First Form held a meeting in the Assembly Hall and organized. A fellow named Sanderson was elected president, and a youth named White was chosen for secretary and treasurer9. Rodney took small part in the proceedings10, but met, after the business meeting was over, quite a number of his classmates. They seemed a decent lot, he thought. They ranged in age from twelve to fifteen and hailed from seven States, most of them living within a half day’s journey. Rodney was the only Nebraska representative and came from farther away than any of them, except one boy whose home was in Colorado.
So far he had not again encountered Guy Watson, and was rather glad of it. Not that he was physically11 afraid of Watson, but he anticipated trouble sooner or later, and, being a sensible chap, preferred to avoid it as long as possible. One thing that amused Rodney was the[51] fact that no one had as yet connected him with his brother, who had graduated from Maple12 Hill four years previous. Sooner or later fellows would discover that the famous Ginger13 Merrill and the unknown Rodney were brothers. Until they did Rodney was satisfied to remain in obscurity, having no desire to shine in reflected glory. He hadn’t been there twenty-four hours before he heard Stanley’s name mentioned—they didn’t call him Stanley, however; he was Ginger to fame. At Maple Hill they compared every promising14 football player with Ginger Merrill, and each year’s team to the team that Ginger had captained four years before. Of course, Rodney knew that that remarkable15 brother of his had been something unusual on the football field, but he didn’t realize Stanley’s real greatness until he reached Maple Hill and heard fellows hold forth16. They spoke17 of Ginger almost with bated breath, at least with a pride and reverence18 that warmed Rodney’s heart and made him wonder if fellows would ever speak like that of him after he had been gone four years. If they ever did, he reflected, it would not be because of his prowess on the gridiron,[52] for football had no place in Rodney’s scheme. He liked to watch the game and could get as excited and partisan19 as anyone over it, but as for playing—well, one football hero was enough in a family, and Rodney had confined his athletic20 interests to baseball and tennis. Of those he was fond, especially tennis. He rather prided himself on his tennis. He had tried football, had even played a whole season on a team composed of grammar school youngsters in Orleans, but he had never become an enthusiast21, nor ever made a name for himself. If someone, ball in arm, ran the length of the field and fell triumphant22 over the goal line, it was never Rodney. Rodney played in the line, took his medicine unflinchingly, did his best to give as good as he got, and was always somewhat relieved when the final whistle sounded. No, it wouldn’t be for his football prowess that posterity23 would remember him.
Rodney had an interest in life, however. He liked to learn things, all sorts of things; mathematics even. History had no terrors for him. He could even find reasons to remember dates. Latin he liked immensely, and Greek he found[53] absolutely romantic, although, what Greek he knew he had picked up almost unaided. Modern languages—well, a fellow had to know French and German, of course, but Rodney was less enthusiastic about them. Geography, physics, even botany—all was grist that came to his mill. This love of learning he had inherited from his father. Mr. Merrill had started in life as a farmer’s boy, and by sheer passion for learning things had climbed up and up until to-day at forty-five he was the actual if not yet the official head of one of the biggest railroad systems of the country. Of Mr. Merrill’s five children, two boys and three daughters, only Rodney had succeeded to his father’s thirst for knowledge. Stanley was smart enough and had managed to do fairly well at his studies both at school and at college, but, to use his own expression, “he was no shark.” Stanley was far more contented in the Omaha office of the railroad than he had been in the classrooms. Perhaps Rodney’s youngest sister, Eleanor, was more like Mr. Merrill than any of the children save Rodney; although aged24 thirteen, her thirst for knowledge took the form of ceaseless questioning.
[54]
At grammar school, back at home, Rodney’s friends and companions had viewed his studiousness with surprise, and for awhile with disapproval25. Finding eventually, however, that aside from his strange love for lessons he was very much the same as they were, they forgave him his peculiarity26. But at Maple Hill scholarship was not regarded askance. In fact, Maple Hill rather went in for learning, and Rodney found himself in congenial surroundings. Maple Hill had its own local idiom, and in its language to study was to nose, and one who was of professed27 studiousness was a noser. Doubtless the word was suggested by the expression “with his nose in his book.” At all events, Rodney became a noser, and settled down quite happily and contentedly28.
Of course, just at first there were some lonesome hours. In fact there was one whole day of homesickness. That was Thursday. On Thursday Orleans, Nebraska, seemed a terribly long way off and the trees sort of smothered29 him, and the cool, crisp breeze that blew along Maple Ridge2 brought an ache with it. But[55] somehow on Friday morning it was all different. He awoke to find Kitty lying on his back in the middle of the floor, chastely30 attired31 in a suit of white and pink pajamas32, going through his first exercises. He had different ones for almost every period of the day. Just now he was stretched at length, inflating33 and deflating his lungs and making strange, hoarse34 noises in his throat. Rodney looked on for a moment in amusement, and then suddenly discovering that the sunlight streaming across the foot of his bed was very bright, that the morning air held an invitation, and that he was most terribly hungry, he made a bound that just cleared Kitty’s prostrate35 form and was ready for anything that fate had in store. And fate, as it happened, had quite a number of things up its sleeve.
After breakfast—and, oh, how he did enjoy that meal—he had only to cross the road, enter through a little revolving36 stile in the fence, and follow a path for a short distance across the campus to reach the classrooms in Main Hall. He went alone because none of the other Vests were ready. It was the custom to wait on the[56] porch of the cottage until the morning bell began to ring and then make a wild dash for the hall, arriving there just as the last clang sounded; you say ‘Good morning, sir,’ and be quick about ten minutes before the hour, but they were not deserted37. Main Hall entrance was a sort of general meeting place for the boys, a forum38 where all sorts of matters were discussed before, between, and after recitations. This morning the wide stones held some twenty youths when Rodney approached. Two First Formers, sticking close together for companionship, nodded to Rodney eagerly. He had met them last evening, and now he would have joined them if fate hadn’t sprung its first trick just then.
“Hello, little brighteyes!” greeted a voice. The appellation39 was novel to Rodney, but the voice had a familiar sound and so he turned. The speaker was Guy Watson. He was grinning, but Rodney didn’t like the expression back of the grin.
“Hello,” he answered quietly, and crossed over to join his classmates.
“Not quite so airy, please,” continued Watson.[57] “A little more respect, sonny. Now, then, try it again.”
He lolled over in front of Rodney, a frown replacing the grin.
Rodney was puzzled. “What is it you want?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you what I don’t want, you fresh young kid. I don’t want any of your cheek. Get that?”
“I haven’t cheeked anyone,” protested the other. “You said ‘Hello,’ and I answered you.”
“Innocent, aren’t you?” he demanded. “Don’t they teach you manners where you live? Where is that, anyway?”
“I live in Nebraska,” answered Rodney.
“Nebraska, eh! Out with the Indians. Well, of course you wouldn’t know any better. So I’ll explain to you, Mr. Wild West, that here at Maple Hill a First Former says ‘Sir’ to Third and Fourth Form fellows. Get that?”
“Yes, thanks. How was I to know you were a Fourth Former, though?”
[58]
There was a ripple41 of amusement at that and Watson flushed. “You’re supposed to know, kid. It’s your place to find out. Now, then, let’s try it again.”
“Try what again?”
“You know what I’m talking about! Now you say ‘Good morning, sir,’ and be quick about it.”
“Oh! That’s it? Why, good morning, sir. How do you do?”
“Cut the flip42 talk, now!” warned the older boy angrily. “You’re too smart for this place, anyway. You need taking down, you do, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you got what you need; I wouldn’t be at all surprised.”
“Oh, let him alone, Guy,” protested another boy. “He’s new yet.”
“And he’s fresh, too,” answered Watson. “He can’t get off any of his funny pranks43 with me, though.”
“That’s just his breezy Western way,” laughed the boy who had spoken. “He’ll get over it.”
“You bet he will! And let me tell you something, kid, whatever your name is. You owe[59] Doolittle for four ice-cream sodas44 and you’d better trot45 down and settle. First Formers aren’t allowed to have tick.”
“I don’t owe Doolittle a cent,” replied Rodney firmly. “And if he waits for me to pay him he will wait a powerful long time.”
“Oh, you’ll pay all right,” laughed Watson. “You thought you’d played a funny trick, didn’t you? Well, you got stung, kid.”
“Don’t do that!” exclaimed the other sharply.
“Do what?”
“Don’t shrug47 your shoulders at me! You pay Doolittle what you owe or I’ll pay you what I owe. Understand?”
“What’s the row, Guy?” asked a quiet voice. Jack Billings suddenly appeared at Watson’s elbow.
“Hello,” grumbled50 the latter. “It’s none of your affair, Jack. This kid’s been getting fresh, that’s all.”
“Merrill’s in my house,” responded Jack, gravely. “What’s wrong, Merrill?”
“Oh, drop it,” advised another youth. “Let up, Guy, and forget it.”
“Don’t you get fresh, too, Billy,” warned Watson, turning to the speaker. Billy laughed.
“I want you to mind your own business.” Then, turning to Jack, “If this kid’s in your house you’d better teach him a few things, such as respect to upper form fellows, Jack. If he opens his mouth to me again I’ll punch his fresh young head for him!”
“Then I’ll punch yours,” said a deep voice.
Watson swung around, looked, grunted53, and grinned. Phineas Kittson, blinking hard behind his goggles54, viewed him calmly.
“Merrill’s a friend of mine,” went on Kitty. “Good fellow. Roommate, fellow Vest, and all that, Watson. Mustn’t thump55 him, you know. I’d make trouble.”
The assemblage, which had been increasing every moment, burst into a shout of laughter. “Good old Kitty!” “Don’t hurt him, Kitty!”[61] “How are the lungs this morning, Kitty?”
“I’ll punch you, too, if you get gay, Kittson,” Watson informed him. Then he swept the laughing throng56 with his gaze. “And if any of you other fellows are looking for trouble——”
But at that moment the bell in the tower overhead began to clang, and Watson’s belligerent57 voice was drowned. The boys swarmed58 up the steps and into the hall, still laughing and joking. Rodney, following, found Jack Billings beside him in the press. Jack put an arm over the younger boy’s shoulders.
“Keep away from Watson, Merrill,” he said kindly59. “He’s got a mean temper. And don’t answer back. And never act fresh, Merrill.”
“I didn’t! At least, I didn’t mean to. He came up and——”
“All right. You can tell me about it some time,” interrupted Jack. “Scoot along now. If he tries to make more trouble for you, get away from him and come to me.”
And, with a smiling and reassuring60 nod, Jack pushed Rodney toward the stairway.
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收听单词发音
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1
groove
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| n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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3
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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physiology
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| n.生理学，生理机能 | |
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hygiene
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| n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic） | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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7
contraction
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| n.缩略词，缩写式，害病 | |
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8
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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ginger
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| n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气 | |
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14
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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18
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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partisan
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| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
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athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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enthusiast
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| n.热心人，热衷者 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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chastely
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| adv.贞洁地，清高地，纯正地 | |
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attired
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| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pajamas
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| n.睡衣裤 | |
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inflating
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| v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的现在分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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36
revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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forum
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| n.论坛，讨论会 | |
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39
appellation
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| n.名称，称呼 | |
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40
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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42
flip
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| vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的 | |
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43
pranks
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| n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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44
sodas
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| n.苏打( soda的名词复数 )；碱；苏打水；汽水 | |
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45
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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46
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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48
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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49
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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50
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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51
nagging
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| adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责 | |
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52
grouch
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| n.牢骚，不满；v.抱怨 | |
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53
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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54
goggles
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| n.护目镜 | |
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55
thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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56
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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57
belligerent
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| adj.好战的，挑起战争的；n.交战国，交战者 | |
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58
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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59
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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60
reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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