The Chums of Scranton High

The Chums of Scranton High

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Title: The Chums of Scranton High Hugh Morgan's Uphill Fight
Author: Donald Ferguson

Release Date: June 14, 2006 [eBook #18587]
Language: English
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THE CHUMS OF SCRANTON HIGH
Or
Hugh Morgan's Uphill Fight
by
DONALD FERGUSON

[Frontispiece: "Are you through?" demanded, Hugh sternly.]

The Goldsmith Publishing Co. Cleveland Made in U. S. A. Copyright,
1919

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
A FENCE WITH A HISTORY II. THE BOYS OF OLD SCRANTON
III. HUGH SHOULDERS A HEAVY TASK IV. IN FOR A FROLIC
V. THE TRAGIC AFFAIR ON THE ROAD VI. MAKING A GOOD
JOB OF IT VII. CALLED OUT FOR PRACTICE VIII. THAD
MAKES A DISCOVERY IX. JUST BETWEEN CHUMS X. A
VISITOR FROM BELLEVILLE HIGH XI. HUGH'S PETS IN
DANGER XII. THE TRAP XIII. A COLD RECEPTION XIV. NICK
AS A GAP-STOPPER XV. PRETTY POLLY UNDER SUSPICION
XVI. THE RESCUE AT HOBSON'S MILL-POND XVII. LITTLE
BRUTUS AND HIS "COLLECTION" XVIII. A STRAIGHT DRIVE

FOR THE TRUTH XIX. HUGH REACHES HIS GOAL XX.
LOOKING FORWARD--CONCLUSION

THE CHUMS OF SCRANTON HIGH
CHAPTER I
A FENCE WITH A HISTORY
"The best day so far this spring, fellows!"
"It feels mighty much like baseball weather, for a fact, Otto!"
"True for you, K. K., though there's still just a little tang to this April
air."
"What of that, Eli? The big leagues have opened shop all over the land,
and the city papers are already full of baseball scores, and diamond lore.
We ought to be getting busy ourselves in little old Scranton."
"Allandale High is practicing. Sandy Dowd and I saw a bunch of the
boys out on their field after school yesterday, didn't we, Sandy?"
"That's right, we did. And I understand Belleville expects to put an
extra hard-hitting nine in the game this season. They're still sore over
the terrible drubbing Allandale gave them last summer."
"Since Scranton has now become a member of the Three-Town League,
taking the place of Lawrence when that nine dropped out, seems to me
we ought to lose no time if we expect to commence practicing. That
same Allandale team swept the circuit, you remember, like a
hurricane."
"We've plenty of good material, fellows, believe me, right here in
Scranton High. And somehow I've got a hunch that we're going to
make even mighty Allandale take a tumble before the season gets old."

"Don't boast too soon, Eli Griffin. That's a wee Yankee trick you must
have inherited from your forebears."
"Easy for you to say that, Andy McGuffey. Why, you're a regular old
pessimist, like all your canny Scotch ancestors were. You love to look
at the world through smoked glasses. On my part, I prefer to use
rose-colored ones, and expect the best sort of things to happen, even if I
do get fooled lots of times."
A number of well-grown lads were perched in all sorts of grotesque
attitudes along the top rail of the campus fence. That same fence of
Scranton High was almost as famous, in its modest way, as the one at
Yale known throughout the length and breadth of the whole land.
It had stood there, repaired at stated and frequent intervals, for at least
two score of years. Hundreds upon hundreds of Scranton lads, long
since grown to manhood, and many of them gone forth to take their
appointed places in the busy marts of the world, kept a warm corner in
their hearts for sacred memories of that dear old fence. Many a glorious
campaign of sport or mischief had been talked over by a line of
students perched along the flat rail at the summit of that same fence.
More than one contemplated school mutiny had been hatched in excited
whispers amidst those never-to-be-forgotten historic surroundings.
Why, when a few years back the unthinking and officious School
Directors voted to have that fence demolished, simply because it
seemed to be out of keeping with the grand new building that had been
erected, a storm of angry protest arose from students and parents; while
letters arrived from a score and more of eminent men who were proud
to call Scranton their birthplace. So overwhelming was the flood, that