Winning His W

Winning His "W", by Everett
Titsworth

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Title: Winning His "W" A Story of Freshman Year at College
Author: Everett Titsworth Tomlinson
Release Date: May 8, 2005 [eBook #15801]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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HIS "W"***
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WINNING HIS "W"

A Story of Freshman Year at College
by
EVERETT T. TOMLINSON
M.A. Donohue & Company Chicago New York
1904

PREFACE
In this book I have endeavored to relate the story of a boy's early
experiences in college life--a boy who was neither unnaturally good nor
preternaturally bad, wholesome, earnest, impulsive, making just such
mistakes as a normal boy would make, and yet earnest, sincere, and
healthy. We all have known just such boys and are grateful that they
are neither uncommon nor unknown.
Perhaps it may add a little to the interest of this tale if it is stated that
many of the events described in it actually occurred. I have not tagged a
"moral" upon it, for if the story itself shall not bear its own moral, then
the addition will not add to it.
EVERETT T. TOMLINSON.
Elizabeth, New Jersey.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
THE OPENING TERM

II. PETER JOHN'S ARRIVAL
III. NEW FRIENDS AND NEW EXPERIENCES
IV. A CLOUD OF WITNESSES
V. UNSOUGHT ATTENTIONS
VI. A RACE IN THE DARKNESS
VII. SPLINTER'S QUESTIONS
VIII. THE PARADE
IX. THE WALK WITH MOTT
X. A VISITOR
XI. THE PERPETUAL PROBLEM
XII. THE MEET
XIII. WAGNER'S ADVICE
XIV. THE ADVICE FOLLOWED
XV. A REVERSED DECISION
XVI. TELEGRAMS
XVII. PETER JOHN'S DOWNFALL
XVIII. AN ALARMING REPORT
XIX. A RARE INTERVIEW
XX. A CRISIS
XXI. THE EXAMINATION

XXII. A FRESH EXCITEMENT
XXIII. THE RUSH TO COVENTRY CENTER
XXIV. THE MYSTERY OF THE CANES
XXV. ON THE TRAIL
XXVI. ST. PATRICK'S DAY
XXVII. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER I
THE OPENING TERM
"I've got a letter from Peter John."
"What's the trouble with him? He ought to have been here yesterday or
the day before."
"I'm afraid Peter John never'll be on time. He doesn't seem to have
taken that in his course. He'd never pass an 'exam' in punctuality."
"What does he want?"
"The poor chap begs us to meet him at the station."
"What train?"
"The two-seventeen."
"Then we've no time to waste. Is he afraid he'll be lost?"
"He's afraid, all right."
"What's he afraid of?"
"Everything and everybody, I guess. Poor chap."

Will Phelps laughed good-naturedly as he spoke, and it was evident
that his sympathy for "Peter John" was genuine. His friend and
room-mate, Foster Bennett, was as sympathetic as he, though his
manner was more quiet and his words were fewer; their fears for their
friend were evidently based upon their own personal knowledge.
For four years the three young men had been classmates in the Sterling
High School, and in the preceding June had graduated from its course
of study, and all three had decided to enter Winthrop College. The
entrance examinations had been successfully passed, and at the time
when this story opens all had been duly registered as students in the
incoming class of the college.
Foster Bennett and Will Phelps were to be room-mates, and for several
days previous to the September day on which the conversation already
recorded had taken place they had been in the little college town,
arranging their various belongings in the room in Perry Hall, one of the
best of all the dormitory buildings. The first assembling of the college
students was to occur on the morrow, and then the real life upon which
they were about to enter was to begin.
The two boys had come to Winthrop together, the parents of both
having decided that it was better to throw the young students at once
upon their own resources rather than to accompany them, reserving
their visits for a later time when the first novelty of the new life would
be gone.
And on this September day the novelty certainly was the most
prominent element in the thoughts of both boys. The task of arranging
their various belongings in their new rooms had kept both so busy that
thoughts of the homes they had left were of necessity somewhat rare,
and the vision of the family life in which they had been so vital a part
had not as yet come to take the place in their minds which it soon
would occupy.