PREFACE.
JACK RATTLETON GOES TO SPRINGFIELD AND BACK.
THE WAKING NIGHTMARE OF HOLLIS HOLWORTHY.
THE PLOT AGAINST BULLAM.
THE DOG BLATHERS.
A HOWARD AND HARVARD EVENING.
THE HARVARD LEGION AT PHILIPPI.
IN THE EARLY SIXTIES.
LITTLE HELPING HANDS.
A RAMBLING DISCUSSION AND AN ADVENTURE, PERHAPS UNCONNECTED.
SERIOUS SITUATIONS IN BURLEIGH'S ROOM.[1]
A HARVARD-YALE EPISODE.
THE DAYS OF RECKONING.
CLASS DAY.
HOW RIVERS' LUCK TURNED.
THE NEWEST FICTION.
I cannot expect any one to be interested in these stories who is notinterested in the scenes where they are laid. To you, my class-mates andcontemporaries, I need make no apology. We always gave each other freelythe valuable gift Burns asked of the gods; my shortcomings I shall learnsoon enough—especially if I have written anything false or pretentious.But I feel sure that anything about Harvard, however imperfect, will notbe unwelcome to you—provided it is true. We are scattered far apart andcannot often meet to talk over old times; perhaps these recollectionsmay partially serve at times, in the place of an old chum, to bring backthe days when we were all together. They are only yarns and pictures ofus boys; but you will think no worse of them for that. The highertraditions of the old place I have dared in only one instance toapproach.
and for that we reverence, we glory in those precincts; is itprofanation to add that we also love them, because we ourselves haverollicked through them, with Jack, Ned, and Dick?
One thing, however, I must say to you before you begin to read. You willquickly see that I can claim little originality in the followingstories. They are almost all founded on actual occurrences of either ourown college life, or that of undergrads. before us. Some of theincidents came under my own notice, others happened to men of whom I donot even know the names, but who, I trust, will forgive my use of theirexperiences. But let no one im