The Jester of St. Timothys | Page 2

RIGHTS RESERVED
Published September 1911

CONTENTS
I. Irving sets forth on his Adventure 1
II. He achieves a Name for Himself 26
III. Westby's Amusements 53
IV. The Baiting of a Master 75
V. Master turns Pupil 96
VI. The Penalty for a Foul 120
VII. The Worm begins to turn 142
VIII. The Harvard Freshman 166
IX. Westby in the Game 183
X. Master and Boy 205

ILLUSTRATIONS
Lawrence launched himself and hurled the runner backward (p. 194)
Frontispiece
The canoes swung about and made for Each Other 52
As to who had won, Irving had not the Slightest Idea 140
A Shadow crossed Westby's Face 220
From drawings by B. L. Bates

THE JESTER OF ST. TIMOTHY'S
CHAPTER I
IRVING SETS FORTH ON HIS ADVENTURE
In the post-office of Beasley's general store Irving Upton was eagerly
sorting the mail. His eagerness at that task had not been abated by the
repeated, the daily disappointments which it had caused him. During
the whole summer month for which he had now been in attendance as
Mr. Beasley's clerk, the arrival of the mail had constituted his chief
interest. And because that for which he had been hoping had failed to
come, his thin face had grown more worried, and the brooding look
was more constantly in his eyes.
This afternoon his hand paused; he looked at the superscription on an
envelope unbelievingly. The letter came from St. Timothy's School and
was addressed to him. He finished distributing the other letters among
the boxes, for people were waiting outside the partition; then he opened
the envelope and read the type-written enclosure. A flush crept up over
his cheeks, over his forehead; when he raised his eyes, the brooding
look was no longer in them, but a quiet happiness instead, and his lips,
which had so long been troubled, were smoothed out in a faint,
contented smile. He read the letter a second time, then put it in his
pocket, and stepped round behind the counter to sell five cents' worth
of pink gumdrops to little Abby Lawson.
When she had gone and the callers after mail had been satisfied, Irving
sat down at the table in the back of the store. He read the letter again
and mused over it for a few moments contentedly; then, with it lying
open before him, he proceeded to write an answer.
After finishing that, he drew from his pocket some papers--French
exercises, done in a scrawling, unformed hand.
It was the noon hour, when the people of the village were all eating
their dinners; Mr. Beasley had gone home, and Irving was undisturbed.
He helped himself to the crackers and dried beef which were his

luncheon perquisites, and with these at his elbow and nibbling them
from time to time he set about correcting his brother's French.
He sighed in spite of the happiness which was pervading him; would
Lawrence always go on confusing some of the forms of être and avoir?
Would he never learn to know the difference between ils ont and _ils
sont_?
Irving made his corrections in a neat, pretty little hand, which of itself
seemed to reprove the student's awkward scrawl. He turned then to his
own studies, which he was pursuing in a tattered volume of
Blackstone's Commentaries on the English Common Law. He did not
get on very fast with this book, and sometimes he wondered what
bearing it could have on the practice of the law in Ohio at the present
time. But he had been advised to familiarize himself with the work in
the interval before he should enter a law school--an interval of such
doubtful length!
Mr. Beasley's entrance caused him to look up.
"I shall be leaving you in less than a month now, Mr. Beasley," he said.
"Got a job to teach, have you?" asked the storekeeper.
"Yes--at St. Timothy's School."
"Where may that be?"
"Up in New Hampshire."
"Quite a ways off. But I suppose you don't mind that much--having
been away to college."
"No, I think I'll like it. Besides,--now Lawrence will be able to go to
college this fall, and he and I will be pretty near each other. We'll be
able to spend our holidays together. I think it's fine."
"It does sound so," agreed Mr. Beasley. "Well, I'll be sorry to lose you,
Irving. The folks all like to have you wait on 'em; you're so polite and

tidy. But I know clerking in a country store ain't much of a job for a
college graduate, and I'm glad you've found something better."
"I'm glad if I've been of any use to you," replied Irving. "I know you
didn't expect I would be when you took me in. And your giving me this
chance has meant that I could stay