The New Boy at Hilltop | Page 4

think he's related to our family, just the same."
"You do, eh?" responded Grafton sarcastically. "Well, I wouldn't try very hard to claim relationship if I were you. I guess if the honest truth were known there aren't very many fellows who would want to be in John Garwood's shoes, for all his money."
"Why?" asked Kenneth.
"Because he's no good. Look at the way he treated his employees in that last strike! Some of 'em nearly starved to death!"
"That's a--that isn't so!" answered Kenneth hotly. "It was all newspaper lies."
"Newspapers don't lie," said Grafton sententiously.
"They lied then, like anything," was the reply.
"Well, everyone knows what John Garwood is," said Grafton carelessly. "I've heard my father tell about him time and again. He used to know him years ago."
Kenneth opened his lips, thought better of it and kept silence.
"Ever hear of my father?" asked Grafton with a little swagger.
"What's his name?" asked Kenneth.
"Peter Hyde," answered the other importantly.
"Oh, yes! He's a big politician in Chicago, isn't he?"
"No, he isn't!" replied Grafton angrily. "He's Peter Hyde, the lumber magnate."
"Oh!" said Kenneth. "What--what's a lumber magnet?"
"Magnate, not magnet!" growled Grafton. "It's time you came to school if you don't know English. Where have you been going?"
"I beg pardon?"
"What school have you been to? My, you're a dummy!"
"I haven't been to any school this year. Last year I went to the grammar school at home."
"Then this is your first boarding school, eh?"
"Yes; and I hope I'll like it. The catalogue said it was a very fine school. I trust I shall profit from my connection with it."
Grafton stared bewilderedly, but the new junior's face was as innocent as a cherub's. Joe Brewster stared, too, for a moment; then a smile flickered around his mouth and he bent his head, finding interest in a bleeding knuckle.
"Well, I came over to talk about the team, Joe," Grafton said after a moment. "I didn't know you had company."
"Didn't know it myself," muttered Joe.
Kenneth picked up his book again and went back to his reading. But he was not so deeply immersed but that he caught now and then fragments of the conversation, from which he gathered that both Joe and Hyde were members of the Lower House Basket Ball Team, that Hyde held a very excellent opinion of his own abilities as a player, that Upper House was going to have a very strong team and that if Lower didn't find a fellow who could throw goals from fouls better than Simms could it was all up with them. Suddenly Kenneth laid down his book again.
"I say, you fellows, couldn't I try for that team?" he asked.
"Oh, yes, you can try," laughed Grafton. "Ever play any?"
"A little. We had a team at the grammar school. I played right guard."
"You did, eh? That's where I play," said Grafton. "Maybe you'd like my place?"
"Don't you want it?" asked Kenneth innocently.
"Don't I want it! Well, you'll have to work pretty hard to get it!"
"I will," said Kenneth very simply. Grafton stared doubtfully.
"Candidates are called for four o'clock tomorrow afternoon," said Joe. "You'd better come along. You're pretty light, but Jim Marble will give you a try all right."
"Thanks," answered Kenneth. "But would practice be likely to interfere with my studies?"
"Say, kid, you're' a wonder!" sneered Grafton as he got up to go. "I never saw anything so freshly green in my life! You're going to have a real nice time here at Hilltop; I can see that. Well, see you later, Joe. Come up to-night; I want to show you some new snowshoes I brought back. Farewell, Garwood. By the way, what's your first name?"
"Kenneth."
"Hey?"
"Kenneth; K, e, n, n, e--"
"Say, that's a peach!" laughed Grafton. "Well, bring little Kenneth with you, Joe; I've got some picture books."
"Thank you," said the new junior gratefully.
"Oh, don't mention it!" And Grafton went out chuckling.
As the door closed behind him, Joe Brewster sank into a chair and thrust out his legs, hands in pockets, while a radiant grin slowly overspread his angelic countenance.
"Well," he said finally, "you're the first fellow that ever bluffed Graft! And the way he took it!"
Kenneth smiled modestly under the admiring regard of his roommate.
"Gee!" cried Joe, glancing at his watch. "It's after six. Come on to supper. Maybe if we hurry they'll give you a place at our table."
Kenneth picked up his cap and followed his new friend down the stairs. On the way he asked:
"Is that chap Hyde a particular friend of yours?"
"N-no," answered Joe, "not exactly. We're on the team together, and he isn't such a bad sort. Only--he's the richest fellow in school and he can't forget it!"
"I don't like him," said Kenneth decidedly.
Hilltop School stands on the top of a hill overlooking the Connecticut Valley, a cluster of half a dozen ivy-draped buildings of which only one,