The New Boy at Hilltop | Page 4

don't you kick to the doctor?" asked Grafton Hyde.
"Oh, it wouldn't do any good, I suppose," said Joe.
Grafton Hyde sat down and viewed Kenneth with frank curiosity.
"Where are you from?" he demanded.
"Cleveland, Ohio."
"Any relation to John Garwood, the railroad man?"
"Ye-es, some," said Kenneth. Grafton snorted.
"Huh! I dare say! Most everyone tries to claim relationship with a
millionaire. Bet you, he doesn't know you're alive!"
"Well," answered Kenneth with some confusion, "maybe not, but--but I
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