A Princetonian Author:James Barnes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. AB INITIO. On the way up from Princeton Junction as the engine coughed and choked along the marvellous grade, and slid with a grasp about the ne... more »xt-to-impossible curves, Simeon Tolker Congreve, aged eighteen, gazed up and down the car and heartily wished that his mother had not insisted upon accompanying him. " It makes one feel so awful young," Simeon was thinking. " It's more like going to boarding school than college." But he took heart when he saw a sweet-faced matron sitting just in front of him carefully rearrange the neck-tie of a tall young man with a tendency to growing whiskers. " I '11 bet a bean," said Mr. Congreve to himself, resting his eye on the occupants of the corner seat, " that those two fellows [they had smiled at the neck-tie affair] are sophomores." It was no credit to Simeon's discernment to make this statement. One of the youths he looked at so enviously had the sophomoric earmarks, and the other had a new hat-box with his initials plainly marked on the top, which would have pronounced him a junior to the initiated. Each, however, carried a silver- headed stick. " There 's my old room," spoke up one of these two as Witherspoon Hall came into sight. He made this remark with the air of returning as an old man to the haunts of his youth. " I wired Hiram to meet me at the station and take my bags," said the other. " What do you think of the freshmen ? " They glanced boldly into the faces that lined both sides of the car. " Fruit," said one of them. " Did you notice the big fellow down the aisle ? He looks as if he might play football, don't you think ? " " Pretty good build for it," was the rejoinder. Mr. Congreve, who had overheard the conversation, turned about. Directly behind him sat a broad-shouldered figure....« less