Upon this campus, strolling about here and there this fine fall day, was a group of lads attired in the more or less exaggerated costumes effected by college youth the world over.
“Say, fellows, I’ve got news for you!” cried Frank Watson, who, as one could tell by the manner he used toward some of the other students, was a sophomore. “Great news! Come here, Bill Hamilton--Bart Haley--you too, Sid Lenton and Jim Blake. Come here and listen to me.”
“What’s the matter now?” asked Bill Hamilton, a flashily dressed lad. “Has some one left you money?”
“Same here,” drawled Bart Haley. “I never knew how much a fellow could spend until I came here. I’m up against it hard!”
“No, it isn’t money,” remarked Frank. “It’s worse than that. What do you know about this. There’s a bunch of new fellows coming here in a week or so, and they’re about the limit--or at least I think they’ll be that.”
“What do you mean?” asked Bart, slightly interested.
“This. There are three fellows coming into the freshman class. And from what I hear they have been around pretty much, so they’ll probably be fresher than usual and will try to run things here to suit themselves. The know-it-all class, so to speak.”
“How’d you hear about this?” demanded Sid Lenton.
“They are--let me see. I jotted down their names so’s we’d have ’em handy to use in case we had to. Here they are--Jerry Hopkins, Bob Baker and Ned Slade. They’re from Cresville, and they’re going to bring their auto with them. Fawncy now!” and Frank assumed a mocking air and tone.
“I asked you how you heard it,” came from Sid again.
“Professor Snodgrass told me. He’s a friend of theirs, it seems, and he sent one of them a college catalogue. That’s how they came to be wished on to us. It seems that Professor Snodgrass, who isn’t a bad sort by the way, used to travel about with the Motor Boys, as their friends at home call them,” said Frank, sarcastically.
“Yes, that’s what they used to call themselves. Think of that--motor boys!”
“Oh, because they did a lot of motoring. Had motor cycles first, it appears, then they got an auto, then a motor boat, and then they even had a submarine!”
“Get out! You’re stringing us!” cried several.
“No, it’s straight!” declared Frank. He sat down on the grass and continued: “Why, some fellow even wrote a book--two or three of them I guess--about these same motor boys. When Professor Snodgrass told me they were coming here I pumped him for all he was worth. Thinks I to myself, if we’re going to have fellows like that here, who sure will try to walk over us, the more I know about them the better.