“Don’t those mean anything, Mudge?” he inquired.
Tad glanced at them contemptuously. “Oh, those!” he answered. “Those are for the faculty.”
A gate at the back of the campus opened into Maple Street. Tad led the way across the leaf-strewn road and through another gate opposite. Here a wide walk ran straight between hedges. On one side was a stone and shingle cottage, which Tad explained was Doctor Farron’s residence. Rodney couldn’t see much of it for the shrubbery, but what little was visible looked very attractive. A little further along there was a break in the hedge, and another path led across an expanse of turf to a two story building with a copper-roofed turret in the center. This Rodney recognized as the building he had seen above the trees from his window.
“That’s the gym,” said Tad. “It’s a peach, too. We’ll have a look at it after practice.”
“Are those tennis courts beyond there?” asked Rodney.
“I taught McLoughlin all he knows,” laughed Tad. “We’ll have a game some day. Take you on to-morrow morning if you like.”
“I’d like to very much. I guess you’re better than I am, though.”
Tad observed him thoughtfully and shook his head in doubt. “I don’t know. You look dangerous, Merrill. Say, what’s your other name? Roderick, isn’t it?”
“That so? That’s some name, isn’t it? How’d you like to go through life with Theodore pinned to you?”
“Seems to me I’ve heard of a Theodore who made quite a stir,” replied Rodney.
“You mean Teddy? Bet you they’d have given him a third term if his name had been John or William. Theodore’s a beast of a name. I’m going to call you Rod. It’s easier than Merrill.”
They had come to another street and another gate and in front of them spread a wide field of closely cropped turf that was just beginning to lose its summer green. Two stands flanked a blue-gray running track, within whose oval the white lines of a newly marked gridiron shone brightly. Already the scene was a busy one. Practice had not actually begun, but many candidates were on hand and a greater number of fellows were grouped and strung about the edge of the field to look on.
“That’s a dandy field!” exclaimed Rodney admiringly as his gaze went off across to where a line of young willows marked the further side of the enclosure.