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“temper is a joke among the fellows.
-tease him just to see him fly to pieces.
- to his cheeks.
a
_It’s that temper of his.
Copyright, 1922, by Davia C.
Cook Publishing Company.
Vol. 21,
No. 36. { PURLISHED
WEEKLY.
oy ir otionn
ty Ge a
N y ne:
= ;
Hé “y Win, “on, ;
Sing
He Kicked ©. violently that his foot slipped on
he turf and he fell awkwardly and in-
* on ously on the grasi
EAUTIFUL!” exclaimed Blaine, ad-
miringly. “Ile .runs like a Mer-
eury !""
‘Coach Bradley, standing watch in hand,
shook his head and sighed,
At that moment the runner dashed across
the white line that marked the quarter-mile
on the track. “His momentum carried him
a few yards farther down the track, and
then he waved his hand at the coach, and
turned across the athletic field toward the
gymnasium,
“ Wright's form -is good,” admitted the
coach to the student, who had come down
to. wateb track practice.
“Any chance for him in the Brighton
meet?” asked Blaine interestedly.
The coach looked doubtful. “ Ve ought
to be the best half-mile man in the state.
I never can count
on him in a race, He will go through his
practice here on the field perfectly for a
week, and then spoil it all J losing his
“head in the big race, I'd like him to run
- against Brighton, but I can’t trust him.”
“y know,” sympathized Blaine.
Algernon Wright in the gymnasium was
feeling the exhilaration that a shower bath
brings after brisk exercise in the spring
sunshine. Ile was pleased with the prom-
ise of the track meets that were to come,
.for he knew that he was in good condition
and that his running form was getting so
that he could depend upon it. “ Now if
Coach Bradley only gives me a chance,”
he thought, “I can do something in the
races this year, And maybe we can clean
up on-old Brighton. — Griffin's .got to be
beaten,” he growled, an angry flush rising
“TH beat him yet, if I don’t
do Another thing in college,”
s he dressed, the memory of the last
“atte: Brighton track meet—the big track
“event of the season—came back to him. It
was a thing he did not particularly like ‘to
_femember,.for there was a certain unpleas-
“antness about it that affected him especial-
ily. Ile had started to the meet on that day
in high spirits. Ile was in the pink of con-
dition, and he was sure he could win his
special race, the half-mile. At the start,
“he drew the inside position, At the crack
_of the zistol, he leaped into the lead, a good
- grass.
DAVID C, COOK PUBLISHING
pace in front ot ail the rest. He kept his
position antil halfway over the last of the
two laps, conscious of a runner who was
just behind him and who was vainly trying
to pass- him. Then he heard a muttered
sentence from the runner, “ Run along out
of the way, my little fellow, This is a
man’s race.”
Surprised and angered at the taunt—it
wasn't so 1nuch the words as the mocking
tone in which they were givren—Algernon
Wright glanced back over his shoulder
with a wrathful “Shut up!” on his lips,
thus violating one. of Coach Bradley’s
strictest ruies, That made him lose his
steady even stride for a moment. He al-
most stumbled, and.in that instant his rival
shot ahead of him,
Now as he remembered it again, the blood
rushed hotly to his head, and it was in no
pleasant frame of mind that he left the
gymnasium and started toward his boarding
house, . Halfway across the campus he
kicked violently at a small twig that lay
inoffensively in the path, kicked so violent-
ly that his foot slipped on the turf, and he
fell awkwardly and ingloriously on the
He looked around apprehensively.
“Little Algy gets back to nature,”
out the irrepressible Jinks, a Freshman
whose exuberant ,,sirits earned him the
nickname of “Hi.
“ Say,” of loded Wright, his wrath fair-
ly lifting him to his feet, “cut out that
Algy stuff, will you? Somebody ought to
teach Freshmen some-manners, and
about ready to do the “work, at least as far
as one Freshman is concerned !”
“Oh, calm yourself,” soothed Jinks.
“Your anger may be ‘ Wrightchus’” but it
isn’t becoming.
repeat a touching little poem I found to-
day, just for you.
“*Algy met a bear;
The bear met Algy.
The bear grew bulgy.
The bulge was Alzy,’”
he chanted, watching his victim's discom-
fort with obvious satisfaction.
“Only this case, Algy met. the
ground.” chuckled another boy.
“Come on, Al, ‘em have their fun.”
said Blaine, walking over to Wright an
sang
~ acted,
Now if you'll be good I'll -
COMPANY, Eten, [Ltrnors.
throwing his arm across the boy’s shoul-
ders, “ Don’t you.care. Let’s go to sup-
per.”
3
a
Algernon Wright shook his friend’s arm
free, but walked on with him. “I can't
stand that Jinks fellow,” he stormed. “ It
isn’t my fault that my name is Algernon.”
“Don't mind him,” urged Blaine. “ You
did look comical, you know, the way your
feet flew out from under you, You went
down so—so unaninrously.”
“Yiaven’t you any respect fora . fellow" s
feelings?” Algy grumbled.
A good dinner and a healthy appetite will
combine to drive away the deepest gloom,
and before long Wright had forgotten his
grieyance, It was not until late in the eve-
ning, when he had come out under the stars
to get a breath of air beforé going to bed,
that he remembered the incident again.
“That Jinks thinks he’s clever.” he mut-
tered. “Ile and his jokes and his rhymes.
Fool thing! Nothing to ‘em. ‘ Algy met a
bear!’ Humph!" Suddenly he chuckled.
“That was a funny one, though.
never let him know I thought it was!”
Then his sudden, and: embarrassing de-
scent upon the campus came to him.
that it was over, he could review the event
without so much emotion. Ile was forced
to smile himself as he thought of the pic-
ture he must have made. Then he grew
sober again as he remembered how he had
lost his temper.
“ Looked funnier than ever, iSaine said,
he mused. “I wonder if I did. I never
thought of that.” Ue thought carefully,
and tried to remember exactly how be had
“TN bet I made a fool of myself,”
he reflected. He started, as a thought new
to him came into his mind.
““* Algy met a bear.’ Ife grinned, and
then exclaimed, “H’m., that is just exactly
what has been happening to Algy all this
time. Come to think of it, ave a bear
of a temper.” [le chuckled at his own wit-
ticism. “And the bear met Algy, and the
bear grew bulgy, and—yes, by George, the
bulge was Algy. It comes out on top—-I
mean outside—every time, too. There’s
just one*thing to do; I’ve got to run from
the bear or else tame him.
The task of keeping his temper was even
harder than he had expected, for he had
never really tried before. From the very
beginning of the day, when the morning af-
ter his resolution, he energetically jumped
out of bed and just as energetically struck
his foot against a carelessly placed chair, it
seemed to him as though temptations to
give way to a burst of anger were waiting
for him everywhere he turned.
It was hard,
“Out of the way!" panted Griffin,
“Remember what I said. I'll get you and get you good!”
But I'd
Now-
September 9, 1922.
and he was not always successful, but’ lit-
tle by little he found it easier
control over himself, When gomet hit
irritating happened, he would think to him-
self, pt_ a bear—”
w ould cross
And then, one day a week after his reso-
lution, he came back to his room, which
was in a private house near the campus, to
find it “stacked.” In his absence three or
four of his friends had dropped in. to see
him. One of them suggested that it would
be a huge joke on Wright to turn every-
thing upside down, and the otbers hilarious-
ly agreed, So they set to work with an
“ Wright. to be perfectly frank with you, I'm
at all sure tat I can ket you
he wered finally.
enthusiasm which they had seldom given to
their studies,
When Wright opened his door late in the
afternoon, chaos and confusion met his eyes.
Fverything tbat he owned was piled in oue
grand heap in the center of the room. Ilis
furniture formed the foundation of the ps
mid, We recognized parts of his chairs,
desk, bureau drawers, and completely dis-
membered bed by various sections of them
that emerged from the general wreck. Over
the whole thing were spread the contents
of his desk and bureau, while the top was
crowned with a festoon of neckties piuned
together. Beneath them a row of his pic-
tures and pennants encircled the heap.
For a few seconds Algernon just stood
and looked. Then the blood rushed to his
face, he drew a long breath, and opened his
mouth, ”" He stopped,
“ Algy met a bear—
while a look of vast astonishment spread
over his face. That wasn’t at all what he
had meant to say. It was, in fact, far from
it. But the habit had already been fixed
so strongly that the words slipped out be-
fore he knew it. For a moment he felt
angry again, and then the incongruity of
the words in that particular situation struck
him with full force, and he sat down and
laughed until the tears rolled down’ his
cheeks, “I'll say it’s a bear!” he told the
world in general. — “ And it's the biggest
bear that Algy ever met,” he concluded,
more soberly,
He fished from the pile the essentials for
preparing for supper, and Jeft the work of
reconstruction until he came back. At
supper the guilty members of the party
watched his serene air in amazement. This
was hot the Algernon Wright that they
knew. nally one of. them ventured, in
tones of iltelet * Been home lately, Al?"
“ Just came from there,” Wright assured
him, “ And say, Bud,” he remarked, realiz-
ing what brought forth the question, “ you
and the rest of the bunch come over with
me after supper. I have a little job for
sou”?
The spring advanced, and as the weeks
(Continued on page 7.)
