Page:Lynch Williams--The girl and the game.djvu/112

 to understand all this college custom and class spirit business which every one seemed to consider the most momentous things in life. He had been conscious of his years and his woolliness, too, and rather on the defensive about it. But, having been chosen as a leader, finding that they were looking up to him instead of down upon him, he changed. He began to talk.

He enjoyed talking; he had done a great deal of reading and thinking out on the plains, and he hadn't had many friends with congenial tastes out there. He had views on all sorts of subjects, and he liked to air them, especially as he observed that they had weight coming from him. He talked well, too; was one of the ready-worded kind who like to hold forth at the dinner-table, smiling complacently at their own good points.

He liked to air his reading, also, as well as his practical knowledge of men and affairs; was more given to quoting and making classical allusions than most modern youths. For he was revelling in his opportunities for academic aspiration, and he