The Plastic Age by Percy Marks (best fiction books to read TXT) 📕

Hand And Was,  Walking Down The Gymnasium After Beckoning To The Boy To

Follow Him. The Boy Shoved His Feet Into His Goloshes,  Pulled On His

Baa-Baa Coat,  And,  His Face White And Strained,  Marched Down The Aisle.

The Proctor Heart Of Midlothian,  134

 " Kenilworth,  135

 " The Monastery,  136

 " Old Mortality,  137

 " Peveril Of The Peak,  138

 " The Pirate,  139

 " Quentin Durward,  140

 " Redgauntlet,  141

 " Rob Roy,  142

 " St. Ronan'S Well,  143

 " The Talisman,  144

 " Lives Of The Novelists,  331

 " Poems And Plays,  550,  551

 Seebohm'S Oxford Reformers,  665

 Seeley'S Ecce Homo,  305

 Sewell'S (Anna) Black Beauty,  748

 Shakespeare'S Comedies,  153

 " Histories,  Etc.,  154

 " Tragedies,  155

 Shelley'S Poetical Works,  257,  258

 Shelley'S (Mrs.) Frankenstein,  616

 Sheppard'S Charles Auchester,  505

 Sheridan'S Plays,  95

 Sismondi'S Italian Republics,  250

 Smeaton'S Life Of Shakespeare,  514

 Smith'S A Dictionary Of Dates,  554

 Smith'S Wealth Of Nations,  412,  413

 Smith'S (George) Life Of Wm. Carey,  395

 Smith'S (Sir Wm.) Smaller Classical Dictionary,  495

 Smollett'S Roderick Random,  790

 Sophocles,  Young'S,  114

 Southey'S Life Of Nelson,  52

 Speke'S Source Of The Nile,  50

 Spence'S Dictionary Of Non-Classical Mythology,  632

 Spencer'S (Herbert) Essays On Education,  504

 Spenser'S Faerie Queene,  443,  444

 Spinoza'S Ethics,  Etc.,  481

 Spyri'S Heidi,  431

 Stanley'S Memorials Of Canterbury,  89

 " Eastern Church,  251

 Steele'S The Spectator,  164-167

 Sterne'S Tristram Shandy,  617

 " Sentimental Journey And Journal To Eliza,  796

 Stevenson'S Treasure Island And Kidnapped,  763

 " Master Of Ballantrae And The Black Arrow,  764

 " Virginibus Puerisque And Familiar Studies Of Men And Books,  765

 " An Inland Voyage,  Travels With A Donkey,  And Silverado Squatters,  766

 " Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde,  The Merry Men,  Etc.,  767

 " Poems,  768

 " In The South Seas And Island Nights' Entertainments,  769

 St. Francis,  The Little Flowers Of,  Etc.,  485

 Stopford Brooke'S Theology In The English Poets,  493

 Stow'S Survey Of London,  589

 Stowe'S Uncle Tom'S Cabin,  371

 Strickland'S Queen Elizabeth,  100

 Swedenborg'S Heaven And Hell,  379

 " Divine Love And Wisdom,  635

 " Divine Providence,  658

 Swift'S Gulliver'S Travels,  60

 " Journal To Stella,  757

 " Tale Of A Tub,  Etc.,  347

 Tacitus' Annals,  273

 " Agricola And Germania,  274

 Taylor'S Words And Places,  517

 Tennyson'S Poems,  44,  626

 Thackeray'S Esmond,  73

 " Vanity Fair,  298

 " Christmas Books,  359

 " Pendennis,  425,  426

 " Newcomes,  465,  466

 " The Virginians,  507,  508

 " English Humorists,  And The Four Georges,  610

 " Roundabout Papers,  687

 Thierry'S Norman Conquest,  198,  199

 Thoreau'S Walden,  281

 Thucydides' Peloponnesian War,  455

 Tolstoy'S Master And Man,  And Other Parables And Tales,  469

 " War And Peace,  525-527

 " Childhood,  Boyhood And Youth,  591

 " Anna Karenina,  612,  613

 Trench'S On The Study Of Words And English Past And Present,  788

 Trollope'S Barchester Towers,  30

 " Framley Parsonage,  181

 " Golden Lion Of Granpere,  761

 " The Warden,  182

 " Dr. Thorne,  360

 " Small House At Allington,  361

 " Last Chronicles Of Barset,  391,  392

 Trotter'S The Bayard Of India,  396

 " Hodson,  Of Hodson'S Horse,  401

 " Warren Hastings,  452

 Turgeniev'S Virgin Soil,  528

 " Liza,  677

 " Fathers And Sons,  742

 Tyndall'S Glaciers Of The Alps,  98

 Tytler'S Principles Of Translation,  168

 Vasari'S Lives Of The Painters,  784-7

 Verne'S (Jules) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea,  319

 " Dropped From The Clouds,  367

 " Abandoned,  368

 " The Secret Of The Island,  369

 " Five Weeks In a Balloon And Around The World In eighty Days,  779

 Virgil'S Aeneid,  161

 " Eclogues And Georgics,  222

 Voltaire'S Life Of Charles Xii.,  270

 " Age Of Louis Xiv.,  780

 Wace And Layamon'S Arthurian Chronicles,  578

 Walpole'S Letters,  775

 Walton'S Compleat Angler,  70

 Waterton'S Wanderings In South America,  772

 Wesley'S Journal,  105-108

 White'S Selborne,  48

 Whitman'S Leaves Of Grass (I.) And Democratic Vistas,  Etc.,  573

 Whyte-Melville'S Gladiators,  523

 Wood'S (Mrs. Henry) The Channings,  84

 Woolman'S Journal,  EtcS Selborne,  48

 Whitman'S Leaves Of Grass (I.) And Democratic Vistas,  Etc.,  573

 Whyte-Melvillecy On Him; It Would Mean Everything To

The "Old Lady."

For The First Three Nights Of The Rushing Season The Fraternities Held

Open House For All Freshmen,  But During The Last Three Nights No

Freshman Was Supposed To Enter A Fraternity House Unless Invited.

The First Three Nights Found The Freshmen Traveling In Scared Groups

From Fraternity House To Fraternity House,  Sticking Close Together

Unless Rather Vigorously Pried Apart By Their Hosts. Everybody Was

Introduced To Everybody Else; Everybody Tried Rather Hopelessly To Make

Conversation,  And Nearly Everybody Smoked Too Much,  Partly Because They

Were Nervous And Partly Because The "Smokes" Were Free.

It Was The Last Three Nights That Counted. Both Hugh And Carl Received

Invitations From Most Of The Fraternities,  And They Stuck Together,

Religiously Visiting Them All. Hugh Hoped That They Would "Make" The

Same Fraternity And That That Fraternity Would Be Nu Delta. They Were

Together So Consistently During The Rushing Period That The Story Went

Around The Campus That Carver And Peters Were "Going The Same Way," And

That Carver Had Said That He Wouldn'T Accept A Bid From Any Fraternity

Unless It Asked Peters,  Too.

Hugh Heard The Story And Couldn'T Understand It. Everybody Seemed To

Take It For Granted That He Would Be Bid. Why Didn'T They Take It

Equally For Granted That Carl Would Be Bid As Well? He Thought Perhaps

It Was Because He Was An Athlete And Carl Wasn'T; But The Truth Was,  Of

Course,  That The Upper-Classmen Perceived The _Nouveau Riche_ Quality In

Carl Quite As Clearly As He Did Himself. He Knew That His Money And The

Fact That He Had Gone To A Fashionable Prep School Would Bring Him Bids,

But Would They Be From The Right Fraternities? That Was The

All-Important Question.

Those Last Three Days Of Rushing Were Nerve-Racking. At Night The

Invited Freshmen--And That Meant About Two Thirds Of The Class--Were At

The Fraternity Houses Until Eleven; Between Classes And During Every

Free Hour They Were Accosted By Earnest Fraternity Men,  Each Presenting

The Superior Merits Of His Fraternity. The Fraternity Men Were Wearier

Than The Freshmen. They Sat Up Until The Small Hours Every Morning

Discussing The Freshmen They Had Entertained The Night Before.

Hugh Was In a Daze. Over And Over He Heard The Same Words With Only

Slight Variations. A Fraternity Man Would Slap A Fat Book With An

Excited Hand And Exclaim: "This Is 'Baird'S Manual,' The Final Authority

On Fraternities,  And It'S Got Absolutely All The Dope. You Can See Where

We Stand. Sixty Chapters! You Don'T Join Just This One,  Y' Understand;

You Join All Of 'Em. You'Re Welcome Wherever You Go." Or,  If The Number

Of Chapters Happened To Be Small,  "Baird'S Manual" Was Referred To

Again. "Only Fifteen Chapters,  You See. We Don'T Take In New Chapters

Every Time They Ask. We'Re Darned Careful To Know What We'Re Signing Up

Before We Take Anybody In." The Word "Aristocratic" Was Carefully

Avoided,  But It Was Just As Carefully Suggested.

It Seemed To Hugh That He Was Shown A Photograph Of Every Fraternity

House In The Country. "Look," He Would Be Told By His Host,  "Look At

That Picture To The Right Of The Fireplace. That'S Our House At Cornell.

Isn'T It The Darb? And Look At That One. It'S Our House At California.

Some Palace. They'Ve Got Sunken Gardens. I Was Out There Last Year To

Our Convention. The Boys Certainly Gave Us A Swell Time."

All This Through A Haze Of Tobacco Smoke And Over The Noise Of A Jazz

Orchestra And The Chatter Of A Dozen Similar Conversations. Hugh Was

Excited But Not Really Interested. The Nu Deltas Invited Him To Their

House Every Evening,  But They Were Not Making A Great Fuss Over Him.

Perhaps They Weren'T Going To Give Him A Bid.... Well,  He'D Go Some

Other Fraternity. No,  He Wouldn'T,  Either. Maybe The Nu Delta'S Would

Bid Him Later After He'D Done Something On The Track.

Although Actual Pledging Was Not Supposed To Be Done Until Saturday

Night,  Hugh Was Receiving What Amounted To Bids All That Day And The

Night Before. Several Times Groups Of Fraternity Men Got Into A Room,

Closed The Door,  And Then Talked To Him Until He Was Almost Literally

Dizzy. He Was Wise Enough Not To Make Any Promises. His Invariable

Answer Was: "I Don'T Know Yet. I Won'T Know Until Saturday Night."

Carl Was Having Similar Experiences,  But Neither Of Them Had Been Talked

To By Nu Deltas. The President Of The Chapter,  Merle Douglas,  Had Said

To Hugh In Passing,  "We'Ve Got Our Eye On You,  Carver," And That Was All

That Had Been Said. Carl Did Not Have Even That Much Consolation. But He

Wasn'T So Much Interested In Nu Delta As Hugh Was; Kappa Zeta Or Alpha

Sigma Would Do As Well. Both Of These Fraternities Were Making Violent

Efforts To Get Hugh,  But They Were Paying Only Polite Attention To Carl.

On Friday Night Hugh Was Given Some Advice That He Had Good Reason To

Remember In Later Years. At The Moment It Did Not Interest Him A Great

Deal.

He Had Gone To The Delta Sigma Delta House,  Not Because He Had The

Slightest Interest In That Fraternity But Because The Nu Deltas Had Not

Urged Him To Remain With Them. The Delta