Page:The plastic age, (IA plasticage00mark).pdf/354

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
328
THE PLASTIC AGE

gone forever. Some of the drunken ones seemec very silly, some of them seemed almost offensive; al of them were pathetic.

They had come back to Sanford where they hac once been so young and exuberant, so tireless in pleasure, so in love with living; and they were try¬ ing to pour all that youthful zest into themselves again out of a bottle bought from a bootlegger, Were they having a good time? Who knows? Probably not. A bald-headed man does not par¬ ticularly enjoy looking at a picture taken in his hirsute youth; and yet there is a certain whimsical pleasure in the memories the picture brings.

For three days there was much gaiety, much sing¬ ing of class songs, constant parading, dances, speech-making, class circuses, and endless shaking of hands and exchanging of reminiscences. The seniors moved through all the excitement quietly, keeping close to their relatives and friends. Grad¬ uation was n’t so thrilling as they had expected if to be; it was more sad. The alumni seemed to be having a good time; they were ridiculously boyish: only the seniors were grave, strangely and unnat¬ urally dignified.

Most of the alumni left the night before the graduation exercises. The parents and fiancees re¬ mained. They stood in the middle of the campus and watched the seniors, clad in caps and gowns,