Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (270 page)

"That's
my
age,"
asserted
Benjamin,
flushing
slightly.

The
registrar
eyed
him
wearily.
"Now
surely,
Mr.
Button,
you
don't expect
me
to
believe
that."

Benjamin
smiled
wearily.
"I
am
eighteen,"
he
repeated.

The
registrar
pointed
sternly
to
the
door.
"Get
out,"
he
said.
"Get out
of
college
and
get
out
of
town.
You
are
a
dangerous
lunatic."

"I
am
eighteen."

Mr.
Hart
opened
the
door.
"The
idea!"
he
shouted.
"A
man
of your
age
trying
to
enter
here
as
a
freshman.
Eighteen
years
old,
are you?
Well,
I'll
give
you
eighteen
minutes
to
get
out
of
town."

Benjamin
walked
with
dignity
from
the
room,
and
half
a
dozen undergraduates,
who
were
waiting
in
the
hall,
followed
him
curiously with
their
eyes.
When
he
had
gone
a
little
way
he
turned
around, faced
the
infuriated
registrar,
who
was
still
standing
in
the
doorway, and
repeated
in
a
firm
voice:
"I
am
eighteen
years
old."

To
a
chorus
of
titters
which
went
up
from
the
group
of
undergraduates,
Benjamin
walked
away.

But
he
was
not
fated
to
escape
so
easily.
On
his
melancholy
walk to
the
railroad
station
he
found
that
he
was
being
followed
by
a
group,
then
by
a
swarm,
and
finally
by
a
dense
mass
of
undergraduates.
The
word
had
gone
around
that
a
lunatic
had
passed
the
entrance examinations
for
Yale
and
attempted
to
palm
himself
off
as
a
youth of
eighteen.
A
fever
of
excitement
permeated
the
college.
Men
ran hatless
out
of
classes,
the
football
team
abandoned
its
practice
and joined
the
mob,
professors'
wives,
with
bonnets
awry
and
bustles
out of
position,
ran
shouting
after
the
procession,
from
which
proceeded a
continual
succession
of
remarks
aimed
at
the
tender
sensibilities
of Benjamin
Button.

"He
must
be
the
Wandering
Jew!"

"He
ought
to
go
to
prep
school
at
his
age!"

"Look
at
the
infant
prodigy!"

"He
thought
this
was
the
old
men's
home."

"Go
up
to
Harvard!"

Benjamin
increased
his
gait,
and
soon
he
was
running.
He
would show
them!
He
would
go
to
Harvard,
and
then
they
would
regret these
ill-considered
taunts!

Safely
on
board
the
train
for
Baltimore,
he
put
his
head
from
the window.
"You'll
regret
this!"
he
shouted.

"Ha-ha!"
the
undergraduates
laughed.
"Ha-ha-ha!"
It
was
the
biggest
mistake
that
Yale
College
had
ever
made.
.
.
.

5

In
1880
Benjamin
Button
was
twenty
years
old,
and
he
signalized his
birthday
by
going
to
work
for
his
father
in
Roger
Button
&
Co., Wholesale
Hardware.
It
was
in
that
same
year
that
he
began
"going out
socially"—that
is,
his
father
insisted
on
taking
him
to
several fashionable
dances.
Roger
Button
was
now
fifty,
and
he
and
his
son were
more
and
more
companionable—in
fact,
since
Benjamin
had ceased
to
dye
his
hair
(which
was
still
grayish)
they
appeared
about the
same
age,
and
could
have
passed
for
brothers.