The Chums of Scranton High at Ice Hockey

In Short

Set during a freezing winter in Scranton, the story follows student leader Hugh Morgan and his high school hockey teammates as they prepare for a series of competitive matches against rival towns. Parallel to the athletic drama runs a human one: Hugh uses trust, tactical smarts, and a nod to Victor Hugo's Les Misérables to inspire local troublemaker Nick Lang to abandon a life of petty crime. Meanwhile, a chance encounter with a stranded, exhausted mother and her young child unexpectedly reunites Scranton's elderly blacksmith with the legacy of his long-missing son. It endures as an earnest snapshot of early twentieth-century juvenile adventure.

The Story

The story opens with high schooler Hugh Morgan and his constant companion Thad Stevens greeting the arrival of winter's first severe cold wave. The sudden freeze means the local baseball field and Hobson's mill-pond will harden into smooth ice, offering perfect conditions for skating. Hugh and Thad lead the Scranton High team, but they require a strong opponent to test their skills before facing outside rivals like Keyport. Hugh proposes assembling a "scratch Seven" team composed of unaligned local players.

To the surprise of his peers, Hugh insists on inviting Nick Lang, a notorious local bully and delinquent who, alongside his cronies Tip Slavin and Leon Disney, has long terrorized the town with thefts and arson. While town constable Chief Wambold and Thad consider Nick a lost cause destined for the Reformatory, Hugh believes that showing faith in the boy will encourage him to turn his life around. When Nick is falsely accused of stealing Hugh's nickel-mounted skates, Hugh steps in to clear up the misunderstanding. Touched by Hugh’s trust and defense, Nick agrees to play in the scrimmage. He displays superb, fair-minded play, resisting the bad influence of his former associates.

While Scranton High refines its tactics, a local department store is burglarized. Chief Wambold suspects Nick, but an alibi provided by Deacon Winslow—the town’s godly blacksmith—clears Nick completely. Instead, the crime is traced to Tip Slavin and Leon Disney. Tip hides his loot in a hollow tree in the woods, but his bad habits betray him when he is spotted smoking a stolen cigarette. The police recover the stolen goods and arrest Tip and Leon, ensuring both will be sent away to a state reform school.

Meanwhile, a second narrative unfolds. Driving home from an errand in a horse-drawn sleigh, Hugh discovers a frail, underfed young woman and her chubby toddler, Joey, struggling through the snowdrifts. Hugh carries them to his home, where his mother nurses the exhausted woman back to health. Hugh takes young Joey to visit Deacon Winslow and his invalid wife. The elderly couple has grieved for forty years over their only son, Joel, who ran away after a youthful dispute. Upon seeing Joey, Mrs. Winslow spots a familiar gold locket around the child's neck—the very locket she had given her infant son decades ago. It is revealed that the traveler is the widow of young Joel, who died out West; she has traveled on foot to bring her child back to his grandparents.

With family peace restored and Nick fully integrated into the community as an apprentice to Deacon Winslow, Scranton High turns its full attention back to the ice. Facing Belleville’s formidable hockey squad, Hugh uses clever strategy and sudden offensive spurts to pull ahead, securing a hard-fought victory as the town cheers them on.

How It Unfolds

The freeze arrives Hugh and Thad inspect the falling thermometer and plan a hockey scrimmage on the newly frozen ice to prepare for their upcoming school matches.

Testing the team Hugh extends an olive branch to local delinquent Nick Lang, recruiting him to play on an irregular scratch team despite the skepticism of the town marshal and his fellow students.

Clearing a reputation When a store is robbed, suspicion falls on Nick, but Deacon Winslow’s accounting of Nick’s whereabouts proves the young man spent the evening working honestly at the forge.

A stolen trail The real thieves, Tip Slavin and Leon Disney, are caught after Tip is seen smoking a unique brand of stolen cigarettes, leading police directly to their hidden cache in a hollow tree.

Rescue in the snow While driving a sleigh back from a nearby farm, Hugh rescues a collapsed, impoverished young mother and her baby boy, bringing them home to be cared for by his family.

The gold locket Upon bringing young Joey to Deacon Winslow’s house, Mrs. Winslow recognizes a tiny gold locket around the boy's neck, identifying him as the grandson of her long-lost runaway son.

Victory on the ice Scranton High takes on the highly coached Belleville Seven in a tense, strategic match, using disciplined team play and tactical adjustments to win the game.

The People

• Hugh Morgan: The natural leader of Scranton High's sports teams. Hugh is observant, generous, and guided by a strong moral code. He wants to win his school's hockey matches and help those in trouble, using patience and belief in human nature to steer Nick away from crime and rescue a stranded family.
• Thad Stevens: Hugh’s loyal friend and athletic companion. Thad is pragmatic, quick-tempered against wrongdoing, and protective of Hugh. Though initially skeptical of Nick's ability to change, he comes to support Hugh’s merciful approach.
• Nick Lang: A rough, defensive boy with a reputation as Scranton’s primary mischief-maker. Battling an environment of mistrust and his own volatile temper, Nick longs for respect. Encouraged by Hugh, he channels his stubbornness into fair athletic play and ultimately finds a constructive trade.
• Deacon Winslow: Scranton’s robust, eighty-five-year-old blacksmith and resident weather forecaster. Regretting how he handled his own son's rebellion decades earlier, the Deacon keeps a warm heart for all local boys and offers Nick both an alibi and a path toward honest work.
• Mrs. Winslow: The Deacon's invalid wife, who spends her days looking out the window, praying for news of the runaway son who left forty years prior. Her long period of waiting ends when she identifies her grandson by a family keepsake.
• Tip Slavin & Leon Disney: Nick’s former co-conspirators in petty crime. Lacking Nick’s desire to reform, their stubborn insistence on stealing leads directly to their arrest and commitment to the state Reformatory.

In Its Own Voice

"Give dog Tray a bad name, and he gets it right and left," chuckled Hugh.

Hugh explains to Thad why the town immediately blames Nick Lang for every local prank or crime, whether he committed it or not.

"I only hope it keeps on for forty-eight hours more, that's all I can say, Hugh. This being Thursday, it would fetch us to Saturday."

Thad expresses his hope that the sudden cold snap will hold long enough to freeze the flooded baseball park into solid ice for their upcoming game.

"I'm a-going to get there if it takes a leg. Anyhow, it's a heap sight pleasantner doing it outside the Reform School than inside..."

Nick Lang opens up to Hugh about the difficulty of breaking away from his past and his fierce determination to earn the town's respect.

What It's Really About

At its heart, the book explores the power of active empathy over punitive suspicion. Rather than treating juvenile delinquency as an incurable flaw, the narrative argues that troubled youths often respond to trust, constructive outlets, and steady guidance. Hugh's deliberate application of lessons drawn from classic literature demonstrates how community expectations shape individual character.

The plot also examines themes of redemption, restitution, and generational reconciliation. The shadow of Deacon Winslow’s past sternness serves as a cautionary counterweight: rigid judgment drives youth away, while second chances—whether extended to a troubled neighbor or a long-estranged family member—build a healthier community. The athletic ice hockey matches function as a visual metaphor for this philosophy, celebrating cooperation, self-control, and tactical discipline over rough, uncoordinated force.

Why Read It Today

This work offers modern readers a clear, nostalgic window into early twentieth-century American youth culture and the origins of scholastic sports fiction. Readers who appreciate historical series fiction will enjoy its straightforward storytelling, crisp descriptions of winter landscapes, and vivid depictions of early ice hockey tactics, complete with scratch teams, wooden sticks, and flooded outdoor rinks.

The prose moves briskly, unburdened by modern cynicism, conveying a wholesome optimism about personal growth and sportsmanship. While contemporary audiences may notice period-typical melodrama, simple moral dichotomies, and occasionally formal conversational phrasing, these elements reflect the genre standards of its era rather than flaws in construction. It reads easily and quickly, leaving behind a pleasant sense of warmth, fair play, and small-town solidarity.