e: "I hope you ain't going to bother me by singing and
skylarking around. I'm here to work, bub." Smith then returned to the
large books which he was diligently scanning that he might find
wisdom, while Carl sniffed at the brown-blotched wall-paper, the faded
grass matting, the shallow, standing wardrobe.... He liked the house,
however. It had a real bath-room! He could, for the first time in his
life, splash in a tub. Perhaps it would not be regarded as modern
to-day; perhaps effete souls would disdain its honest tin tub, smeared
with a paint that peeled instantly; but it was elegance and the
Hesperides compared with the sponge and two lard-pails of hot water
from the Ericson kitchen reservoir, which had for years been his
conception of luxurious means of bathing.

Also, there were choicer spirits in the house. One man, who pressed
clothes for a living and carried a large line of cigarettes in his
room, was second vice-president of the sophomore class. As smoking was
dourly forbidden to all Platonians, the sophomore's room was a refuge.
The sophomore encouraged Carl in his natural talent for cheerful
noises, while Plain Smith objected even to singing while one dressed.

Like four of his classmates, Carl became a waiter at Mrs. Henkel's
student boarding-house, for his board and two dollars a week. The two
dollars constituted his pin-money--a really considerable sum for
Plato, where the young men were pure and smoked not, neither did they
drink; where evening clothes were snobbish and sweaters thought rather
well of; where the only theatrical attractions were week-stand
melodramas playing such attractions as "Poor but True," or the Rev.
Sam J. Pitkins's celebrated lecture on "The Father of Lies," annually
delivered at the I.O.O.F. Hall.

Carl's father assured him in every letter that he was extravagant. He
ran through the two dollars in practically no time at all. He was a
member in good and regular standing of the informal club that hung
about the Corner Drug Store, to drink coffee soda and discuss
athletics and stare at the passing girls. He loved to set off his
clear skin and shining pale hair with linen collars, though soft
roll-collar shirts were in vogue. And he was ready for any wild
expedition, though it should cost fifty or sixty cents. With the
sophomore second vice-president and John Terry of the freshman class
(usually known as "the Turk") he often tramped to the large
neighboring town of Jamaica Mills to