as the
laugh on me, does he? Well, we'll see who laughs last!"

On the third floor the Tennessee Shad and Dennis de Brian de Boru
Finnegan, from their respective trunks, were volubly debating the
merits of Finnegan's victory--the Tennessee Shad claiming that the
external application of cream puffs was equivalent to doping and
invalidated the result.

"Hello!" said Dink.

"Why, it's my honorable roommate," said the Tennessee Shad, emerging
with a load of flannels.

"It's the Dink himself," said Dennis, gamboling up. "Welcome to our
city!"

"I hear I'm rooming with you," said Stover, shaking hands with the
Shad.

"You certainly are, my bounding boy."

"Where's the room?"

"Straight ahead, turret room, finest on the campus, swept by ocean
breezes and all that sort of thing."

"Why, Dink," said Dennis de Brian de Boru in affectionate octaves,
"you old, slab-sided, knock-kneed, baby-cheeked, wall-eyed, battling
Dink. You've grown ee-normously."

"How's your muscle?" said the Tennessee Shad, with an ulterior motive.

"Feel it," said Stover, who had consecrated the summer to the same.

"Hard as a goat," said Dennis after an admiring whistle. "All nice
little cast-iron, jerky bunches, ready and willing. Been in training,
Dink?"

"Yes, just so."

"Feels sort of soft to me," said the Tennessee Shad pensively.

"Oh, it does?"

"Question: what can you do with it? Lift a trunk as heavy as this?"

"Huh!" said Stover, bending down. "Where do you want it?"

"Gee! I do believe he can carry it almost to the room," said the
Tennessee Shad, whose theory of life was to admire others do his work
for him.

Stover bore it proudly on his shoulders and set it down. Dennis,
planting himself arms akimbo, surveyed him with melancholy
disapproval.

"Too bad, Dink! I had expected better things from you. You're still
green, Dink. Been too much with the cows and chickens. Don't do it;
don't do it!"

Stover glanced at the Tennessee Shad, who, satisfied, had curled
himself up on the bed, to rest himself after the exertion of walking.

"I guess I am still a sucker," he said, scratching his head with a
foolish grin, "I'll not be so easy next time."

"Never mind, Dink," said Dennis comfortingly. "Your education's been
neglected, but I'm here. Remember that, Dennis is here, ready and
willing."

Presently the Gutter Pup and Lovely Mead came tumbling in, and then
the lumbering proportions of P. Lentz, King of the Kennedy, cro