not even a Lawrenceville
suds-lady would bite a hole in it----"

"If you don't get into bed," said Dink, "I'll rule you out."

Macnooder, thus admonished, hastened to his post, merely remarking on
the distinction of his garters and impressionistic socks and the fact
that he had incurred great expense to afford his schoolmates an equal
opportunity.

"Are you ready?" said Turkey Reiter, for the indignant jury.

"One moment."

Macnooder, in bed, glanced carefully at the preparations without,
turned on his side and brought his knees up under his chin.

"All ready?"

"Go!"

With a circular kick, something like the flop of a whale's tail,
Macnooder drove the covers from him and sprang into the doubled
trousers.

A cheer went up from the spectators.

"Gee, what a dive!"

"Faster, Doc!"

"Wash carefully!"

"Behind the ears!"

"Don't forget the buttons!"

"That's the boy!"

"Come on, Doc, come on!"

"Oh, you Dickinson!"

"Hurray!"

"Time--twenty-seven seconds flat," said Dennis de Brian de Boru
Finnegan. "Best yet. Twenty-seven and four-fifths seconds, next on the
list, made by the White Mountain Canary and the Gutter Pup."

"Next contestant," said Dink, in sing-song, "is the champion of the
Rouse, Mr. Peanuts Biddle."

But here a difficulty arose.

"Please, sir," said the candidate, who as a freshman was visibly
embarrassed at the ordeal before him--"Please, sir, I don't part my
hair."

Every eye went to the pompadour, cropped like a scrubbing brush, and
recognized the truth of this assertion.

"Please, sir, I don't see why I should have to touch a comb."

A protest broke forth from the other candidates.

"Rats!"

"Penalize him!"

"Why part my hair?"

"I always do that with my fingers when I'm skating down the stairs."

"Why wash till afterward?"

"No favoritism!"

The jury retired to deliberate and announced amid cheers that to
equalize matters Mr. Peanuts Biddle would be handicapped two-fifths of
a second. The candidate took this ruling very much to heart and
withdrew.

The Tennessee Shad, closing the list of entries, slouched up to the
starting-line amid great excitement to better the record of Doc
Macnooder.

He first inspected the washstand, filling the basin higher than
customary and exchanging the stiff face towel for a soft bath towel,
which would more quickly absorb the moisture.

Doc Macnooder, who followed these preparations with a hostile eye,
protested against t