r," said Stover quietly.

"Oh, I say, Dink!"

"Are you addressing the chair?" said Stover sternly.

"Oh, no," said Finnegan, according to his usual manner, "I was just
whistling through my teeth, gargling my larynx, trilling----"

Crash came the gavel and the law spoke forth:

"Mr. Finnegan will come to order?"

"I won't!"

"Mr. Finnegan either apologizes to the chair, or the chair will see
that Mr. Finnegan returns to short trousers and stays there. Mr.
Finnegan has exactly one minute to make up his mind."

Dennis, crimson and gasping, stood more thoroughly amazed and
nonplussed than he had ever been in his active existence. He opened
his mouth as though to reply, and beheld Stover calmly draw forth his
watch. Had it been any one else, Dennis would have hesitated; but he
knew Stover of old and what the chilly, metallic note was in his
voice. He chose the lesser of two evils and gave the apology.

"The chair will now state," said Stover, replacing his watch, "for the
benefit of any other young, transcendent jokers that may care to
display their side-splitting wit, that the chair is quite capable of
handling the previous question, or any other question, and that these
meetings are going to be orderly proceedings and not one-ring circuses
for the benefit of the Kennedy Association of Clowns. The question
before the House is the protest against compulsory bath. The chair
recognizes Mr. Lazelle to make a motion."

The cup of Finnegan's bitterness was not yet filled. Stover's first
act of administration was to forbid the privileges of the cold-air
flues and the demon cigarette to all members of the House who had not
attained, according to his judgment, either a proper age or a
sufficient display of bodily stature. Among the proscribed was Dennis
de Brian de Boru Finnegan, whose legs, clothed in new dignity, fairly
quivered under the affront, as he tearfully protested:

"I say, Dink, it's an outrage!"

"Can't help it. It's for your own good."

"But I'm fifteen."

"Now, see here, Dennis," said Stover firmly, "your business is to grow
and to be of some use. No one's going to know about it unless you yell
it out, but I'm going to see that you turn out a decent, manly chap
and not another Slops Barnett."

"But you went with Slops yourself."

"I did--but you're not going to be such a fool."

"Why, you're a regular tyrant!"

"All right, call it that."

"And I elected you," said Dennis, the aggrieved and ast