otine. The boys studied. "College life" ceased; there was a
brief period of education.

Of course, they did not desert the movies, and the snow and ice claimed
them. Part of Indian Lake was scraped free of snow, and every clear
afternoon hundreds of boys skated happily, explaining afterward that
they had to have some exercise if they were going to be able to study.
On those afternoons the lake was a pretty sight, zestful, alive with
color. Many of the men wore blue sweaters, some of them brightly colored
Mackinaws, all of them knitted toques. As soon as the cold weather
arrived, the freshmen had been permitted to substitute blue toques with
orange tassels for their "baby bonnets." The blue and orange stood out
vividly against the white snow-covered hills, and the skates rang
sharply as they cut the glare ice.

There was snow-shoeing, skiing, and sliding "to keep a fellow fit so
that he could do good work in his exams," but much as the boys enjoyed
the winter sports, a black pall hung over the college as the examination
period drew nearer and nearer. The library, which had been virtually
deserted all term, suddenly became crowded. Every afternoon and evening
its big tables were filled with serious-faced lads earnestly bending
over books, making notes, running their fingers through their hair,
occasionally looking up with dazed eyes, or twisting about miserably.

The tension grew greater and greater. The upper-classmen were quiet and
businesslike, but most of the freshmen were frankly terrified. A few of
them packed their trunks and slunk away, and a few more openly scorned
the examinations and their frightened classmates; but they were the
exceptions. All the buoyancy seemed gone out of the college; nothing was
left but an intense strain. The dormitories were strangely quiet at
night. There was no playing of golf in the hallways, no rolling of bats
down the stairs, no shouting, no laughter; a man who made any noise was
in danger of a serious beating. Even the greetings as the men passed
each other on the campus were quiet and abstracted. They ceased to cut
classes. Everybody attended, and everybody paid close attention even to
the most tiresome instructors.

Studious seniors began to reap a harvest out of tutoring sections. The
meetings were a dollar "a throw," and for another dollar a student could
get a mimeographed outline of a course. But the tutoring sections were
only for the "plutes" or the athletes, many of wh