ossible,
hurried to a chair, and snatched up a copy of the examination that was
lying on its broad arm. At the first glance he thought that he could
answer all the questions; a second glance revealed four that meant
nothing to him. For a moment he was dizzy with hope and despair, and
then, all at once, he felt quite calm. He pulled off his goloshes and
prepared to go to work.

Within three minutes the noise had subsided. There was a rustling as the
boys took off their baa-baa coats and goloshes, but after that there was
no sound save the slow steps of the proctors pacing up and down the
aisle. Once Hugh looked up, thinking desperately, almost seizing an idea
that floated nebulous and necessary before him. A proctor that he knew
caught his eye and smiled fatuously. Hugh did not smile back. He could
have cried in his fury. The idea was gone forever.

Some of the students began to write immediately; some of them leaned
back and stared at the ceiling; some of them chewed their pencils
nervously; some of them leaned forward mercilessly pounding a knee; some
of them kept running one or both hands through their hair; some of them
wrote a little and then paused to gaze blankly before them or to tap
their teeth with a pen or pencil: all of them were concentrating with an
intensity that made the silence electric.

That proctor's idiotic smile had thrown Hugh's thoughts into what
seemed hopeless confusion, but a small incident almost immediately
brought order and relief. The gymnasium cat was wandering around the
rear of the gymnasium. It attracted the attention of several of the
students--and of a proctor. Being very careful not to make any noise, he
picked up the cat and started for the door. Almost instantly every
student looked up; and then the stamping began. Four hundred freshmen
stamped in rhythm to the proctor's steps. He Hushed violently, tried
vainly to look unconcerned, and finally disappeared through the door
with the cat. Hugh had stamped lustily and laughed in great glee at the
proctor's confusion; then he returned to his work, completely at ease,
his nervousness gone.

One hour passed, two hours. Still the freshmen wrote; still the proctors
paced up and down. Suddenly a proctor paused, stared intently at a youth
who was leaning forward in his chair, walked quickly to him, and picked
up one of his goloshes. The next instant he had a piece of paper in his
hand and was, walking down the gymnasium after beckoning to