"Aren't you glad you didn't?" Hugh asked happily.

"Glad? Glad? Boy, I'm bug-house. And," he added softly, "I know the lad
I've got to thank."

"Aw, go to hell."

* * * * *

The initiation season lasted two weeks, and the neophytes found that the
dormitory initiations had been merely child's play. They had to account
for every hour, and except for a brief time allowed every day for
studying, they were kept busy making asses of themselves for the
delectation of the upper-classmen.

In the Nu Delta house a freshman had to be on guard every hour of the
day up to midnight. He was forced to dress himself in some outlandish
costume, the more outlandish the better, and announce every one who
entered or left the house. "Mr. Standish entering," he would bawl, or,
"Mr. Kerwin leaving." If he bawled too loudly, he was paddled; if he
didn't bawl loudly enough, he was paddled; and if there was no fault to
be found with his bawling; he was paddled anyway. Every freshman had to
supply his own paddle, a broad, stout oak affair sold at the cooperative
store at a handsome profit.

If a freshman reported for duty one minute late, he was paddled; if he
reported one minute early, he was paddled. There was no end to the
paddling. "Assume the angle," an upper-classman would roar. The
unfortunate freshman then humbly bent forward, gripped his ankles with
his hands--and waited. The worst always happened. The upper-classman
brought the paddle down with a resounding whack on the seat of the
freshman's trousers.

"Does it hurt?"

"Yes, sir."

Another resounding whack. "_What?_"

"No--no, sir."

"Oh, well, if it doesn't hurt, I might as well give you another one."
And he gave him another one.

A freshman was paddled if he forgot to say "sir" to an upper-classman;
he was paddled if he neglected to touch the floor with his fingers every
time he passed through a door in the fraternity house; he was paddled if
he laughed when an upper-classman told a joke, and he was paddled if he
didn't laugh; he was paddled if he failed to return from an errand in an
inconceivably short time: he was paddled for every and no reason, but
mainly because the upper-classmen, the sophomores particularly, got
boundless delight out of doing the paddling.

Every night a freshman stood on the roof of the Nu Delta house and
announced the time every fifteen seconds. "One minute and fifteen
seconds after nine, and all's well in th