al tobacconist; so everybody smoked violently and
too much. In half an hour it was almost impossible to see the ceiling
through the dull blue haze, and the men in the rear of the gymnasium saw
the speakers on the platform dimly through a wavering mist.

The band played various Sanford songs, and everybody sang. Occasionally
Wayne Gifford, the cheer-leader, leaped upon the platform, raised a
megaphone to his mouth, and shouted, "A regular cheer for Sanford--a
regular cheer for Sanford." Then he lifted his arms above his head,
flinging the megaphone aside with the same motion, and waited tense and
rigid until the students were on their feet. Suddenly he turned into a
mad dervish, twisting, bending, gesticulating, leaping, running back and
forth across the platform, shouting, and finally throwing his hands
above his head and springing high into the air at the concluding
"San--FORD!"

The Glee Club sang to mad applause; a tenor twanged a ukulele and moaned
various blues; a popular professor told stories, some of them funny,
most of them slightly off color; a former cheer-leader told of the
triumphs of former Sanford teams--and the atmosphere grew denser and
denser, bluer and bluer, as the smoke wreathed upward. The thousand boys
leaned intently forward, occasionally jumping to their feet to shout and
cheer, and then sinking back into their chairs, tense and excited. As
each speaker mounted the platform they shouted: "Off with your coat! Off
with your coat!" And the speakers, even the professor, had to shed their
coats before they were permitted to say a word.

When the team entered, bedlam broke loose. Every student stood on his
chair, waved his arms, slapped his neighbor on the back or hugged him
wildly, threw his hat in the air, if he had one--and, so great was his
training, keeping an eye on the cheer-leader, who was on the platform
going through a series of indescribable contortions. Suddenly he
straightened up, held his hands above his head again, and shouted
through his megaphone: "A regular cheer for the team--a regular cheer
for the team. Make it big--BIG! Ready--!" Away whirled the megaphone,
and he went through exactly the same performance that he had used before
in conducting the regular cheer. Gifford looked like an inspired madman,
but he knew exactly what he was doing. The students cheered lustily, so
lustily that some of them were hoarse the next day. They continued to
yell after the cheer was completed, ce