ond to a toast in honor of the girl with the auburn hair----

"Or any other old color!" shouted Edgington.

"Or all colors at once!" roared a nameless wight at the foot of the
table.

At which gaucherie, the nameless wight was the recipient of nudges and
scowls in the direction of the professor (who was probably unaware of
the color of the hair on his own head, to say nothing of his
daughter's) and Edgington filled the gap caused by the unexpected
collapse of Amidon's response by charging that Cox was absent because
of his having recently taken passage upon the water-wagon, and was
traitorously staying away. Alvord proposed that a messenger be sent
for him, and when the A. D. T. boy came, a written summons was penned
on a menu card, on which progress to date was checked, and instructions
given that the document be presented to Cox at his home every twenty
minutes until he came--Cox to pay the charges; and the messenger to
return between trips to report, and to have the menu checked up so that
Cox might note the forward movement of events, and see how far he was
behind.

When Mr. Simpson rose to make a few general observations ushering in
that part of the program usually devoted to speech-making, Mr.
Bulliwinkle, whose vision was slightly impaired, took him for the tardy
Cox and some friend whom Cox had brought, and greeted them with a
strident "How-de-do!" After this blunder, of course, Mr. Bulliwinkle
was logically bound to show that the exclamation was uttered by virtue
of a deliberate plan, and so he repeated it from time to time all the
evening, until the ordeal of mixed drinks, to which his late arrival
had subjected him, proved too much for his endurance and robbed him of
speech. But this is anticipating.

A dozen matches were burning and a dozen Havanas sending forth their
first cloudlets of blue over the sparkling glasses of champagne, as Mr.
Simpson began his remarks.

"To most of those present," he said, "I don't need to say that this is
a sort of annual affair. To our new friends I will explain that this
club is an institution of Bellevale Lodge, Number 689, of the Ancient
Order of Christian Martyrs, of which noble fraternity we are all
devoted members. Present company are members, ex or incumbent, of the
Board of Control, and a system of fines for absence at board meetings
accumulates a fund which has to be spent, and we are now engaged in
spending it. Beyond the logic of the situation, which po