from Fred. "We've got a new one here who is as bad as Dan
Baxter ever was."

"Who is he?" questioned Dick, with interest.

"A chap named Tad Sobber. He is a big, overbearing fellow with hardly
any education, and he wants to rule everybody. I can't understand how
Captain Putnam took him as a pupil."

"He came well recommended, that's why," answered Songbird. "But I guess
the captain has found out that the recommendation was false."

"He shan't rule me," said Tom, decidedly.

"We want no bullies here," put in Dick. "The day for all such is past."

"So say we all of us!" cried several cadets.

At that moment came a knock on the door, and a tall youth, wearing an
unusually high collar and very large cuffs, came in.

"Well, if it isn't our old chum, William Philander Tubbs!" cried Dick,
running forward and grasping the hand of the dude student.

"Hullo, Tubbsey, old man!" said Tom, gaily. "What's the price of the
best cologne now?"

"Very--ah--glad to meet you again," drawled Tubbs. "But--er--please
don't call me Tubbsey, because it isn't my name, don't you know."

"To be sure, Buttertub--I mean Washtub," answered Tom. "Had your hair
crimped lately?"

"Now, Tom, I never crimp my hair--it hurts the color, don't you know,"
explained William Philander. "I use----"

"Glue with an egg beater," finished Tom with a wink at his friends. "By
the way, Tubblets, do you know what I heard some girls say last week?
They said they thought you were a regular fashion plate."

"Now did they really?" gushed the dude, much pleased. "Who--er--said
it?"

"Two girls living not many miles from here."

"You--ah--don't happen to know their names?"

"No. But I can tell you all about them."

"Ah! Then please do, Tom," said the dude eagerly. To have any young
ladies think of him pleased him immensely.

"Well, these are a couple of young ladies who work in a laundry. Maybe
they wash your shirts. They are colored, and----"

"Colored!" gasped the dude, and then a shout of laughter went up, in the
midst of which William Philander started to leave the room.

"Don't go away mad, Billy," cried Tom. "Isn't it nice even to have two
dusky damsels think of you?"

"No, it is not--it is--is horrid!" answered William Philander. "I think
you are--er--poking fun at me."

"Never did such a thing in my life, my dear fellow--it's against my
internal regulations. But how have you been since the week before next
month?"

"I had a delightful va