eeling that he had made somebody squirm. Up jumped Grif,
the delight of whose life was practical jokes, which amiable weakness
made him the terror of the girls, though they had no other fault to find
with the merry lad.

"Mr. Chairman, the ground I take is this: girls have not the strength to
go to college with us. They couldn't row a race, go on a lark, or take
care of themselves, as we do. They are all well enough at home, and I
like them at parties, but for real fun and go I wouldn't give a cent for
them," began Grif, whose views of a collegiate life were confined to the
enjoyments rather than the studies of that festive period. "I have tried
them, and they can't stand anything. They scream if you tell them there
is a mouse in the room, and run if they see a big dog. I just put a
cockroach in Molly's desk one day, and when she opened it she jumped as
if she was shot."

So did the gentlemen of the club, for at that moment half-a-dozen
fire-crackers exploded under the chair Grif had left, and flew wildly
about the room. Order was with difficulty restored, the mischievous
party summarily chastised and commanded to hold his tongue, under
penalty of ejectment from the room if he spoke again. Firmly grasping
that red and unruly member, Grif composed himself to listen, with his
nose in the air and his eyes shining like black beads.

Ed was always the peace-maker, and now, when he rose with his engaging
smile, his voice fell like oil upon the troubled waters, and his bright
face was full of the becoming bashfulness which afflicts youths of
seventeen when touching upon such subjects of newly acquired interest as
girls and their pleasant but perplexing ways.

"It seems to me we have hardly considered the matter enough to be able
to say much. But I think that school would be awfully dry and dismal
without--ahem!--any young ladies to make it nice. I wouldn't give a pin
to go if there was only a crowd of fellows, though I like a good game
as well as any man. I pity any boy who has no sisters," continued Ed,
warming up as he thought of his own, who loved him dearly, as well they
might, for a better brother never lived. "Home wouldn't be worth having
without them to look after a fellow, to keep him out of scrapes, help
him with his lessons, and make things jolly for his friends. I tell you
we can't do without girls, and I'm not ashamed to say that I think the
more we see of them, and try to be like them in many ways, the better