as cheerful hubbub and confusion.

"Give us a song, Billy!" shouted one.

The request was greeted by a roar of unanimous approval.

"What shall it be?" grinned Billy Burton, who seldom had to be coaxed.

There was a chorus of suggestions, for Billy's repertoire was very
extensive. The majority seemed to favor: "We All Sit Round and Listen,
When Hiram Drinks His Soup," although there was a strong minority for
"When Father Carves the Duck." In order to satisfy them all, Billy sang
both ditties to a thunder of applause.

He had to respond to numerous encores, and when at last he was too
hoarse to sing any longer, the crowd fell back on "Ten Little Injuns"
and "Forty-nine Bluebottles, a-Hanging on the Wall," together with other
school favorites. There were any number of discords and any amount of
flatting, but little things like that did not bother the young
minstrels. They wanted noise and plenty of it. And no one in that train
could deny that they got what they wanted.

"Now, Slim, it's up to you," said Ned Wayland. "It's a long time since
we've had one of your truthful stories."

"A story from Slim," went up the chorus, as all that could crowded
around.

But Slim assumed an air of profoundest gloom.

"Nothing doing," he said, shaking his head with a decision that the
twinkle in his eyes belied. "You fellows wouldn't believe me anyway.

"Look at the last one I told you," he went on, with an aggrieved air,
"about the fellows that used to catch crabs with their toes as they sat
on the end of the dock. Didn't you fellows as much as call me
a--er--fabricator? Even when I explained that they had hardened their
toes by soaking them in alum, so that they wouldn't feel the bites? Even
when I offered to show you one of the crabs that they caught?"

He wagged his head sadly, as one who was deeply pained by the appalling
amount of unbelief to be met with in the world.

"Perhaps we did you a great injustice, Slim," said Fred with a mock air
of penitence.

"I'm willing to apologize and never do it again," chimed in Melvin.

"And I'll go still further and agree to believe your next story before
you tell it," promised Tom.

"Now that sounds more like it," said Slim, throwing off his gloom. "I'm
always ready to add to the slight store of knowledge that you lowbrows
have in stock, but you must admit that it's rather discouraging to see
that cold, hard look in your eyes when I'm doing my best to give you the
exact facts."