ound object
to the candidate.

"It is an echinus--a sea-urchin," Tom said triumphantly.

"Have they any circulation?" asked the other examiner.

"A water vascular system."

"Describe it."

Tom started off fluently, but it was no part of the policy of the
examiners to allow him to waste the fifteen minutes allotted them in
expatiating upon what he knew well. They interrupted him after a few
sentences.

"How does this creature walk?" asked the crab-like one.

"By means of long tubes which it projects at pleasure."

"How do the tubes enable the creature to walk?"

"They have suckers on them."

"What are the suckers like?"

"They are round hollow discs."

"Are you sure they are round?" asked the other sharply.

"Yes," said Tom stoutly, though his ideas on the subject were rather
vague."

"And how does this sucker act?" asked the taller examiner.

Tom began to feel that these two men were exhibiting a very unseemly
curiosity. There seemed to be no satiating their desire for
information. "It creates a vacuum," he cried desperately.

"How does it create a vacuum?"

"By the contraction of a muscular pimple in the centre," said Tom, in a
moment of inspiration.

"And what makes this pimple contract?"

Tom lost his head, and was about to say "electricity," when he happily
checked himself and substituted "muscular action."

"Very good," said the examiners, and the student breathed again. The
taller one returned to the charge, however, with, "And this muscle--is
it composed of striped fibres or non-striped?"

"Non-striped," shrieked Tom at a venture, and both examiners rubbed
their hands and murmured, "Very good, indeed!" at which Tom's hair began
to lie a little flatter, and he ceased to feel as if he were in a
Turkish bath.

"How many teeth has a rabbit?" the tall man asked suddenly.

"I don't know," the student answered with candour.

The two looked triumphantly at one another.

"He doesn't know!" cried the goggle-eyed one decisively.

"I should recommend you to count them the next time you have one for
dinner," the other remarked. As this was evidently meant for a joke,
Tom had the tact to laugh, and a very gruesome and awe-inspiring laugh
it was too.

Then the candidate was badgered about the pterodactyl, and concerning
the difference in anatomy between a bat and a bird, and about the
lamprey, and the cartilaginous fishes, and the amphioxus. All these
questions he answered more or less