y
prosperous these days. They keep things up to the mark, don't they,
Ramsey?"

"I don't know whether they do or whether they don't," Ramsey returned
shortly.

Fred appeared to muse regretfully. "It looks kind of _empty_ now,
though," he said, "with only Mr. and Mrs. Yocum and their three married
daughters, and eight or nine children on the front porch!"

"You wait till I get you where they can't see us!" Ramsey warned him,
fiercely.

"You can't do it!" said Fred, manifesting triumph. "We'll both stop
right here in plain sight of the whole Yocum family connection till you
promise not to touch me."

And he halted, leaning back implacably against the Yocum's iron fence.
Ramsey was scandalized.

"Come on!" he said, hoarsely. "Don't stop _here_!"

"I will, and if you go on alone I'll yell at you. You got to stand right
here with all of 'em lookin' at you until--"

"I promise! My heavens, come _on_!"

Fred consented to end the moment of agony; and for the rest of the
summer found it impossible to persuade Ramsey to pass that house in his
company. "I won't do it!" Ramsey told him. "Your word of honour means
nothin' to me; you're liable to do anything that comes into your head,
and I'm gettin' old enough to not get a reputation for bein' seen with
people that act the idiot on the public streets. No, sir; we'll walk
around the block--at least, we will if you're goin' with _me_!"

And to Fred's delight, though he concealed it, they would make this
detour.

The evening after their return to the university both were busy with
their trunks and various orderings and disorderings of their apartment,
but Fred several times expressed surprise that his roommate should
be content to remain at home; and finally Ramsey comprehended the
implications. Mrs. Meigs's chandelier immediately jingled with the shock
of another crash upon the floor above.

"You let me up!" Fred commanded thickly, his voice muffled by the pile
of flannels, sweaters, underwear, and raincoats wherein his head
was being forced to burrow. "You let me up, darn you! _I_ didn't say
anything." And upon his release he complained that the attack was
unprovoked. "I didn't say anything on earth to even hint you might want
to go out and look around to see if anybody in particular had got back
to college yet. I didn't even mention the _name_ of Dora Yo-- Keep off
o' me! My goodness, but you are sensitive!"

As a matter of fact, neither of them saw Dora until the