the reply. "I think, however, that
I answered at least seventy per cent, of the questions correctly. How
about yourself?"

"Well, I'm hoping that I got seventy per cent. of them right,"
returned the senator's son. "But maybe I didn't get above fifty or
sixty per cent."

The afternoon questions seemed to be much harder than those of the
morning. The students were given until five o'clock to pass in their
afternoon papers, and never did Dave and Roger work harder than they
did during the final hour. One question in particular bothered our
hero a great deal. But at almost the last minute the answer to it came
like an inspiration, and he dashed it down. This question proved a
poser for the senator's son, and he passed in his paper without
attempting to put down a solution.

Following that examination, Dave returned to Crumville. Roger
journeyed to Washington, where his folks were staying at a leading
hotel, Congress being in session and Senator Morr occupying his place
in the Senate.

There was a week of anxious waiting, and then one day Dave received an
official-looking envelope which made his heart beat rapidly.

"What is it, Dave?" cried his sister, when she saw him with the letter
in his hand. "Is it your civil engineering report?"

"I think it is, Laura," he answered.

"Oh, Dave, how I hope you've passed!"

"So do I," put in Jessie.

Dave could not give an answer to this, because, for the moment, his
heart seemed to be in his throat. Passing to the desk in the library,
he slit open the envelope and took out the sheet which it contained. A
single glance at it, and he gave a shout of triumph.

"I've passed!" he cried. "Hurrah!"

"Oh, good!" came simultaneously from his sister and Jessie. And then
they crowded closer to look at the sheet of paper.

"Does it say what percentage you got?" continued his sister.

"Why, as near as I can make out, I've got a standing of ninety-two per
cent.," he announced, with pardonable pride. "Isn't that fine?"

"It's the finest ever, Dave!" said his sister, fondly, as she threw
her arms around his neck.

"Oh, Dave, it's just glorious!" exclaimed Jessie, her eyes beaming.
And when he caught her and held her tight for a moment she offered no
resistance. "Oh, won't your father and your uncle be proud when they
hear of this!"

"I'm going to tell them right now!" he cried, and ran off to spread
the good news.

"My boy, I'm proud of you," said his father. "Proud of you!" a