hough boys' boarding-schools may be better than
girls'. I have been two years at Miss Wiggins' boarding-school, in
Buffalo. Now I'm going home, on a vacation, and I really hope papa
won't send me there again."

"Do you live in Cincinnati?"

"Yes--that is, papa does. Are you going to stay there long?"

"I think I shall live there," said Tom, who fancied it would be
agreeable to live in the same city with Bessie Benton.

"Oh, I hope you will! Then you could come and see us."

"That would be bully," Tom was about to say, but it occurred to him
that it would be in better taste to say: "I should like to very much."

"Have you finished your education?" asked Bessie.

"There wasn't much to finish," thought Tom, but he said, aloud:

"Maybe I'll study a little more."

"Where did you study?" asked the persevering Bessie.

"I've been to Columbia College," said Tom, after a little pause.

So he had been up to the college grounds, but I am afraid he intended
Bessie to believe something else.

"Then you must know a great deal," said Bessie. "Do you like Latin and
Greek very much?"

"Not _very_ much," said Tom.

"I never went farther than the Latin verbs. They're tiresome, ain't
they?"

"I'll bet they are," said Tom, who wouldn't have known a Latin verb
from a Greek noun.

"I suppose they come easier to boys. Were you long in college?"

"Not long."

"I suppose you were a Freshman?"

"Yes," said Tom, hazarding a guess.

"Don't the Sophomores play all sorts of tricks on the Freshmen?"

"Awful," said Tom, who found it safest to chime in with the remarks of
the young lady.

"I had a cousin at Yale College," continued Bessie. "When he was a
Freshman, the Sophomores broke into his room one night, blindfolded
him, and carried him off somewhere. Then they made him smoke a pipe,
which made him awful sick, and poured a pail of water over his head.
Did they ever do such things to you?"

"No, they wouldn't dare to," said our hero.

"You couldn't help yourself."

"Yes, I could; I'd put a head on them."

"I don't know what Miss Wiggins would say if she should hear you talk.
She'd have a fit."

"What did I say?" he asked, innocently.

"You said you'd _put a head_ on them."

"So I would."

"Only it is a very inelegant expression, as Miss Wiggins says."

"If you don't like it, I won't say it any more."

"Oh! I don't care," said Bessie, laughing. "You needn't be afraid I'll
have a fit. I ain't such a model of