and old hats; and a large, expensive mouth-organ--such were a
few of the interesting characteristics of the room which Carl and the
Turk were occupying as room-mates for sophomore year at Plato.

Most objectionable sounds came from the room constantly: the Gang's
songs, suggestive laughter, imitations of cats and fowls and
fog-horns. These noises were less ingenious, however, than the devices
of the Gang for getting rid of tobacco-smoke, such as blowing the
smoke up the stove.

Carl was happy. In this room he encouraged stammering Genie Linderbeck
to become adaptable. Here he scribbled to Gertie and Ben Rusk little
notes decorated with badly drawn caricatures of himself loafing. Here,
with the Turk, he talked out half the night, planning future glory in
engineering. Carl adored the Turk for his frankness, his lively
speech, his interest in mechanics--and in Carl.

Carl was still out for football, but he was rather light for a team
largely composed of one-hundred-and-eighty-pound Norwegians. He had a
chance, however. He drove the banker's car two or three evenings a
week and cared for the banker's lawn and furnace and cow. He still
boarded at Mrs. Henkel's, as did jolly Mae Thurston, whom he took for
surreptitious rides in the banker's car, after which he wrote
extra-long and pleasant letters to Gertie. It was becoming harder and
harder to write to Gertie, because he had, in freshman year, exhausted
all the things one can say about the weather without being profane.
When, in October, a new bank clerk stormed, meteor-like, the Joralemon
social horizon, and became devoted to Gertie, as faithfully reported
in letters from Joe Jordan, Carl was melancholy over the loss of a
comrade. But he strictly confined his mourning to leisure hours--and
with books, football, and chores for the banker, he was a busy young
man.... After about ten days it was a relief not to have to plan
letters to Gertie. The emotions that should have gone to her Carl
devoted to Professor Frazer's new course in modern drama.

This course was officially announced as a study of Bernard Shaw,
Ibsen, Strindberg, Pinero, Hauptmann, Sudermann, Maeterlinck,
D'Annunzio, and Rostand; but unofficially announced by Professor
Frazer as an attempt to follow the spirit of to-day wherever it should
be found in contemporary literature. Carl and the Turk were bewildered
but staunchly enthusiastic disciples of the course. They made every
member of the Gang enroll in it,