th word, gerund or gerundive?"

"Gerund," said Harris instantly.

"Ah, pardon----" said The Roman, bringing into play both eyebrows. "My
mistake, Harris, entirely my mistake. Go down to the next paragraph
and recognize a gerundive. No? Sit down--gently. Too bad--old methods
must make way for new ideas. Too bad, then you did have one chance in
two and now, where in the whole wide world will you find a friend to
help you? Class is dismissed."

"I told you you couldn't beat The Roman," said the Tennessee Shad.

"I made him change his system, though," said Dink gloriously, "and he
never caught me."

"Well, if you have, how are you going to spot the gerund and the
gerundive?"

"I don't need to; I've learned 'em," said Dink, laughing.

XVI

The Kennedy House Educational Quick Lunch Institute broke up in wrath
a week later when an innocent inquiry of Beekstein's for the passwords
revealed the direction of the club's finances.

Meanwhile, true to his resolve, Dink, with the assistance of Finnegan
and the Tennessee Shad, had started the fad of souvenir toilet sets;
which, like all fads, ran its course the faster because of its high
qualities of absurdity and uselessness. Dink's intention of recouping
himself by selling his own set of seven colors at a big advance was
cut short by a spontaneous protest to the Doctor from the house
masters, whose artistic souls were stirred to wrath at the hideous
invasion. The subject was then so successfully treated from the
pulpit, with all the power of sarcasm that it afforded, that the only
distinct artistic movement of New Jersey expired in ridicule.

Dink took this check severely to heart and, of course, beheld in this
thwarting of his scheme to dispose of the abhorrent set with honor a
fresh demonstration of the implacability of The Roman.

He wandered gloomily from Laloo's and Appleby's to the Jigger Shop;
where, after pulling his hat over his eyes, folding his arms
inconsolably, he confided his desires of revenge on Doc Macnooder to
the sympathetic ears of the guardian of the Jigger.

"Why not get up a contest and offer it as a prize?" said Al.

"Have you seen it?" said Dink, who then did the subject full justice.

Al remained very thoughtful for a long while, running back dreamily
through the avenues of the past for some stratagem.

"I remember way back in the winter of '88," he said at last, "there
was a slick coot by the name of Chops Van Dyne, who got strapp