in a garret, and
the officers, the leading lights of Siwash, crouching around a scuttle
and shivering their teeth loose, we initiated Ole Skjarsen. It was
impressive, I can tell you. When it came to the part where the neophyte
swears to protect a brother, even if he has to wade in blood up to his
necktie, Bangs bore down beautifully and added a lot of extra frills.
The last words were spoken. Ole was an Eta Bita Pie. Still, we weren't
very sanguine. You might interest a man-eater by initiating him, but
would you destroy his appetite? There was no grand rush for the ladder.

As Ole stood waiting, however, Petey swung himself down and landed
beside him. He cut the ropes that bound his wrists, jerked off the
pillowslip and cut off the blindfold. Then he grabbed Ole's mastodonic
paw.

"Shake, brother!" he said.

Nobody breathed for a few seconds. It was darned terrifying, I can tell
you. Ole rubbed his eyes with his free hand and looked down at the
morsel hanging on to the other.

"Shake, Ole!" insisted Petey. "You went through it better than I did
when I got it."

I saw the rudiments of a smile begin to break out on Ole's face. It grew
wider. It got to be a grin; then a chasm with a sunrise on either side.

He looked up at us again, then down at Petey. Then he pumped Petey's arm
until the latter danced like a cork bobber.

"By ying, Aye du et!" he shouted. "Ve ban gude fallers, ve Baked Pies,
if ve did broke my nose."

"What's the matter with Ole?" some one shouted.

"He's all right!" we yelled. Then we came down out of the garret and
made a rush for the furnace.

CHAPTER III

WHEN GREEK MEETS GROUCH

It's a cinch that college life would be a whole lot more congested with
pleasure if it wasn't for the towns that the colleges are in. I don't
mean that a town around a college hasn't its uses. Wherever you find a
town you can find lunch counters and theaters with galleries from which
you can learn the drama at a quarter a throw, and street cars that can
be tampered with, and wooden sidewalks that burn well on celebration
nights, and nice girls who began being nice four college generations ago
and never forgot how. All of these things about a town are mighty handy
when it comes to getting a higher education in a good, live college
where you don't have to tunnel through three feet of moss to find the
college customs. But even all this can't reconcile me to the way a town
butts into college affairs. It is