ty to which he belonged, the Beta
Phi. I am sure, Wo dear, you will follow his wishes in a matter like
this. It is not much to do in return."

Poor Walt! The Beta Rhos had never seemed such smooth fellows as at this
moment when he felt himself suddenly pledged to the Beta Phis. In his
mind's eye the Phis passed before him, one by one, particularly a
certain long, unprepossessing member who had stayed till after twelve
one night and bored him with a dreary recital of the prominence of his
house in College politics, of the stump speeches that a former brother,
now a historical personage, had made in Mayfield for prohibition, to say
nothing of the essay prizes in philology that another ancient Phi had
won in the dim past, when the chapter must have been more prominent than
at present. In comparison with this record, the Rhos were numbskulls,
dwelling in an amplified smoking-room, Walt must admit; their control of
the Eleven and of the Glee Club was nothing. And now his future was
black with philology prizes, with meals at which stew was a staple, and
where only visitors had clean napkins.

The two fellows had by this time reached the trotting stables. They
looked in at the beautiful, sleek racers, carefully blanketed and
booted, and stroked an inquisitive nose or two, reached out over the
white doors. Then they went on up the stock-farm yard and along the road
to the bridge over San Francisquito. Here Smith stopped; leaning on the
rail, he looked down at his blonde image in the shallow water below.

"Well, Professor, what's your answer? You ought to know your mind by
this time, surely, and we want you bad, my boy."

"Cap, old man," began the Freshman, his voice a little husky, for he was
sorely troubled, "you must know how I appreciate the way you fellows
have treated me, and that I want you particularly for a friend." He
stopped, but Smith kept silent. The fraternity had had refusals before;
they usually began this way.

"I don't know just what I ought to say," went on the luckless Walt. "I
really did think you were the crowd I should join, but something has
come up and I can't say yes."

"What is it? Is it because you think we don't study enough? We do,
though, a great deal more than it looks. This has been rushing season
and we had to do the entertaining stunt a lot, and Pellams would give
any crowd the look of bumming. We really do work hard the rest of the
year."

"Oh, no," said Walt, "it isn't anything like t