ugh for you
fellows to laugh. You're going up to college together in the Fall. I'm
coming back to this rotten hole all alone!"

"Not quite alone, Sweet Youth," corrected Joe. "There will be some four
hundred other fellows here."

"Oh, well, you know what I mean," said Perry impatiently. "You and Steve
will be gone, and I don't give a hang for any other chaps!"

He ended somewhat defiantly, conscious that he had indulged in a most
unmanly display of sentiment, and was glad that the darkness hid the
confusion and heightened colour that followed the confession. Steve and
Joe charitably pretended not to have noticed the lamentable exhibition
of feeling, and a silence followed, during which the voices of the
singers once more became audible.

"_Dexter! Mother of our Youth!
Dexter! Guardian of the Truth!_"

"_Cut it out!_" Perry leaned over the windowsill and bawled the command
down into the darkness. A defiant jeer answered him.

"Don't be fresh," said Steve reprovingly. Perry mumbled and relapsed
into silence. Presently, sighing as he changed his position, Joe said:

"I believe Perry's right about vacation, Steve. Nothing much ever does
happen to a fellow in Summer. I believe I've had more fun in school than
at home the last six years."

The others considered the statement a minute. Then: "Correct," said
Steve. "It's so, I guess. We're always crazy to get home in June and
just as crazy to get back to school again in September, and I believe we
all have more good times here than at home."

"Of course we do," agreed Perry animatedly. "Anyway, I do. Summers are
all just the same. My folks lug me off to the Water Gap and we stay
there until it's time to come back here. I play tennis and go motoring
and sit around on the porch and--and--bathe--"

"Let's hope so," interpolated Joe gravely.

"And nothing really interesting ever happens," ended Perry despairingly.
"Gee, I'd like to be a pirate or--or something!"

"Summers _are_ rather deadly," assented Steve. "We go to the seashore,
but the place is filled with swells, and about all they do is change
their clothes, eat and sleep. When you get ready for piracy, Perry, let
me know, will you! I'd like to sign-on."

"Put me down, too," said Joe. "I've always had a--um--sneaking idea that
I'd make a bully pirate. I'm naturally bloodthirsty and cruel. And I've
got a mental list of folks who--um--I'd like to watch walk the plank!"

"Fellows of our ages have a