cked again; and
one more plucking will settle this child's university career!"

"Oh, let the examinations go to the dickens! What 's the use?--all the
same a hundred years hence. The idea of cramming Friday night! Come
on!"

"Can't do it, old chaps; but next time goes. See you Monday. Ta-ta!"

Polly peeped cautiously from behind her tree.

"I believe that voice is Edgar Noble's, or else I 'm very much
mistaken. I thought of it when I first heard them singing. Yes, it
is! Now, those hateful boys are going to get him into trouble!"

Just at this moment four of the boys jumped from the ground and,
singing vociferously--

"He won't go home any more,
He won't go home any more,
He won't go home any more,
Way down on the Bingo farm!"

rushed after young Noble, pinioned him, and brought him back.

"See here, Noble," expostulated one of them, who seemed to be a
commanding genius among the rest,--"see here, don't go and be a
spoil-sport! What 's the matter with you? We 're going to chip in for
a good dinner, go to the minstrels, and then,--oh, then we 'll go and
have a game of billiards. You play so well that you won't lose
anything. And if you want money, Will's flush, he 'll lend you a
'tenner.' You know there won't be any fun in it unless you 're there!
We 'll get the last boat back to-night, or the first in the morning."

A letter from his mother lay in Edgar's pocket,--a letter which had
brought something like tears to his eyes for a moment, and over which
he had vowed better things. But he yielded, nevertheless,--that it was
with reluctance did n't do any particular good to anybody, though the
recording angels may have made a note of it,--and strolled along with
the other students, who were evidently in great glee over their triumph.

Meanwhile Polly had been plotting. Her brain was not a great one, but
it worked very swiftly; Dr. George called it, chaffingly, a small mind
in a very active state. Scarcely stopping to think, lest her courage
should not be equal to the strain of meeting six or eight young men
face to face, she stepped softly out of her retreat, walked gently down
the road, and when she had come within ten feet of the group, halted,
and, clearing her throat desperately, said, "I beg your pardon"--

The whole party turned with one accord, a good deal of amazement in
their eyes, as there had not been a sign of life in the road a moment
before, and now here was a sort of wood