et at his table again."

"Excuse me from getting at a table with a man like Professor Lemm,"
burst out Andy. "Gee! what will I do if they put me with him?" he
continued dolefully.

"Well, you'll have to sit wherever you are placed," answered Spouter.

"And what do you care so long as you get enough to eat?" questioned
Fatty.

But Andy shook his head. He thought if he were placed at the same table
with Professor Asa Lemm, it would be an actual hardship.

CHAPTER X

GETTING ACQUAINTED

"I don't see him anywhere," remarked Andy, as he and his cousins
approached the mess hall of the school.

The cadets were entering in little groups of twos and threes, for as
yet the regular term at Colby Hall had not begun. With the real opening
of the school, the cadets would have a dress parade previous to dining
and would then stack their arms outside and march in in regular order.

"Who are you talking about?" questioned Fred.

"Professor Asa Lemm. I don't see him at any of the tables."

"Maybe he didn't come to the Hall to-night. He might have had quite
some business to transact with that man who left the train with him."

As there were more tables than professors, some of the boards were
presided over by the senior cadets. There was a little confusion, due
to the entrance of so many new pupils, and then the Rovers were
assigned to a table presided over by a senior named Ralph Mason, who
was the major of the school battalion.

"I am glad to meet you," said Major Mason, as he shook hands cordially.
"I hope you will make yourselves at home," and he smiled in a manner
that won the confidence of all the boys at once.

The meal was a good, substantial one--for Colonel Colby believed in
setting a homelike table--and soon the clatter of knives and forks and
the rattle of dishes filled the air. Most of the boys had come in from
long journeys and were, consequently, hungry, so but little was said
while the meal progressed. Spouter and Fatty and several other boys
they had met sat at a table next to that occupied by the Rovers, but
Nappy Martell and his cronies were on the opposite side of the mess
hall, for which our friends were thankful.

"I think if I had to look at the face of Codfish while I was eating, it
would spoil my appetite," was Andy's comment during the meal. "They
ought to photograph his mouth and put it in the comic supplements."

"Yes. Or else they ought to get him to act in some of the funny
movies,