hings. The
imagination, which returns after the sense of humor, was still drowsy
with the painful waking effort in chapel, but as he proceeded to
Memorial Hall, the glittering future approached a little nearer. Some
day he, John C. Bedelle, would return to the old school a patron and a
benefactor!

"They ought to have a gymnasium," he thought, appraising the campus in a
burst of generosity. "I'll give it to them. I'll give them a gym that'll
beat anything hollow. I'll give them the finest architect in the
country. I will! And when it's all built and ready to dedicate--" But
all at once as he started to visualize himself before the applauding
crowd Snorky Green jogged his elbow:

"Skippy--Gee, I've got it!"

"What?"

"Sh--sh! You know--the invention! Meet me in the room after first
recitation. Mum's the word!"

A little unworthy feeling of jealousy came to Skippy at this
announcement; almost a feeling of having been defrauded. Yet after all
he had only himself to blame. The temptation of the future had beguiled
him from the present necessity. He slid into his seat, conveniently
protected, by the broad back of Tubby Banks, from the searching gaze of
Lucius Cassius Hopkins, better known as the Roman, who presently would
number him among the flunked. Then when the attack centered among the
R's and S's, across the room, he drew forth a pencil and attacked the
problem of a practical foot regulator. But immediately the deplorable
deficiency of his education struck him. What preparation had he for his
life's vocation? Of mathematics he knew absolutely nothing! The
priceless years had been squandered on mere Latin, English prose, French
verbs and the vexing grammars.

"I must have a scientific education," he said, drawing rough outlines on
the margin of Caesar's Gallic Wars. "How in the deuce am I to begin? A
foot's sort of different. Shall I make it a button to press on or a sort
of slipper to push up and down?"

There was a cut of the famous bridge across the Rhine, but a hurried
examination brought him no comfort. He looked over at Snorky across the
aisles and Snorky winked back at him in the triumph of achievement.
Still if Snorky was to share in the fabulous returns it was only right
that Snorky should contribute to the practical details! The truth is
that Skippy in calmer mood had already begun to regret the impulse of
the day before. Five million dollars after all was a good deal to give
away in a gesture, even