that time, to prevent her
from dwelling upon the partial loss of her youngest daughter.

Walter was, of course, one of the group, and he presently plunged into
lively accounts of his college-boy experiences, very interesting and
amusing to him and presumably so to others, as, in fact, they were to
most if not all of his auditors, his older brothers among the rest; for
it seemed to carry them back, in at least a measure, to their own
Freshman days, with all their trials and triumphs, their pleasures and
annoyances.

"Did anybody do anything very bad to you, Walter?" asked Grace.

"No; not very," he replied; "hazing has been almost abolished, and what
is still done is by no means unendurable.

"Oh! I must tell you of a bit of fun we had only the other day. On the
porch of one of our boarding houses a countryman had set down a basket
of eggs--about twenty dozen I was told--that he had brought in for
customers; and there they stood, looking as tempting as possible,
especially to wild young college boys, some of whom, coming there when
recitations were over and the dinner hour approaching, saw them and were
immediately smitten with a desire to handle, if not to taste them. One
fellow snatched up an egg and threw it at another; it struck him, broke,
and bespattered his clothes. He, naturally, retaliated in kind, and
other fellows followed their example, the fun growing fast and furious,
till every egg the basket had contained was gone, and porch, students,
and their clothing were a sight to behold."

"And what did the farmer say when he came back for his basket and found
it empty?" asked Lucilla.

"He was very angry, but those who had broken the eggs paid him his full
price, and he went off tolerably well satisfied, though he growled that
he was compelled to disappoint his customers.

"The boarding house keeper was angry, too, but stopped scolding when
told that the mischief should be repaired at the expense of those who
had caused it."

"The clothes of those engaged in the row must have been in a pretty bad
condition," remarked Harold.

"Yes, of course; and they had some fine tailors' bills to pay before
they were again presentable."

"A shameful waste of good food provided by our Heavenly Father, that
someone's hunger might be satisfied," remarked Grandma Elsie gravely.
"Surely the young men engaged in it must have forgotten the teaching of
our Saviour when he said, 'Gather up the fragments that remain, that
no