THE COLLEGE AND THE CIRCUS
boy within him to the surface; only he thought it was his manhood.
"Say, Reddy," he said, "what do they think this is, anyway—a college or a prep. school?"
Several others looked around; they always did when Captain Stehman spoke.
Reddy Armstrong puckered up his comical face to look like a nine-year-old child—one of his specialties. "Oh, pa-pa," he said, looking up at Stehman, "may I go out? I promise not to get my feet wet." The group smiled at this, and then others tried to be funny, too. "I had intended to go out and shoot with the gun club," said Brown, "but now, of course, I'll have to join in the row."
"I tell you what we'll do," said Stehman with a twinkle in his eye—the boy in him had risen triumphant; "we'll call an indignation meeting of the undergraduate body and see about this."
"Right!" "That's the stuff!" said other voices approvingly. The group had grown into a crowd now, and it scented sport. "Vox populii," pronounced Reddy with
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