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      "If he does," said another freshman, "he will be able to obtain a dress suit down at Cohen's, price 'von tollar ber efenin' to shentlemen.'"

      "Oh, you wait till we get at you fresh ducks!" shouted back an angry sophomore. "We'll make you sweat for this!"

      "Go on! you're only fooling!" sang the freshmen.

      "We'll show you we're not fooling!" excitedly declared Punch Swallow. "We'll scalp a few of you!"

      "Ah!" cried Bandy Robinson. "He is a bad man! Methinks I can detect his cloven foot."

      "You're wrong," laughed Merriwell. "But you may have been near enough at some time to detect his cloven breath!"

      The three freshmen who were leaning out of one of the upper windows repeated in chorus:

      "Punch, brother—punch with care,

       Punch in the presence of the passenjair."

      Another freshman shouted:

      "Say, Swallows, give us a lock of your hair. It'll save the expense of gas in my room."

      "I'd like a lock of it, too," declared another. "I'm troubled with rats, and I haven't any paris green handy."

      "Oh, rats!" yelled twenty voices.

      "Hello, Parker!" cried Little. "I hear you were held up last night? Is it true?"

      "Oh, yes," said Rattleton. "He'd been down to Morey's, and that was the way he got home."

      "But oh, what a difference in the morning," sang the freshmen.

      "Ask Rattleton if he means to join the Indians?" called a soph.

      "Or will he Sioux for damages?" put in another.

      "Oh, say!" groaned Dismal Jones. "That's the worst I ever heard! It's enough to give one heart failure!"

      "Come out and fight! Come out and fight!" urged the sophomores. "You don't dare to come out and fight!"

      "You will have to excuse us this evening, gentlemen," said Merriwell, suavely. "We have done our best to entertain you, and we will see you again at some other date."

      "You are certain to see me again," assented Browning. "You ran away, or we would have settled matters between us this evening. As it is, I am going to watch my opportunity to do you fairly and squarely. When I am done with you one of us will be beautifully licked."

      "And that one will not be King Bruce," declared Andy Emery.

      "Say! say! say!" spluttered Rattleton. "I'll go you a shot that it is! I'll stand you a supper for twenty at any place you'll name that Merriwell knocks the everlasting stuffing out of Browning."

      "Done!" returned Emery.

      "You name plime and tace—I mean time and place, and we'll be there, you bet!" declared Harry. "All we want is a fair deal."

      "You'll get that," assured Browning. "This little affair shall be arranged very soon."

      "The sooner the better. Don't delay on our account."

      The sophomores, seeing it was useless to linger there and be taunted by the freshmen, began to stroll away one by one.

      Up in Merriwell's room Rattleton got down his banjo and began to put it in tune. A merry party gathered there. One of the strings snapped, and as he was putting on another Harry fell to laughing.

      "What are you laughing at?" asked Bandy Robinson.

      "Down at the table to-night," explained Harry, "Merriwell was poking his finger into the butter. I asked him what he was doing that for, and he said he was only feeling its muscle."

      The boys who dined in the house appreciated that, and there was a general laugh. Then Harry adjusted the string and placed the banjo in tune. Pretty soon the boys were singing "Bingo," "Upidee," "Nellie Was a Lady," and other college songs. Every one of them seemed familiar with "Paddy Duffy's Cart" and its pretty chorus:

      "Twinkling stars are laughing, love,

       Laughing on you and me,

       While your bright eyes look into mine,

       Peeping stars they seem to be."

      Such glorious days and such merry nights will never come again to those who have known them. Here's to good old Yale!

      CHAPTER XIV.

       THE RUSH.

       Table of Contents

      At last the sophomores were thoroughly aroused. The freshmen had long been carrying things with a high hand, but the rushing of a lot of them who were in dress suits and bound for a swell party was the straw that broke the camel's back.

      An indignation meeting was held, and certain freshmen were placed under the ban.

      Of these Merriwell was the leader, and it was agreed that every effort must be made to "take the starch" out of him. That Browning intended to "do" Merriwell was well known, but some of the others proposed to get at him.

      "Wait," advised Bruce—"wait till I have had it out with that fellow. Then you may do whatever you like with him. But I feel it a solemn duty to settle our little affair before anybody else tackles him."

      The freshmen were getting their ball team in condition for the coming season, and they were practicing as often as possible. Frank was interested in the team, and it was said by those who watched him that he seemed to have the making of a pitcher in him. He had sharp curves and good control. If he had a head, they said, he was all right. But this was something that could not be decided till he had been tried in a game.

      Another freshman by the name of Walter Gordon seemed certain to be the regular pitcher of the team. He had a record, as he had shown, while Merriwell would say nothing about what he had done in the way of pitching.

      The students had found it extremely difficult to find out much about Merriwell, as he persistently avoided talking about himself. If he had been one of the kind of fellows who go around and brag about themselves and what they have done he would not have aroused so much interest; but the very fact that he would not talk of himself made the students curious to know something of his history.

      In a vague sort of way it became known that although he lived in simple style, like any freshman whose parents were not wealthy, he had a fortune in his own right and had traveled extensively in various parts of the world.

      Frank's silence seemed to cast an air of mystery about him, and that air of mystery made him all the more interesting, for the human mind is ever curious to peer into anything that has the flavor of a secret.

      The sophomores had been rushed by the freshmen, and they resolved to retaliate in a similar manner. On Saturday afternoons the freshmen ball team practiced, and Saturday was at hand. It would be an opportune time to meet the youngsters and make it warm for them.

      The affair was carefully planned, but wind of it reached the freshmen. As a result, the youngsters prepared for what they knew must take place. There could be no such thing as avoiding it, so when Saturday noon came they dressed themselves in their old clothes and started for the park, going out as much as possible in a body.

      When the park was reached it was found that the sophomores were there ahead of them. More than that, the sophs had closed and fastened the gate, and they proposed to hold it. They taunted the freshmen, and told them they would have to climb the fence if they hoped to get into the park.

      Then there was a consultation among the freshmen. "We'll have to make a rush," was the universal decision.

      Frank looked the ground over, and he decided that an ordinary rush would not be successful, for that was the very thing the sophomores were expecting. But there seemed no other way of getting into the park unless they climbed the fence, and not a man thought of doing such a thing as that.

      The

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