Creighton had a beautiful tenor voice, and as they started out beneath the elms, he sang: "I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth--I know not where----" Danny Griswold seemed to take a fiendish delight in giving a humorous twist to anything sentimental, and so he interrupted with: "The next day a man came around And sold me dead dog at a dollar a pound." "If that were original I wouldn't mind," said Creighton; "but you got it from some star vaudeville performance, you little runt." "That's where I get all my gags," frankly confessed Griswold. "I store them up for use, and they come in handy some time." "Some time, when you spring a stale joke, I shall be led to assassinate you," declared Bruce Browning. "Impossible!" cried Griswold. "That would be a crime." "Well, what's the odds?" "You are too fat to commit a crime." "How is that?" "It is difficult for fat persons to stoop to anything low, you know." "You seem to find considerable amusement because I am somewhat overweight," said Bruce, with attempted severity. "Not at all," chirped Danny. "Some men are well enough in their weight, but this doesn't apply to coal dealers." "Say, Griswold," called Rattleton, "what's the average fate for a wool--no, I mean the average weight for a fool?" "A simple ton," replied the little fellow, quick as a flash. Frank clapped Danny on the back. "Good boy!" he exclaimed, laughing. "Rattleton didn't get ahead of you that time." "It is hard for anybody to get ahead of me," declared Griswold. "I am really a lively man in a footrace, for my father is a watchmaker, and he has given me instructions in the business." "I fuf-fuf-fuf, fail to see huh-huh-how that applies," said Joe Gamp, a lad with a serious impediment in his speech. "Why, you see I have learned how to make good time," chuckled Danny. Gamp roared with laughter. He was a big, raw-boned, hulking fellow from New Hampshire, and his laugh was like the braying of a mule. Creighton had invited Gamp to the theatre for the amusement the country lad would provide. "He'll break the performers all up if he ever gets started laughing," said Charlie to Merriwell. "When he gets going in good style nothing will stop him." There was something about the country boy that Merriwell liked. Frank quickly decided that Joe was a big-hearted, honest fellow, such a blunder-heels that he was certain to provoke ridicule, and yet thoroughly worthy and deserving. In laughing, Gamp opened his mouth to the widest extent. He suddenly closed it, and clapped his hand to his jaw. "Jee-ru-sa-lem!" he gasped; "there gug-gug-gug-goes that old aching tut-tut-tooth of mine! I was careless to let the night air gug-gug-get into it." "Why don't you have it pulled out?" asked Diamond. "I'm going to have it pup-pup-pup-pulled and all the rest of my 'tut-'tut-'tarnel teeth just as soon as I can afford the money to bub-buy a new set," declared Gamp, honestly.