“It is no longer a cigar-box; that is, it will be no longer a cigar-box when I get through with it; it will be a contribution-box. I am making a slot here in the lid, you see. Then I shall tack the lid down, cover the whole with nice pink paper and adorn it with a suitable inscription, an inscription that will wring the pennies from the penniless.” “Rob, you’re an awful idiot,” laughed Evan as he slipped into bed. “Finish it in the morning and let’s get to sleep.” “Never put off until to-morrow what can be done to-night,” replied Rob virtuously. “You just turn your little face away from the light and compose yourself for slumber, Evan.” “Oh, thunder, I can’t go to sleep with that light shining!” “Bet you you’ll be snoring inside of ten minutes.” “Bet you I won’t. Besides, I don’t snore. You do the snoring for this establishment, you human calliope.” “No one ever called me that before,” said Rob sadly. “Really, Evan, I don’t believe that I snore. I think you dream it.” “Oh, you do, eh?” muttered Evan as he turned over. “I just wish you had to listen to yourself sometimes!” Rob won his wager, for Evan, if he didn’t actually snore, at least proved conclusively within the designated time that he was sound asleep. Half an hour later he opened his eyes during a wakeful moment and saw Rob still at work on the cigar-box. How late he labored with it Evan never knew, but in the morning it was finished. Evan saw it the first thing after getting up, read the inscription and howled loudly and gleefully, but not loud enough to awake Rob who was still sleeping the sleep of one who has kept late hours. CHAPTER XV THE CONTRIBUTION-BOX When the fellows came out from chapel the contribution-box adorned the top of the radiator under the notice board in the corridor of Academy Hall. It was neatly covered with pink paper, there was a slot in the cover and these words in large black letters explained its purpose: AID FOR THE HELPLESS! DROP YOUR PENNIES HERE FOR THE FOOTBALL TEAM! The joke won instant approval and penny after penny went through the slot. The School was vastly amused and the contribution-box remained on the radiator until the middle of the forenoon, at which time Edgar Prentiss, having heard of it, descended upon it in wrath and kicked it across the corridor, wrecking it completely and strewing the floor with coppers which were ultimately recovered by some of the younger boys, for whom they undoubtedly did as much good as they would have done the football team. Rob never acknowledged himself to have been the perpetrator of the joke, and Evan never told, but for some reason suspicion attached itself to him, and Hopkins and Prentiss, neither of whom had loved him very well before, found new grounds for dislike. Prentiss even made public display of his resentment.