“Take your seat, sir!” roared the president; and the pine boards of which the lid of the desk was composed were in imminent danger of being fractured by his gavel. “Mr. President, I rise to a point of order,” said Lennox. [Illustration: A STOCKHOLDERS’ MEETING.--Page 23.] “Order, gentlemen!” roared Tommy. “I have decided that Wetherstane has the floor. If any stockholder is so disposed, he can appeal from the decision of the chair.” Under ordinary circumstances, Tommy Toppleton did not permit any appeal from the decision of the chair, and always insisted upon having his own way; but it was in the nature of a triumph for him to direct the deliberations of his fellow-students, and to introduce forms and methods of which the majority of them had never heard. “I appeal from the decision of the chair,” added Lennox. “Points of order necessarily take precedence of all other questions,” said Tommy, with the utmost dignity and self-possession. “Ahem!” coughed a fellow in the crowd, which brought down a regular board-splitter from the gavel. “The chair decided that Wetherstane had the floor. An appeal is taken. The question now before the house is, Shall the decision of the chair stand as the decision of the stockholders? This question is debatable, and the presiding officer may participate in the discussion. You will all see that, occupying a position where I can see all the members of the assembly, I could not very well make a mistake in regard to who spoke first. I am quite confident that Wetherstane had said ‘Mr. President’ before Barnscott opened his mouth.” Various opinions were expressed by individual stockholders, and they were about equally divided on the merits of the question. Each claimant for the floor had half a dozen advocates, who were confident that their man had spoken first. It was really a matter between Tommy and the stockholders, which they were likely to decide as they loved or hated the president. “Question! Question!” called the students, when they began to be weary of the fruitless debate. “Those in favor of sustaining the decision of the chair will manifest it by saying, ‘Ay.’” “Ay!” shouted many voices. “Those opposed say, ‘No.’” “No!” responded the determined opponents of the president. “It is a vote!” said Tommy, who was not quite willing to believe that one of his decisions could be reversed by a majority. “A vote!” exclaimed Lennox. “Why, Mr. President--” “Silence, sir! A vote cannot be debated,” thundered Tommy, with awful dignity. “Any member has the right to doubt the vote, and call for a count.” “I doubt the vote, Mr. President, and call for a count,” added Lennox. “The vote is doubted,” said Tommy, rapping violently to repress the noise and confusion. “Those in favor of sustaining the decision of the chair will rise and stand uncovered till counted.” “Uncovered?” demanded Briscoe. “Shall we take our things off?” “Order!”