“If he is,” doubted Billy Haines. “Me, I think that’s just bunk.” “Well, I don’t. You hear it everywhere. Say, what’s the girl look like, Nip?” “Some queen, kid! Sort of proud-looking, you know, like one of those movie dames.” “Don’t know that I’d be very keen about hitching up with Johnny if I was a girl,” said Dozier. “Bet you he will make her toe the mark.” “Take the bet,” scoffed Ted. “She’ll gentle him in a week! Say, I had a cousin who was a major in the World War and got four decorations and citations and things and was a holy terror over there. Killed ’em single-handed or lugged ’em in over his shoulder, a couple at a time. Some boy he was! Well, what happened to him four years ago? Why, he met a girl who just reached up to the place where he parked his medals and married her. Some one went by their place about two months after they got settled and blamed if the Major wasn’t out in the back-yard beating a carpet!” “‘The bigger they are the harder they fall,’” chuckled Nip. “Say, Johnny will be a regular find when it comes to house cleaning. With that bristle head of his his wife can clean every rug in the house. And when it comes to getting the soot out of the stovepipes!” “Aw, shut up,” growled Billy Haines. “He isn’t going to get married and he isn’t going to quit. Bet you that picture’s his sister.” “Oh, sure,” jeered Nip, “a fellow always puts his sister’s photo in a ten-dollar frame and sticks it on the mantel, doesn’t he? Yes, he does--like fun! Sis gets chucked in the bottom drawer somewhere!” “You tell ’em, you Sunday Sheik,” said Meecham. “Your knowledge of such matters, Nip, makes me fairly shudder!” Nip threatened him with a salt-cellar, and, encountering the interested regard of Mr. Metcalfe, from a near-by table, sprinkled his slice of toast and apple-butter lavishly before setting the cellar down. Bert lost track of Chick after supper. He thought he knew where he was to be found, but he didn’t seek him. Instead, he dropped into Bus Lovell’s room and later accompanied Bus and four other youths to a moving picture theater on the far side of town. The picture was pretty bad, but they managed to have plenty of fun. On Sunday a verse of alleged poetry was going the rounds. Tommy Parish was credited with the authorship, but he refused to acknowledge it. I grieve to say that Bert saw it first in church when, during the sermon, Toby Shelfer slipped him a piece of paper on which was scrawled: “Seen this? Read it and pass it on. “To a football game I went one day Intent on having fun. They brought me to with amon-i-a The day that Alton won!” The papers that morning announced that at Lakeville Kenly Hall had yesterday defeated Mount Millard, 25 to 7. Details were few, but they weren’t needed at Alton to persuade the fellows that this looked like another big year--for Kenly! CHAPTER XI A SHAKE-UP