But at this, as Snorky gulped and barely converted a laugh into a sneeze with a hurried dive into the closet, Skippy abandoning his pedagogical air said in a more natural tone: "Well, Hippo, I shall want to talk with you very seriously on this some other time. Your manners are shocking and your morals worse, but I am here. Don't worry. Meanwhile, ahem, you can bring your family in to tea." "Thank you, kind sir." "Hippo, you are fresh." "But you _are_ kind, aren't you, sir?" said Hippo with assumed innocence. "Get your hat and wait downstairs," said Skippy deciding to abandon the lighter tone. "Yes, sir." "Hippo?" "What, sir?" "Don't forget." "What, sir?" "The curtsey, you know." * * * * * A quarter of an hour later Skippy and Snorky with Hippo in tow started across the campus to show their protege the historic spots, beginning with Laloo's where the merry hot dogs whistled to one another in steaming cans, by way of Bill Appleby's where ginger-pop and root-beer waited, to the Jigger Shop where the Jigger cooled and Conover's where the pancake sizzled. Opposite the Jigger Shop the celebrated Doc Macnooder, resplendent in a varsity sweater, was surveying the hungry Jigger-fed crowd and debating whether to go right up and pay for his sustenance or wait a little longer and see what might turn up. "Well, Skippy, been inventing anything new?" said Macnooder pleasantly after the introductions. "I say, Doc, I want to put it up to you," said Skippy hastily, for he feared any reference to bathtubs or mosquitoes might detract from the respect which was essential in Hippo. "I'm out for the scrub, you know, and what I wanted to ask you was do you think training ought to start now or wait until school opens." Macnooder's mind scorned subtleties. It moved by the shortest cuts to the practical issue. "Has he got the price?" he said looking at Hippo. "He has." "Let's eat." Macnooder looked appraisingly at Hippo, whom Nature had destined to play at center rush, to be mauled and cuffed and suffocated under scores of scuffing, struggling bodies. A flicker of sympathy should have stirred, but it didn't. "You'll need quite a lot of stuff," he said pensively. "Nothing doing, Doc," said Skippy, winking hard at his protege. "Hippo's fitted out." "How about fountain-pens or crockery sets, or patent nail clippers?" "I dote on fountain-pens," began Hippo. "Hippo's under my protection," said Skippy militantly. "We're sort of related." "Oh well, let's eat then," said Macnooder with a reluctant look. "Don't take anything from that fellow even if he gives it to you," said Skippy in a whisper to Hippo. "Elucidations later."