to innumerable small incidents of the previous va
cation. Then, by main force, I would once more
apply my brain to "P+P,....Q," when to my hor•
ror I would begin to speculate as to the success of
the foot-ball season. Once more, in a mad frenzy,
I dragged my truant thoughts together and con
centrated all my mental energies on the work be
fore MI At last I was succeeding. The whole
thing was unfolding itself to my delighted brain
when horror--there was a knock at the door and
in walked a what—a professor? No, but J—,
the greatest loafer in college. He wore a well
worn smoking jacket of a brownish hue, a pros
pect of a mustache on his upper lip, at which he
was continually pulling, and carried in his mouth
an ancient and empty briar pipe. I did not in
vite him to be seated. That was not necessary.
He cooly took a chair, filled his pipe out of my
tobacco box and exclaimed in disgusted tones,
"Grindin 1"
"Yes," I answered, and strove to fix my be
muddled brain on P+P 2 =Q.
"What are you grindin' for ? I thought you
made a ten in that stuff to-day," he exclaimed as
he cooly placed both feet on the table and leaned
back on two legs of his chair.
I thought I would completely ignore him
and tried to appear deeply interested in the
work be!ore MN He said nothing for a few
moments and my hopes began to rise. Surely
he would leave in a few moments. But no —my
desires w.re in vain.
He broke out,—"got a match ?"
I knew that meant a long stay so I ecided to
make one more attempt at fret zing him out,
and quietly pointed' to the table drawer.
For a few moments all was silent. 1 gazed
intently upon the pages of mathematics before
me while he sat comfortably watching the rings
of smoke which flatted smoothly into space
from the bowl of hii pipe.
This silence was not to be of long duration,
however, for looking out of the corner of my
,eye I taw him carefully pour some ashes on the
THE FREE LANCE.
floor and then a second later heard him exclaim
''Quit your grindin,' I've got a scheme."
I gave up in despair,threw bcoks and all thoughts
of study to the wind, and leaned back to hear
my easy going visitor lay b3fore me his schemes
for performing innumerable remarkable feats,
in the accomplishment of which I knew that he
would be the last person to be depended upon
for aid. lie finished setting forth his schemes
and switched off his conversation to his con•
quests in love. They were more numerous and
touching than his schemes.
Apparently all the fair sex in his native town
had been gone on him and his departure for col
lege had been a signal for rejoicing among all
the village beaux.
At the end of an hour he had exhausted this
topic and the third pipe full of my tobacco.
Wouhl he ever leave, I wondered. No. He
turned next into politics and from politics into
the faculty, which he abused heartily. From
the faculty he switched off into a hletics, and
was evidently bent on discoursing lengthily en
the subject when—•how reiieved I felt—the
electric light went out.
In the darkness he emptied the cont(nts of
my tobacco box into his pock( t, gathered him-
self together and 'went out a:so. I did not be
grudge him the tobacco.
That night, as I lay down to sleep with
lessons unstudied and with the prospect
of three zips before me, 1 added a new motto
to my already long list. It was—" Beware of
loafers and loafing.
The opening days—yes, and weeks, of another
college year are upon us, and with their varied
duties they seem to surge and crowd upon us like
the relentless waves of an angry sea. The sum
mer spider, that offspring of rest, recreation and
HALL AND CAMPUS.
J. H. 8.