“Second the motion,” said Foster Bennett quickly.  The motion was put and instantly carried, and the class passed out from the room.

“It was anything to shut up Peter John,” Foster explained to Will as he joined his room-mate.  “Did you ever see the like?”

“I never did,” laughed Will.  “I feel almost guilty to be acting as secretary for the class.  If we had ten other offices to vote upon, I believe Peter John would have made the first nomination for every one.”

“He certainly is the freshest freshman in the whole bunch.”

“Yes, he doesn’t know enough to know that he doesn’t know, and that’s about as far down as a fellow can go in his ignorance, you know.”

“What shall we do for him?”

“Nothing.”

“But he’ll have trouble.”

“Sure.”

“I’d hate to see him catch it too hard.”

“You can’t save him, Foster.  He’s got to learn his lesson.  The idea of his being on his feet so much to-day.”

“Well, he helped us to some good officers anyway, I’ll say that much for him,” laughed Foster.  “But if he made such an impression on our class, what’ll he do for the sophomores?”

“You’d better be thinking about what they’ll do for him.”

Walker now joined the two boys, introducing himself to each, and accompanying them to their room, where he entered and took a seat at their invitation.  He was a fine-looking young man and of most agreeable manners, so that soon both Will and Foster were delighted with him personally and appreciative of the honor of the visit from their visitor.

“No,” Walker was saying, “the hazing doesn’t amount to anything much in Winthrop.  It’s nothing more than a little good-natured ‘horse play’ for the most part.  Of course, once in a while a fellow gets a little more attention than the rest of the class; but as a rule it’s his own fault.  You have a classmate that’ll be very popular with the sophs, if he doesn’t look out,” he added with a laugh.

“Who’s that?” inquired Will, with a wink at his room-mate.

“The chap that was on his feet so much in the class meeting this afternoon.”

“We were just talking about him,” said Foster quickly.  “You know he fitted at the same school where we did, and naturally we want to lend him a hand when we can.  What had we better do?”

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just what I say.  You can’t do much for such a fellow; he has to learn it all for himself.  The trouble is that he doesn’t know how much or what he’s got to learn yet.  You can’t do much for such a—­”

Walker stopped abruptly as Peter John himself entered the room.  His face was beaming, and as he removed his hat his stiff red hair seemed almost to rise on his head.  “Well, fellows,” he said, “we did things up brown this afternoon, didn’t we?”

“You did too much,” said Walker quietly.

“Haven’t I as good a right as anybody to make a motion?” demanded Peter John hotly.