table, Mr. Timothy Blackie, and they introduced Tom. Stanley and Max were at the same table and also a long-haired youth named Will Jackson, although his friends called him "Spud."
"I don't know why they call me Spud," he said to Dick, "excepting because I like potatoes so, I'd rather eat them than any other vegetable. Why, when I was out in Jersey one summer, on a farm, I ate potatoes morning, noon and night and sometimes between times. The farmer said I had better look out or I'd sprout. I guess I ate about 'steen bushels in three weeks."
"Phew!" whistled Sam. "That's a good one."
"Oh, it's a fact," went on Spud. "Why, one night I got up in my sleep and they found me down in the potato bin, filling my coat pockets with potatoes, and"
"Filling your coat pocket?" queried Stanley.
"Do you sleep with your coat on?"
"Why, I—er—I guess I did that night," answered Will Jackson in some confusion. "Anyway, I'm a great potato eater," he added lightly. Later on the others found out that Spud had a vivid imagination and did not hesitate to "draw the long bow" for the sake of telling a good story.
The meal was rather a stiff and quiet one among the new students, but the old scholars made the room hum with talk about what had happened at
