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THE PLASTIC AGE
299

math problems and the using of trots and the para¬ phrasing of ‘Literary Digest’ articles for themes and all that sort of thing. If more than half of the fellows don’t do that sort of thing some time or other in college, I ’ll eat my hat. And we all know darned well that we are n’t supposed to do it, but the majority of fellows cheat in some way or other before they graduate!

“We aren’t so much. Do you remember, George, what Jimmie Henley said to us when we were sophomores in English Thirty-six? He laid us out cold, said that we were as standardized as Fords and that we were ashamed of anything intel¬ lectual. Well, he was right. Do you remember how he ended by saying that if we were the cream of the earth, he felt sorry for the skimmed milk— or something like that?”

“Sure, I remember,” Winsor replied, running his fingers through his rusty hair. “He certainly pulled a heavy line that day. He was right, too.”

“I ’ll tell you what,” exclaimed Pudge suddenly, so suddenly that his crossed legs parted company and his foot fell heavily to the floor. “Let’s put it up to Henley in class to-morrow. Let’s ask him straight out if he thinks college is worth while.

“He’ll hedge,” objected Lawrence. “All the orofs do if you ask them anything like that.

Winsor laughed. “You don’t know Jimmie Henley. He won’t hedge. You Ve never had a