less than an hour after the first cry of “Peerade!” the men were back in their rooms, once more study¬ ing, talking, or playing cards.
It was the smoker rallies, though, that Hugh found the most thrilling, especially the last one be¬ fore the final game of the season, the “big game” with Raleigh College. There were 1123 students in Sanford, and more than 1000 were at the rally. A rough platform had been built at one end of the gymnasium. On one side of it sat the band, on the other side the Glee Club—and before it the mass of students, smoking cigarettes, corn-cob pipes, and, occasionally, a cigar. The “smokes” had been fur¬ nished free by a local tobacconist; so everybody smoked violently and too much. In half an hour it was almost impossible to see the ceiling through the dull blue haze, and the men in the rear of the gym¬ nasium saw the speakers on the platform dimly through a wavering mist.
The band played various Sanford songs, and everybody sang. Occasionally Wayne Gifford, the cheer-leader, leaped upon the platform, raised a megaphone to his mouth, and shouted, “A regular cheer for Sanford—a regular cheer for Sanford.” Then he lifted his arms above his head, flinging the megaphone aside with the same motion, and waited tense and rigid until the students were on their feet. Suddenly he turned into a mad dervish, twisting, bending, gesticulating, leaping, running back and
