"I was a pleb once, you know. And nothing was too bad to do to a pleb, for the best of men. No, I take that back; we had—and we have—some splendid upper classmen; men who dose you with good counsel. It is not always pleasant to take, Chérie, but it did me lots of good, for they lived up to it themselves. They help, too, in other ways. Get a pleb in out of the sun, and give him some play work in a tent, and so keep him away from the hazing parties and give him time to breathe. Mr. Upright was always doing such things."
"I should think everyone would love him very much."
"Yes, but you mustn't," said Magnus, giving her hand a little swing. "You are not to love anybody but me. However, Upright isn't there now; graduated, and gone to make enlisted men good and happy, wherever he's stationed. Trueman is such another; and Starr, in our class. Ugliest little man you ever saw, and the best."
"Then I do not believe he is the ugliest," said Cherry decidedly. "But it was not like that last year, Magnus?"
"Oh, no! Yearlings have leave to step out and show themselves. Get invited to picnics, some of them, and go to the hops, most of them, and are wild for fun, all of them."
"Well, Magnus?"
"Well, Chérie, you see how it was. I have not been as bad as I might, nor anything like as good. They think me a pretty reliable fellow over there, but I'm not by any means what you would call a shining light. Six in studies, and one in discipline, and a double-first at all sorts of mischief."
Cherry could not help smiling.
"The very same boy you always were," she said.
"Pretty much. Only this is mischief that tells. Chocolate parties in rooms after lights are out."