"Oh, do brace up, professor!" cried Frank, impatiently. "We have been in worse scrapes than this, and you were not so badly broken up. It was only a short time ago down in Mexico that Pacheco's bandits hemmed us in on one side and there was a raging volcano on the other; but still we live and have our health. I'll guarantee we'll pull through this scrape, and I'll bet we come out with flying colors."
"You may feel like meeting Rolf Raymond, but I simply can't stand up before that fire-eating colonel."
"There seems to be considerable bluster about this business, and I'll wager something you won't have to stand up before him if you will put on a bold front and make-believe you are eager to meet him."
"Oh, my boy, you don't know—you can't tell!"
"Come, professor, get out of bed and dress. We want to see the parade this evening. They say it will be great."
"Oh, I wish the parades were all at the bottom of the sea!"
"We couldn't see them then, for we're not mermaids or fishes."
"Will you never be serious?"
"I don't know; perhaps I may, when I'm too sick to be otherwise. Are you going to get up?"
"No."