“A shotgun,” replied Badger.
“Shotgun?”
“Yes. I was troubled that way till I shot five or six cats. Now I am completely cured.”
“What troubles me more than anything else,” put in Dashleigh, “is thoughts of the coming exams. It’s a constant horror to me.”
“Do the questions bother you?” asked Badger.
“Oh, no!” declared Bert. “The questions are quite clear. It’s the answers that bother me.”
They could not restrain their laughter, for Dashleigh had said this in a most mirth-provoking manner.
So, with joking and laughter, the feast progressed; but for Frank the one person who would have made the occasion a perfect one was absent; and, although he tried to conceal the fact, his thoughts were turning to Elsie. At length Inza spoke of her.
“Why do you suppose she is not here, Frank?” she asked, in a low tone, under cover of the chatter of conversation. “I do not understand it.”
“I’m afraid,” confessed Frank, “that she has been hurt or offended by something.”