“I wouldn’t interfere with your learning for the world,” said Spouter softly, as he stood in the doorway. “Learning is the very foundation of all knowledge. Were it not for learning, man would still be in the primitive state of a savage. Were it not for learning, man would still be groping in darkness wondering whither he was going and what his existence really meant. Were it not for learning, such a noble institution as Colby Hall would not exist. Were it not for learning—wow!”
Spouter’s flowery oration came to a sudden termination as Andy threw a book which took the tall youth directly in the stomach. Picking the book up from the floor, Spouter hurled it at the fun-loving Rover’s head and then fled precipitately down the corridor with Gif laughingly following him.
“Why don’t you give Spouter a chance?” said Jack to his cousin. “For all you know, he may not have had a chance to talk to any one all day.”
“Give him a chance!” snorted Andy. “Not when he goes off in that style! Why, when Spouter gets a spouting streak on him, he’s like a regular cataract, a cyclone and a tornado rolled in one. You’ve got to cut him off at the beginning or you can’t hold him in,” and at this rather mixed-up explanation all the others laughed.
A few minutes later the four Rover boys were deep in their studies. Jack had an essay to write on “Great Discoverers” and Fred an essay on “The Wonders of the Sky,” while the twins had to wrestle with several problems in geometry. All were seated in their sitting room, as they termed it, with heads bent somewhat closely together over a round center table.
“Say, Jack, how do you spell Jupiter?” questioned the stoutest Rover boy. “Is it Ju-p-e- or Ju-p-i-?”
“What kind of Jew is that you’re talking about?” put in Andy slyly, looking up with a pencil at his grinning lips.
“It’s J-u-p-i-t-e-r,” declared Jack.
“What in Jupiter are you writing about now, Fred?” questioned Randy.
“‘Wonders of the Sky,’” answered his cousin. “If I don’t have this essay done by noon to-morrow I’ll be sure to get into hot water with Professor Duke.”