"Not much. I'm not so big a fool as they take me to be."
"You'll be a bigger one if you keep out."
"Maybe I will, but I'm not going to go into any such doings."
"Now look here, Peter John. You're a freshman, but you can't help that and no one blames you for it. I'm—"
"I'm no more a freshman than you are," retorted Peter John warmly.
"Right you are. But you don't want to make a bad matter worse. If you keep out you'll be a marked man and everybody in college will hear about it. It'll be a great deal better for you to go in quietly, and whatever you think about it, just keep your thoughts to yourself, and don't call the attention of the whole college to you by your foolishness. It'll be simply a challenge for the sophs, if you don't do it, and you'll be the one to suffer."
"You think so?"
"I know so."
"I guess the sophs found out what sort of a fellow I was the other night. I'd have brained the first one that laid hands on me."
"You didn't though, and you wouldn't. It's a great deal better to do as Hawley did and just laugh it off."