Right then and there the nickname was born.
“Ho, fellows!” roared the megaphonic chap, commanding the instant attention of the packed carful, “we’ve got ’em, right here; the only original stem-winding, stem-setting doodle-bugs from the wild and woozy—the Timanyoni Twins!”
Dick laughed with the rest of the carful, and Larry felt himself blushing a dark, dark red under his masking coat of sunburn—which is as good a way as any of telling how this sudden thrust into the limelight affected each. Beyond the christening, Dick fell easily into talk with the megaphonist—Wally Dixon, by name, and hailing from somewhere in Missouri. But Larry was soberly uncomfortable until they left the car to lug their grips down a cross street which skirted the Sheddon campus.
The “Man-o’-War” was the house they were looking for, and they found it—a respectable two-storied dwelling, as little like a ship as might be—on a corner facing the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory. Dick’s father had written ahead to engage their room, and it was good, motherly Mrs. Grant herself who opened the door for them.
Mrs. Grant proved to be as hospitable as she looked. There were to be six fellows in the house, she explained; two Juniors who had been there the year before, and four Freshmen. One of the Juniors had arrived, but the other and the two additional Freshmen were yet to come. Dick and Larry were to make themselves at home, and the arrived Junior, a husky-looking chap named Merkle, would show them their room.
Merkle did the showing—to a large, plainly furnished room on the second floor—and took an upperclassman’s privilege of casting himself into the one easy-chair while the newcomers unpacked their grips.
“Where are you fellows from?” he asked.
This time Dick did not try to be funny. “Brewster—western Colorado,” he replied.
“Some little jump, I’ll say,” Merkle commented. “Ever here before?”