"Good! I weigh a hundred and seventy-nine and a half, stripped, just now—go up, though, after training awhile. You play football, I suppose?"
Young had never seen real football played, but he did not like to say so—and he did not have to, for just then another cheer was demanded and they both joined in with the rest of the class, shouting with all their might, and then the command to march was given, and the line started forward, irregularly at first and with much treading upon heels, until one of the Juniors shouted, "Spread out, fellows, spread out; you'll have" (laughing) "all the close rank work you want when you get on the campus," and then someone put them in step by saying, "Hep!... Hep!... Hep!" And when the column was in step, a Junior in the rear who had a high tenor voice started up the famous marching time of
"Hoorah! Hoorah!
The flag that set us free.
Hoorah! Hoorah!
The year of jubilee."
only the words they used were:
"Nassau! Nassau!
Ring out the chorus free—
Nassau! Nassau!
Thy jolly sons are we.
Care shall be forgotten, all our sorrows flung away,
While we are marching through Princeton!"
"Oh, we'll do 'em!" remarked Young's comrade, excitedly, at the conclusion of the song.
Young wanted to say something in reply, but he did not know who "they" were or how they were to be done. So he only said, "Think so?"
"Dead easy—we outnumber them three to two."
Soon the main street, Nassau Street, was reached; and by that time, after much cheering and many "This ways," nearly two hundred Freshmen were in the ranks and shouting like good fellows.
The line turned down toward the main college gate.