“Shirt-studs are quite a secondary use of the article; the principal being to help babies cut their teeth. Have you got your coral still, Green?”
Green was a very young subaltern, who had not been to a public school, and was somewhat easily imposed upon.
“No,” he said; “at least not here. It is somewhere at home, I believe.”
“That is right; you will want it when you come to cut your wisdom teeth. You know, I suppose, that you cannot get your company until you have done that?”
“I knew I had to pass an examination,” said Green, not convinced that this information was quite bonâ fide.
“Of course, but this is in addition to that. When a vacancy occurs, you send in your certificate of having passed in tactics, and then you are ordered to go to the Veterinary College, and there they look in your mouth.”
“But I am not a horse!” exclaimed Green.
“No, but the rule applies to other animals,” said his tormentor, gravely.
“I know you are chaffing me,” said Green, and indeed the roars of laughter were alone sufficient to show him that.
“But all the same, it is curious that a town should be built of child’s corals.”