"Oh, don't, Jim, I am awake! There was 'the boy who stood on the burning deck,'" I shouted hurriedly.
Jim came back and stood over me.
"Open your eyes then wide, so. You see you are wasting precious time with your sluggishness."
I thought of those thickly-sown seedlings growing up so leggy, and I roused myself.
"Well, 'the boy' will do, then; he is a good old stager."
"Yes, so he mustn't be left out. All the other fellows will have him in for sure, and if I don't, 'old Joe' will think I don't know about him. They don't want any originality, these chaps; they want you just to stick on and learn what they learnt, then you see you can't put them in a corner. So just rout out good old standing dishes."
Jim turned to go.
"All right; but, Jim, remember to leave the strongest plant."
"'Survival of the fittest,' yes, I've heard that before."