"Mercy!" cried Bob.
"There was no use o' askin' for mercy from him," retorted Sandboys, with a convincing shake of his head. "He was too hungry to think o' bein' merciful."
"'Oh lor!' says I, as I gave myself up for lost. 'This here's the end o' me;' at which the bear looked me straight in the eye, licked his chops again, an' was just about to take a nibble, when, 'whoop'! I had a spasm of whoopin'. Well, I guess you boys knows what that means. There ain't nothin' more uncanny, more terrifyin', in the whole run o' human noises than the whoop o' the whoopin'-cough. At the first whoop the bear jumped back ten feet. At the second he put for the door; but stopped and looked around, hopin' he was mistaken, when I whooped a third time; and the third did the business. That third whoop would ha' scared Indians. It was awful. It was like a tornady runnin' through a fog-horn; an' when he heard that, Mr. Bear started on a scoot up those hills that must have taken him ten miles before I quit coughin'.
"An' that's why I says that when you've got to shoo bears for a livin', an attack o' whoopin'-cough ain't the worst thing in the world to have when you can use it. Anyhow, it saved my life from the last bear of the season, an' I'm thankful to it."
Which Bob and Jack thought it was no less than proper that Sandboys should be; but they didn't tell him so, for at that moment he was summoned to find number 433's left boot, which the bootblack had left at number 334's door, by some odd mistake.
Lawrenceville has never started the year with so few old football men back again in school. Nine of last year's players have not returned. Among those who are on hand are Cadwalader and Richards, the guards. Richards has been out for practice only about two weeks, but he is rapidly getting into his old form. Mattis, who was disabled at full-back last year, came out early, and was appointed temporary captain; but he has now been forced to give up playing, owing to an injury to his knee, and Richards has been appointed permanent captain. Righter, who was elected to the office at the close of the season last fall, did not return to school, and is now at Amherst College.