"Get out! For Padre Balthazar, you know."

"And who was Padre Balthazar?"

"Fool! A Dominican, of course--that's why the padres call on the
students. Come on now, loosen up with three or four pesos, so that they
may see we are sports. Don't let them say afterwards that in order
to erect a statue they had to dig down into their own pockets. Do,
Placido, it's not money thrown away."

He accompanied these words with a significant wink. Placido recalled
the case of a student who had passed through the entire course by
presenting canary-birds, so he subscribed three pesos.

"Look now, I'll write your name plainly so that the professor will read
it, you see--Placido Penitente, three pesos. Ah, listen! In a couple
of weeks comes the nameday of the professor of natural history. You
know that he's a good fellow, never marks absences or asks about the
lesson. Man, we must show our appreciation!"

"That's right!"

"Then don't you think that we ought to give him a celebration? The
orchestra must not be smaller than the one you had for the professor
of physics."

"That's right!"

"What do you think about making the contribution two pesos? Come,
Placido, you start it, so you'll be at the head of the list."