"To, sir, become, sir, a sir, Naval, sir, officer. Sir."

"Very good, mister. Mister," to Dalzell, "why did you come here?"

"For sir, the same pur--"

"Sir, sir, sir, sir!" interrupted the quizzer. "Now, try again,
mister."

"For, sir, the, sir, same, sir, purpose, sir."

"Now, mister," continued the quizzing visitor, transfixing Dalzell
with a look of tremendous sternness, "can you talk French?"

Dan's eyes twinkled briefly.

"I don't know, sir. I never tried, sir," replied Dalzell, in pretended
embarrassment.

For a moment it looked as though Dan had turned the tables of
mischief upon his tormentors. His reply was so absurd that all
of the upper class men, for a moment, betrayed signs of twitching
at the corners of their mouths. Then all of them conquered the
desire to laugh and returned to the inquest with added severity.
The late questioner turned to one of his classmates, remarking
scornfully:

"_Touge!_"

"Very touge, indeed" replied the one addressed.