on the door-mat beneath the letter-slit of Billy's room, And at the
appointed hour after dinner a third joined them, making five. John
found these cards when he came home to go to bed, and picked them up and
stuck them ornamentally in Billy's looking-glass, as a greeting when
Billy should return, The eight o'clock visit was the last that Oscar
paid to the locked door, He remained through the evening in his own
room, studious, contented, unventilated, indulging in his thick notes,
and also in the thought of Billy's and Bertie's eleventh-hour
scholarship, "Even with another day," he told himself, "those young men
could not have got fifty per cent," In those times this was the passing
mark. To-day I believe you get an A, or a B, or some other letter
denoting your rank. In due time Oscar turned out his gas and got into
his bed ; and the clocks of Massachusetts struck midnight.

Mrs. Diggs of the Bird-in-Hand had retired at eleven, furious with rage,
but firm in dignity in spite of a sudden misadventure. Her hair, being
the subject of a sporting event, had remained steadily fixed in Billy's
mind,--steadily fixed throughout an entertainment which began at an
early hour to assume the features of a celebration. One silver-fizz
before dinner is nothing; but dinner did not come at once, and the boys
were thirsty. The hair of Mrs. Diggs had caught Billy's eye again
immediately upon her entrance to inform them that the meal was ready;
and whenever she reentered with a new course from the kitchen, Billy's
eye wandered back to it, although Mr. Diggs had become full of anecdotes
about the Civil War. It was partly Grecian: a knot stood out behind to
a considerable distance. But this was not the whole plan. From front to
back ran a parting, clear and severe, and curls fell from this to the
temples in a manner called, I believe, by the enlightened, a l'Anne
d'Autriche. The color was gray, to be sure; but this propriety did not
save the structure from Billy's increasing observation. As bottles came