doesn't matter. We are growing older ourselves."

"Gracious, I'm not old!" cried Tom. "Why, I feel like a two-year-old
colt!" And to prove his words he did several steps of a jig.

Only about half of the students had as yet arrived, the others being
expected that day, Friday, and Saturday. The college coach was to
bring in some of the boys about eleven o'clock, and the Rovers
wondered if Songbird Powell would be among them.

"You'll like Songbird," said Dick to Stanley Browne. "He's a great
chap for manufacturing what he calls poetry, but he isn't one of the
dreamy kind--he's as bright and chipper as you find 'em."

The boys walked down to the gymnasium, and there Sam and Tom took a
few turns on the bars and tried the wooden horses. While they did
this Dick talked to a number of the freshmen with whom he had become
acquainted.

"We are to have a necktie rush Monday," said one boy. "Every fellow is
to wear the college colors. Meet on the campus an hour before supper
time."

"I'll be there," said Dick. He knew what was meant by a necktie rush.
All the freshmen would don neckties showing the college colors, and
the sophomores, and perhaps the juniors, would do their best to get
the neckties away from them. If more than half the boys lost their
ties before the supper bell rang the freshmen would be debarred from
wearing the colors for that term.