Cinder Path Tales

A VIRGINIA JUMPER 139 like requests it was remarkably " Chesterfield- ian." Not that I am ever likely to so far forget myself as to neglect the common courtesies, but it is often necessary to be very positive in order to protect against further annoyance. I received an acknowledgment from "The Oaks" a few days after, which was not quite as dictatorial as the first, and in which the "I" was not nearly somuch in evidence. It also asked me to report occa­ sionally, and hinted that maternal authority might be invoked in case of difficulty, and that Richard Spotswood Fairfax had been taught to respect itthoroughly. Dick appeared on the cinder-path the second day after his call on me, clad in irre­ proachable track costume,and I gave him a little trial with some of the other freshmen who had been out several weeks. He had never worn a running-shoe before that day, nor entered a contest, and yet he ran the " hundred " in eleven and three-fifths, and the "quarter" a little under the minute, coming in as fresh as paint, and without turning a hair. It wasodd to see him standing witha half-dozen other fellows,who were drenched with perspiration, and wheezing like black­ smiths' bellows, whilehe was not even tired. The next day he cleared four feet eleven in the "running high," and nearly seventeen